<Begin Segment 11>

SG: So you continued your education, middle school and high school?

MK: Yes. I also continued, yes. I took an entrance examination to continue in the same school, in the university Fuzoku shogakko I went in. And then after that, we had to go to public school because there are no University School. And then public schools are hard to enter because it's subsidized. And then private schools are the places that you went when you couldn't get into public schools. So my mother didn't have money, so she couldn't send us to private school. I had to study so hard to get into public school. There are two public schools that are really good in Okayama, so I was lucky I was able to enter one of them, Sozan High School.

SG: What was it like going to high school in Japan?

MK: Well, it was very interesting that, there for the first time I met public school children coming from places from other areas. I remember one student came up to me and she went through all the public school system. She said, "You know, we see some in my maiden name, you're different." So I says, "Why was I different?" She said, "You went up to the teacher and spoke to the teacher. You didn't have any fear for the teacher. Why?" I said, "Oh, I didn't know that." Then I observed the other students, and I realized they are kind of fearful of teachers. But I never felt fear, or anything like that maybe because my father's position, and I had to meet with governor and mayor and so on and high ranking navy officers all the time, and they are humans too as far as I was concerned. So I never felt fear. And then so other people always felt that I was different. But I had good friends in public school system and studied hard. I don't think I was the best kind of student, but I did my best.

SG: What kind of things did you study?

MK: Just the, there are two courses, three all together, home economics and then, or business oriented or university track. My mother made sure that I would be in the university track, and then she didn't want me to work right away after high school. She wanted me to study. That's the only way we can survive, my mother said. So I was in the university track. So I prepared for the entrance examination, mathematics, and then regular, subjects that American students study, yes, I did study except that I did, instead of world history, I took Japanese history. Instead of Japanese literature, I took Chinese literature, so I got used to Chinese poems and so on. I just admired, I remember, the Japanese history I loved, yes. I rewrite, I remember by the time I graduated from high school, I rewrote the textbook and presented that to my teacher when I graduated by studying many different kinds of textbooks, and I created one of mine. And then he was so impressed with me that I remember he tried to arrange marriage for me with his nephew. My mother turned him down. She said, "Country bumpkin. My daughter is too good for your nephew." My mother was horrible in that way. [Laughs] Usually, mothers want their daughters to get married, but not my mother. See, my mother had a dream that was shattered that she wanted to come to the United States to become a beautician or a fashion something, because my father was going kill my mother unless she didn't marry him. And after all those experiences with stepfather and all these things, she realized that women have other way of living than being a housewife. And then she had a dream for me while I was thinking about something else, but she was controlling my life that way.

SG: Do you, you said you studied Chinese poetry. Is there one or a poem that you particularly remember?

MK: Yes. I remember Li Po's poem, Li Po, Tu Fu, two distinctly different poets. And then Li Po had a, his idea was, for example, to me at that time, I can't find this poem, but, "If I live again, if I can come back to this world, I'd like to ride on a white horse drawn carriage, go over the rainbow, visiting every star on the way." That poem became the way I live, I wanted to live. Tu Fu's poem I enjoyed, but he always took care of little things, the family things. He found pleasure in the domestic things and so on. But Tu Fu was more scholarly; maybe Li Po was a drunkard. You know, you think about it and had a merry life, but thinking about the universe and something big. So the combination of both, I thought that would be perfect. Yeah, I like both poems. And of course at that time I like too, but you know.

SG: So that poetry really affected the way you see the world and lived?

MK: Yeah. I think so when it comes down to it, yes, uh-huh. Well, maybe I'm just not looking at my feet, you know. [Laughs]

<End Segment 11> - Copyright © 2003 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.