<Begin Segment 3>

JK: How did your mom and dad...

MO: Meet?

JK: Meet, yeah?

MO: I don't know.

JK: They did get married, but you don't know how this worked out?

MO: No.

JK: Do you remember the age difference between your mom and dad?

MO: No, I don't remember that.

JK: Do you remember how old your mom was when she came?

MO: She was in her early teens, like thirteen.

JK: When she married Grandpa? Oh. And Grandma worked at the hotel is what you remembered?

MO: Uh-huh.

JK: And what was your father like? You remember memories of your own dad a little?

MO: He was very quiet. He wanted, whatever he said was what he wants us to do, so he was the ruler of our family when he came home from work.

JK: In a quiet way?

MO: Yeah.

JK: Did he give you a look? [Laughs]

MO: No. When he came home, we just listened to him, nobody else.

JK: Okay. And what was your mom like when you were growing up? What was her personality like?

MO: Very fragile, I thought.

JK: In what way?

MO: Well, she couldn't speak English, so she was depending on us to translate anything 'cause she was... I hate to say running the hotel, but she managed the hotel. When the renters came up, they spoke nothing but English, so we would have to translate for her.

JK: So you were helping your mother translate.

MO: Yeah. But being the low man on the totem pole, my brothers who are older did the translating.

JK: Okay. And how would you describe your parents' relationship from your point of view as a child? Your dad was quiet.

MO: Yeah. Just like father and mother should be. I didn't know any different.

JK: Okay. And if they had to deal with a difficult situation, how did they solve it or work it out? Were there any situations that they had to deal with?

MO: Not that I know of. No, they managed to talk amongst themselves. I never knew if there was any trouble or anything.

JK: Okay, so they kept it between the adults.

<End Segment 3> - Copyright © 2013 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.