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MR: Going back to your father, you said he was from Okinawa. Did he share anything about Okinawa with you?

MY: Well, he was very close, he had a lot of close friends, and the Okinawans loved to get together, and I believe every weekend, the Okinawan community people would get together. They'd all bring their dishes, special potluck dishes and would spend the day singing and dancing and having a lot of fun. So we were a close community, and my mother had a lot more Okinawa friends than friends from her own area or prefecture in Japan, and we got along very well. Even now, I feel close to anyone from Okinawa, closer perhaps than from other parts of Japan.

MR: And just one more thing about your father. You mentioned he was the firstborn and that he had given up all this land. Do you know why he chose to come to America and give up his birthright really?

MY: Well when he came, it is said that he wanted to study theology, and I'm not sure about that, but we do know that his father was a military man. He not only joined, was one of the first Okinawans to join the Japanese army, he wanted to prove to the Japanese that there are Okinawans could be just as good a soldier as one of them, and actually, he was a very good soldier. He became a lieutenant, I believe. He was also a man who was a master in karate. In the old days, Okinawans practice karate secretively. But according to some records, my grandfather, Ken Suyabu, was one of the first to come over outside of Japan and to demonstrate the art of karate, and he did this in Hawaii in the early 19... well, let's see, '20s. He demonstrated karate in Honolulu.

MR: I'm still trying to find out why did your father give all that up and come?

MY: Well, we think that as a chonan, he would have been expected to follow in his father's footsteps. But he my father was a really peaceable person. He was interested in the arts, and he was a prolific reader and writer. His father was a military man. He always carried his sword by his side. He frequently wore his uniforms, and his bearing was very militaristic and stiff, and I believe maybe my father didn't want any part of that, so he left.

MR: And did your mother work as, when you were young, before your father died?

MY: Well, she worked in the fruit stand with my father. They saved their money together. And when he couldn't earn a living as a farmhand, they decided to try something else. And there was a period of time when he and a couple of the friends tried the restaurant business, but after a year or so, that failed. And so with the savings that he and my mother had accumulated, they bought this little business, and she worked with him all through the years with that.

<End Segment 3> - Copyright © 2003 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.