<Begin Segment 9>

RP: Tell us when, when your father remarried.

IK: I believe in 1939.

RP: Can you... what was her name?

IK: I'm sorry?

RP: What was your stepmother's name?

IK: Miya Sanomiya, and she was quite, she had, she was going to Berkeley. What's in Berkeley up there? Anyway, she was with the college there and was going to become a doctor, but her father was a farmer up there in the area and he went broke or had a whole bunch of debt, so she went to work running the farm and paid up the debts and became quite a figure in the... I'm not sure if it was the YMCA or some organization that dealt with Japan, and she was taken to Japan and met the prince and all of that sort of stuff and became quite a character in Japan, and accepted as such. And so she spoke fluent Japanese and fluent English and that was her biggest value, and she spoke the very proper Japanese, obviously, and she spoke the very proper English. Better than most, including the Caucasians.

KP: Was she Nisei?

IK: Yes. She was born in Hawaii, and a chubby little gal when she got married, since, she lost the weight. And she was very well read, well... just very social and vocal in society here in Los Angeles, and was respected by all. Oh, she also was writing for a paper up in, in the north. She was, she lived in San Francisco for a while, and she was... I've forgotten the name of the... she was, of her columns, she was writing something about Auntie Miyo or something like that. It was the title. And a lot of people wrote in to her and asked for advice and such.

RP: So she, her education revolved around social work?

IK: Yes, generally speaking, I believe that's a good overall title for her 'cause she, in Manzanar, she was listening to the ladies complaining about their husbands playing and coming in crying, and she was supposed to fix 'em all up.

RP: But you say "playing," how do you...

IK: Just the one you think about. "When my husband's playing with so and so," and so they'd come in crying and she tried to solve their problems, but she, she lost some weight there because she, she took in the information and was trying to cure them and just, just wrecked her livelihood. She took it so well to heart, so much to heart.

RP: How did you relate to her as a stepmother?

IK: Well, I don't know. I accepted her as a, she would not accept, she would not be my mother mother, but she was my stepmother. I accepted that, 'cause my father was happy and that was more important than mine.

RP: Was, did they decide to get married, or did they have to go through an arrangement?

IK: Well it, I don't... it was sort of an arrangement by convenience, I believe. Her family was in San Francisco and I don't know what she was doing there, but they, I think they tried to, they fixed them up. But it wasn't, I guess, the traditional type where the families made, picked the bride and so on. They had their times, but they got together finally. 'Cause she was Nisei and he was, actually he was a broad-minded Issei, for him to even get married, I think. I really don't know. But I think they figured out that she was a... oh, what do you call it? Old, old maid? 'Cause at thirty... I, seems... anyway, younger than Pop, but it was, just... quite broad on both sides, I believe. 'Cause she was single a long, long time and he was... see, I don't remember when my mother died. She was thirty-six... well anyway, it's... he married again.

<End Segment 9> - Copyright © 2009 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.