<Begin Segment 7>

MR: You were talking about the cooking. Could you describe the difference between a Japanese kitchen and an American western kitchen?

YD: [Laughs] There's no... well, when I was with the Oowaki family, we had, when we cooked rice, it was in a huge kama, iron pot, and it was cooked with wood. And because of the two boys being students and the family being so large, we used to cook it in a huge pot. And then we had, I can't remember what, there was charcoal, and the Oowaki family didn't have electricity or gas, and so everything was cooked by briquettes, I guess you'd call it briquettes. Especially if you cook fish or anything, it was always outside, and it was not fun. There's no comparison with Japanese because after I came back to America, I wanted to become a housegirl or go into an American home because, to learn how to use the electric stove, dishwasher, you know. Everything was foreign to me.

MR: So then you got your own house. Can you describe how that was, your house?

YD: I guess the closest you could say was if you go to the Japanese teahouse in the Japanese gardens, that's what you would call a typical Japanese home. Of course, you took your shoes off before you went into the house, and all of your bed clothings were in the so-called closet. And so there's, in fact, this was a table that we used to use for guests. There was also another table just like this that we all sat around and ate on, and we sat on the floor because we had no tables and chairs. We had no beds or anything. You have to remember, this is over seventy years ago. [Laughs]

MR: And when did you have children then?

YD: Well... excuse me. When we first went to Okayama to live, we took our, my husband's sister with us, and we lived in a small house close to the railroad in Okayama, and my husband had to cross the railroad to go to his, to the school. And we did all of our own shopping every day because we had no refrigerators. If we had a refrigerator, it was with a small, sort of like a box. We'd buy ice in big blocks. But things were, I think every Japanese woman would go shopping every day because everything had to be fresh. We had fishmongers who would come around to the neighborhood and show us their wares. We had vegetable people who would bring in their wagons and come around. And then for tofu, there would be people in the morning or for clams, asari. They would come and they'd say, "Asari, asari," and they'd walk down the streets. And then you'd go out with your pan, and they would have weights and weigh the clams or the tofu. You'd buy them by the blocks. Everything was fresh. And so in that respect, the Japanese woman, we were all very busy just in buying and cooking and doing things, that we had no leisure. And during all the years that I was in Japan, I don't think I ever heard anything about menopause until I came back here. I didn't even know what menopause was because of the fact that the women were so busy that they had no time to even think about anything like that.

And I remember that every night, my husband would come home very late. And one time I felt so guilty that I thought, "What is he doing every night, every night, coming in so late?" And my sister-in-law was, being a teacher, she was not very well, and she would insist that we wait for his, for her brother to come home so the three of us could eat. And I would tell her, "Eat first, take a bath, and get to bed because you're working." And she said, "No, I can't do that," because she was brought up, I think, more strictly than I was because my husband came from Fukuoka down in Kyushu. And if you know anything about the Japanese history, the men are men in Japan, if they're from Kyushu. That's what they call the Nihondanji. And finally I got to the point where I said, "You're really going to get sick, and you have to have your rest, so eat first, and I'll wait for my husband, and take a bath." And she really fought that for a long time. But in the meantime, I began to wonder what happened, why is my husband so late at night? So one evening when it was really cold, I had bundled myself up. I went out into the streets, across the railroad and almost to the school. And when I went to the school, I saw the principal's office all lit up, and I look through and there he was with all of his teachers. And I thought, "Oh, I'll never doubt him again." You know, he's really working, and he was a, he had a great reputation as a man of integrity. And he was very well-known as an educator.

In fact, every three years, we were transferred from one school to another. And after he had finished the three years in the prefecture run school, he was appointed to Akaji Junior High School principal, and he was written up as being the youngest ever of being a principal in the prefecture of Okayama. And at the time of his transfer into the Okayama educational field, Okayama prefecture was noted as a scandalous place because of the fact especially at this prefecture run school, the parents would give favors to the teachers in order to be able to enter into the prestigious schools. And so there was a scandal in the prefectural run schools, and I think that's one of the reasons why my husband was asked to go there because of his reputation of being a very good educator. So every three years, I remember that we were transferred into a higher and a bigger school during that time, and I enjoyed moving. It was a chore because he was never able to help me, and we'd always have to ask the custodian of the school to help me move. And I think the happiest times of my life were when I was raising the three children.

MR: And so you were quite busy shopping and moving. And as all this was going on, how aware were you of the Japanese military buildup that was going on at that time?

YD: I was not aware at all, not at all. And after I came back here, I had heard stories about the other Japanese people or the Japanese American people who were living in Japan, that they were followed by the so-called gestapos in Japan, but we never had that problem because of the prestige that we had. And the other day, Sho was mentioning the fact that he said that, "You know, Mom," he said, "when we were in Japan, we were called bocchan and jouchan," and it's an honorary title that the children had. It was not just children. We were just bocchan, jouchan of a prestigious family. And in Japan, the educators were the, in the same standard of prestige as doctors. And of course, the doctors and the teachers were all called sensei which means teachers. And so in Japan, I was called Okusama. That's not just Okusan, it was Okusama because there is, in the Japanese language, there is so many different levels of the language that there is a language for your peer group, your friends. And then there's a language for people who are above you, and then the people of the peer group, and you have to learn how to speak to the different people in their own language. And when I look back, as I say, the tragedy of my life was I never got to see my parents since I went to Japan because they both died while I was in Japan. But I look back, and when we came back here, my husband was, worked for the Japanese consul here, and I felt very comfortable in being able to speak the language of the consular people, and it's not just the standard. You have to learn a different sort of language, and I felt very comfortable in being able to do that, so I've been very fortunate.

<End Segment 7> - Copyright © 2003 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.