Densho Digital Archive - Michiko Kornhauser Interview (denshovh-kmichiko

<Begin Segment 24>

SG: What was your relationship after you moved to the United States with Japan?

MK: I liked to write. I always write, and then the relationship with my friends?

SG: With the country, with your friends, with family?

MK: Very close. I am very good at keeping friends intact because that's the only way to live, I feel, help each other. And then I have been helped by my friends so much so that I help them too. So Japanese or Americans or Europeans, whoever my host families, I always send Christmas cards, Christmas gifts, yes, so we are still friends.

SG: I didn't get a chance to ask you about your thoughts on religion.

MK: About religion, oh, finally. [Laughs] Religion is an interesting one. You know, as you know that the Japanese grow up with Shintoism and then Buddhism, and then my home always had altar, Buddhist altar, the black container, and there, there were the ancestors of deceased family. For example, in my case, my brother in there. And then so every morning, I had to make peace with the deceased. And then my father went into shrine because it became, that's the war deceased, so one there. And then every morning, I have to make peace with my father, so I said, "Good morning," and then good morning to my ancestor, my deceased brother, and that's the way I, grew up, I was brought up. One day after the war when I was coming home from school, I came across this Catholic church, and then I noticed there was a door wide open so I could look into the courtyard. And when I looked into the courtyard, I saw a westerner, very round, fat, reading some kind of book, going back and forth, reading very slowly. And when I was looking at him, my gosh, he's fat, well fed. Maybe if I become a Catholic, I'll be well fed too, so that made me so happy. So I went home, and I told my mother, I said, "I'm going to become a Catholic." My mother said, "Go ahead. Where do you have the money to give them?" So I said, "Why do I have to give them money?" She says, "Well, yeah, every garden needs money. Look at the church. Who's going to build that church?" And I said, "You mean they take money from me?" I said, "But I don't have money." "Then you can't become Catholic." That was the end of my adventure with being Catholic. But then when I became student at the university studying English, there were missionaries, and then they taught us to read bible, so I read bibles a lot. And then they always ask me to get baptized, and I couldn't understand what, what baptize meant. And they said, "Well, if you get baptized, you become a different person, you'll be happier," and I didn't believe it, so I just was there at the church to study English in Japan. When the people need help, I help. Then also my mother's feeling was that, unless you can stand up on your feet, even God will love you. So that's the way it went. And as a result... and my husband was an atheist. His influence was very great on me, and he taught me how to be an American. "Open your mouth," he used to say this. "Stand up on your feet. And if you don't like it, then you say so. This is not Japan." So I used to be a very demure Japanese girl, not anymore, poor George. [Laughs]

SG: Well, Mrs. Kornhauser, is there anything you would like to add that we might have missed?

MK: I'm sure it will come back tonight. [Laughs] Yeah, but I've been talking a lot, you know. But I have been I think very fortunate, and I feel fortunate because I had such a hard time as a child and then lost so many loved ones, and that made me appreciate more. The little things that the people do that, in a way it worked out well for me that I was able to survive what I survived and came out positive, and people have been good to me all along.

SG: Do you have a message that you would like to pass on to the next generation?

MK: Study hard. We have only hundred years at most. Don't waste your life. Don't injure yourself. That's the way I feel. Also that if you are an American, if you're living here, not just read American newspapers, try to look at this country from the outside too. That's so important to understand where you are, particularly now with the world is getting smaller and smaller with the computers, internet, and so on. I think the more, that comes from the East-West Center, the philosophy of East-West Center. Next month, I'll be, the reunion at the East-West Center, I'll be giving a talk but, in this vein. The most important thing is peace. But then in order to have peace, you got to understand each other. That's the way I feel.

SG: Well, just before we end, can you tell us about little bit about the calligraphy behind you on the wall?

MK: Oh, when my husband died, Mrs. Henjyoji told me that, not to conquer but to tolerate grief, calligraphy is a good thing to do, and that's why I started. And then of course in Japan when I was small at school, we had to do something. But anything beyond that, I never did except the University of Hawaii, I did some, but not much. So I restarted here in 1994, and I have been very fortunate to have an excellent young teacher who comes here twice to Henjyoji Temple from Seattle to teach, and his students have been outstanding. And I have been very lucky that I had a teacher that's, if I received the number one prize in the United States, not only United States, the entire America, that's because of him because I wrote about close to fifty of them, then he chose this. I cannot tell the... and I was asking my teacher, "What does this mean?" you know. "Enjoy the flow of the brush. Don't talk about the meanings." So I said, "One of these days I'm going to find out." But that's the way it is right now. I'll probably continue to do so because I enjoy it.

SG: All right. Thank you, Mrs. Kornhauser.

MK: Oh, thank you for letting me talk like this.

SG: It's so interesting. Actually, I could keep going. It was really interesting, yeah. I'm sure there's so much more.

MK: Better tonight, I forgot. I forgot to talk about my family secret, but that's all right. I'm writing so --

SG: You're writing a book?

MK: Well, something, from time to time, have it published at the San Francisco newspaper or somewhere.

SG: That would be great.

MK: The East-West Center may be interested, too.

SG: Thank you so much.

MK: You're very welcome. Thank you so much for having me.