<Begin Segment 8>

SG: Did your parents ever talk about what was their view towards education?

GA: Was their what?

SG: What was their view towards education?

GA: Oh, they wanted me to, both my sister and me to get a good education and go on to college. That was their dream to send us to college, which they did.

SG: So do you remember them talking about it since you were in elementary school?

GA: What was that?

SG: Did they push education since you were very young?

GA: Oh, yeah, yeah. Yes, they did, always wanted us to get a good education.

SG: Do you remember specific things they might have said to you?

GA: I don't. I don't remember what specifics they said, but I know they wanted us to get as much education as possible. When I graduated from high school, I didn't know what my calling would be. I didn't know what kind of business or work I wanted to get into, so I told my dad I wanted to stay out of school for a year, but he insisted that I go. So I enrolled at the Oregon Institute of Technology which was a junior college, and I went two years there, then two years, final two years University of Oregon. But anyway, my dad didn't want me to stay out of school that one year that I wanted.

SG: Why do you think it was important for your parents that you get an education?

GA: Well, they just felt that education meant a great deal to a man's future, so they always stressed education.

SG: And they stressed your sister's education also?

GA: Yes. She attended a junior college called Saint Helen's Hall in those days. It's no longer here. Then she went on to Willamette University. When the war started, she had to leave. And then she enrolled at, she was accepted at Earlhem College in Indiana where she got her degree.

SG: What did she get her degree in, do you remember?

GA: I don't remember. Then she later got her master's at the University of Chicago, but I don't remember what it was in, probably education.

SG: Do you remember other values that your parents, that were very important to your parents?

GA: Well, one of the things was honesty. I know they always stressed honesty, always, never do anything that would hurt the name of the family. I don't recall anything else.

SG: What do you... I mean, I can phrase it another way. How do you think your parents might have influenced you in who you've become or who you became?

GA: Well, one thing, they were very hard workers, so that might have influenced me to get into something that didn't require so much work. They put so many hours into their business. As I mentioned before, from six in the morning 'til about nine at night, that's long hours every day. And even Sundays, they would open the store, not as long hours but they would open it for half a day or so, and I would have to work when it's open, so I must have felt that I needed to get into something that doesn't require so much work. That's all I can remember.

<End Segment 8> - Copyright © 2003 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.