<Begin Segment 4>

RP: Do you have any other memories about growing up in Glendale?

RK: Oh, oh yeah.

RP: Tell us about it.

RK: Well, I went to school at Edison. Edison and no, no problem. You know, I started kindergarten there. And then, then I went to Roosevelt. And I graduated Roosevelt. And then when I never did graduate Roosevelt, I went to camp. Then in between, in '41, I went to Japan for one, for three months with my mom.

RP: What was that like for you?

RK: It was a good trip. It was a pleasant trip. You know, stayed with my uncles and cousins. It was a pleasant trip. In Shizuoka, too, you know.

RP: Your father was a gardener here --

RK: Here. Here in Glendale.

RP: -- when you were growing up.

RK: Here in Glendale. As many other Japanese were too, you know.

RP: Did you work with him at all while you were growing up?

RK: No, I didn't. No, not while I was growing up, not as such.

PR: Did he have his own truck and his own tools?

RK: He had his own truck, sure.

RP: And his clients were all around here?

RK: Glendalians, yeah, around here, yeah. See, Saburo... Saburo, Shiro, and Goro, they were all gardeners here, too.

RP: They worked with your dad, too?

RK: They worked with my dad but then they sort of went off on their own.

RP: On their own?

RK: Yeah. After the war, yeah. And I did help my brothers, you know. I did help my brothers.

RP: Yeah, it's interesting. We were just talking about gardening and the weed whacker starts up.

RK: [Laughs]

RP: A different generation of gardening.

RK: Matter of fact, I remember doing this, this yard.

RP: Do you?

RK: Yeah.

RP: Huh. So were you the, the lawn, the mower guy or...

RK: Oh, no, no. I just helped my brothers, you know. Not, I did everything. During the summer breaks, you know, during, because I was going to school in Cleveland, so, summertime I would come home and help them.

RP: You'd come back here?

RK: Uh-huh... yeah, and then, I still remember it was in April. That, that's when we relocated to, to Manzanar. It was in April. I remember it was in April. Greyhound buses out of Burbank. Vividly remember that.

<End Segment 4> - Copyright © 2010 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.