Densho Digital Archive - Michiko Kornhauser Interview (denshovh-kmichiko

<Begin Segment 23>

SG: You said you have one son?

MK: Yes, just one son, yeah, 1987, July 25, yes. He's somebody more intelligent than I am. When he was five years old and from our porch, we were able to see the entire Honolulu from Diamond Head all the way to the airport beyond. The view was spectacular. And I was looking at it and looking at the moon over the Waikiki Beach. I told my son about some story that I used to know as a child about the moon. And suddenly he looked up at me and said, "You know, Mama, I'm sorry. When I grow up, I won't be able to live with you." So I said, "Oh, what are you talking about?" He said, "I'm going to become the first governor of the moon." [Laughs] So I knew he wouldn't be with us. And I also I brought him up to think. He's the only son. My husband was eighteen years older than I was, so I was afraid that maybe, we become like my mother, alone, he without the father. So ever since became ten, I just gave him specific instructions about what to do with the life. He has to be independent. So I brought him up that way and also to look at the world as one, not, Hawaii is not everything. So we took him to everywhere, Europe and all these places, so he was able to think the entire earth as one, kind to the earth. That's the kind of way of thinking he has. That's why he's in China now in American consulate working there in the State Department. But I don't feel that he's that far away, and he's doesn't feel that way either because when we think that the entire earth is our home, doesn't matter where the person is. I'm glad I brought him up that way. And then also he's a forward-looking person, and I am very proud of that.

And then when George came into my life and just, he and I worked together for seven years before we lost our spouses at the State Department of Education, Oregon State Department, and we're on the selection committee to send the teachers to Japan, so we knew kind of but not really well. But after we lost spouses, he was having an exhibit of Issei at the Oregon Historical Center. And when I was there, my son was there. My husband had just died, and all the Japanese friends said, "Don't cry and stay home, let's get out and go see the exhibit." So when I went there, he was there, standing in the corner. So I said, "Did you know my husband died?" So he said, "No. Did you know my wife died?" So that's the way it started. And then he met my son at the time only briefly, but still they met. And then my son went back to Japan to finish master's degree at the International University there. And then I called him up and then said, "Well, George is asking me, Mr. George Katagiri was asking me to go out. What do you think?" you know. Daddy just died in November the 17th. This is, February 1, and he said, my son said, "You know Mama, you have to think about your future, and Daddy always felt like a king. You were so good to Daddy and envied no one, but he's not here anymore. You have to think about your future. I think Mr. Katagiri is a good man. Why don't you go ahead? I don't complain." Without his assurance, I don't think I could have done it. And then when we began to go out to dinner and so on, the first thing he asked me was, "Who does your yard work?" So I said, "I haven't even thought about it. It's wintertime." He said, "I'll do it for you." So I said, "What shall I do for you?" And he said, "Well, I'm getting sick and tired of eating takeout food from Safeway. Could you cook for me?" That's the way we started. Up until then, I didn't know anything about Japanese Americans because in Hawaii, Mr. Koike was taken to somewhere in Texas into the prison, but nobody else did that I knew of. So by getting to know George, I learned about the history of Japanese Americans. So it opened up completely different dimension or something because until, when my husband was alive, I was involved with Portland Art Museum, Asian Art Council, Japanese Garden Society. And consul general asked me to be a liaison between corporate wives and then American ladies, American society, I became a liaison, and then established Ikebana International Sakura Singers group and was introducing Japanese songs to the community. But George brought in a different angle to my life, so it just, my life is becoming wider and wider, and I'm getting buried. [Laughs] I met wonderful gentlemen like Tim Rooney and others.

SG: I'm curious, when you were raising your son, are there certain aspects of Japanese culture or some --

MK: Culture?

SG: Cultural ideas that you wanted to teach your son or preserve?

MK: Well, I didn't have that kind of honorable feelings about preserve or anything like that. It came so natural. Whatever I am, I will try to teach him. Whatever I know, I tried. But then when he started preschool, Hawaii is small. You have to get into the right preschool to get into Punahou. I visited Punahou, Iolani, public schools. I didn't want him to go to public schools in Hawaii because the teacher, the first grade teachers I talked to didn't speak decent English, spoke pidgin English. I didn't want my son to go through that, so that gave me the only opportunity for either Punahou or Iolani. So I got the right preschool. And when he went there, he came home and said, "Mama, I don't know any of the songs that the other children are singing." Then I realized I brought him up with Japanese lullaby, all the children's songs, Japanese. So immediately, I made myself into a room mother, and I went to preschool, kindergarten, elementary school with my son from time to once a week as long as the teacher wanted me. Until one day, he said, "Mama, don't do it anymore," because when they have excursions, teachers will say, "Who would like to go with David's, in David's car, David's mama's car? Who would like to go with this car and that car?" My Toyota or Datsun, it didn't have fancy gadgets and the roof will come down because it's a rich school, and other people have Lincoln Continental. "You know, Mama, I always have to make excuses. And then next excursion, I'm the only one who's in your car." So that's the end of it. Then I began to work on taxes, then took an examination with the Department of Treasury and became an enrolled agent so that I can represent my clients. But when I came to this state, I had to take another examination. Oregon has a requirement, and then I passed that so became a tax consultant in Oregon. But I don't work. But at least I can take care of myself and my friends.