<Begin Segment 3>

SG: What was your relationship like with your --

BO: Huh?

SG: What was your relationship like with your mom?

BO: My relation to mom? Well, my brother Jack, or the younger one, Dad takes him out to this and that, and I have to stay home and do, take care of the animals and do this and that and then help my mom out, so I'm a Mama's boy. Mama says got to have this done and got to have that done, so I said, "How come?" you know. But the rest of them are going so I'm the only one, so I help milk the cows and all that. Well, I was a heavy baby when I was born, but the weakest one because I even got crushed between a truck and a post. It tells you, you know like crunch, you know. It came back out, and that's the time when Dad was in Japan. I was a freshman that year. I popped it out and had a broken collar. But I came out of that. Like I said, the army didn't catch me. I passed the physical and everything.

SG: So it sounds like your relationship with your mom was closer than your relationship with your father?

BO: Oh, yeah. Dad was kind of hot tempered. I didn't want to mention that. But when he gets mad, he will take all the dishes and everything on the table and slam it on one side and break it all up, then he'll take off. He come with a new bunch of dishes. [Laughs] Poor guy, got to pay for his hot temper. But he had a hot temper, but strict. He'll tell you to do something, you had better do it, you know. But my mom, we said okay. And mom's side, anything we do, we try to go very fast and get the job done fast. But my dad's side was that way. Jack said you're going too fast and all that and Jack always interrupt, and they make us slow down. Oh, we used to get mad. We used to get mad all the time. We didn't get along too good either. That's growing age, you know. [Laughs]

SG: So what was your mom and dad's relationship like?

BO: They were okay. They got along pretty good. He's kind of strict too, but you don't see them fight too much. But they got along pretty good because after all, Mom had to take care of the kids, put 'em in bath and all that, the laundry.

SG: Was your mom happy that she came to the United States?

BO: Oh yeah, she was happy. Only thing that, heading into the woods is kind of a lonesome deal, and then work among the men. And then one time, she says that, "Let's go cut a tree down," so we went to the woods to cut a tree down. We tried and she said, Mom says, "No. Give me the axe. I'll show you how. You want to lay the tree down exactly between those two trees." Those two trees? Yeah, that's right. She took the axe and chopped the tree down, and boy, she followed right down because she was doing the work. She learned all that trick in the woods. Boy, she was really a hard worker. But nowadays, you don't see ladies doing that. She might be pretty, but she had a tough job.

SG: And was your father happy that he left Japan and came to the United States also?

BO: I think so because after all, he was able to make money and then was able to send money to Japan all the time. He would send money to Japan like all the other Japanese were doing.

SG: So they never regretted coming here?

BO: No, no. Only thing that bothered him was we have to learn all the judo, sumo, kendo to protect our own self, and then we must try to go to school because we cannot get job here in U.S. We're second-class citizen, so we have to study hard and learn more than the competitor. And then in competition, you might get same pay, but you'll be able to get the job.

<End Segment 3> - Copyright © 2004 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.