<Begin Segment 12>

JK: Any values from your parents that you wanted to make sure your boys had, from your culture, from the Japanese culture?

MO: No, I think they'll find it themselves rather than my trying to influence, 'cause I don't think that I have anything that they should change what they're doing now.

JK: In our pre-interview you made an interesting point about your mother, how in the beginning when she was married she always followed what your father wanted. And after he passed on, and her second husband passed on, your mother was able to become a different person.

MO: She became very strong. She said what she wanted to say, she didn't act like a little kitten, she said what she wants to say. Before, she was holding everything back. That's because of a domineering husband, I think she was afraid to say anything contrary to what he was thinking.

JK: And she was able to do things that she didn't do when she was married.

MO: She did things that would please her: take flower lessons, things like that.

JK: And she was a very talented person.

MO: She turned out to be very artistic, and she wanted to, and she couldn't do when my father was alive. He was a very stoic, he wanted a housewife to stay home and take care of the kids and cook the meals, things like that. No side things. So I think she was happy to do something other than that.

JK: And your mom was very artistic and so are you.

MO: No, I don't know about me, but she is, and I think that's what she wanted to do, the things that she knew she could do that she wasn't able to practice.

JK: And you have done a lot of things in your life that you enjoy, and you're able to do them before your mom was able to. But what things did you really focus on that you enjoyed in your life?

MO: Being free, I guess. I was always the low man on the totem pole. I always got the scraps. I was always the one that got the leftovers, it seemed. So I feel like, gee, after the boys went away, I can do what I want to.

JK: And what did you do after the boys went away?

MO: Probably got in trouble, mischief. [Laughs]

JK: And what did you do in your life that you wanted to do and really enjoyed doing?

MO: Oh, well, going out and being by myself, from camp life to Salt Lake on my own was one step forward.

JK: Okay, and how did you continue that step?

MO: I can think and do things by myself, and I have nobody else to blame, nobody else to depend. I grew up ten years faster than I would normally.

JK: Is there anything else you want to be part of this project that you didn't get to say yet that I didn't ask you?

MO: I don't think so.

JK: Okay. Well, thank you very much, Auntie Masuko, for participating in this project.

MO: You're welcome.

<End Segment 12> - Copyright © 2013 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.