<Begin Segment 16>

VO: So in looking back kind of on your life's experiences, how do you think being Japanese really shaped those experiences?

EO: I think it has a lot to do with what I am now, and particularly my religion. Because I come from a minister's family, and so I'm really active. And I just, when I'm around the temple, I just do whatever needs to be done. I tend to organize people so they can do, help me. [Laughs] So we have about ten ladies that do the, all the flower arrangements, 'cause we have lots of flowers on the shrine and around the temple. So I schedule them, I schedule the organists, I think we have about five of them now, I'm not the only organist. And so I do a lot of stuff. I call myself the flunky around the temple, because I grew up in a temple, so I just feel like it's my second home. So I think that has a lot to do with what I am today.

VO: And you've really mentioned teachers all through your life.

EO: Yes, education also is part of my life. In fact, this is almost funny, but my father taught English in Japan.

VO: When he was in Kobe, or earlier?

EO: Yeah, after he graduated, he taught for a while. I just can't imagine, but he did.

VO: Because, did he ever speak English with you?

EO: No, he had quite an accent. But he could write. He wrote very well, he wrote letters to us.

VO: That's right, you said he wrote in English.

EO: Uh-huh, he wrote very well. But no, we always conversed in Japanese. His English was hard to understand when he spoke in English.

VO: Are there other, sort of, most memorable moments in your life?

EO: More recently?

VO: At any point.

EO: At any point, gosh, that's hard to say. I guess, having, it was always exciting when another grandchild came into the world, and I would try to go and help. When my son was working in Washington, D.C., we went over and helped with the baby. So I've traveled because of that. Oh, and then when my son was working, he was working as an, for one of the senators, Washington senators. And so that was a nice experience. He took us through all the buildings, and we got to really see Washington, D.C., and see the metro and go up to the national cemetery, Arlington Cemetery. So that was quite an adventure. And also periodically we would go to Hawaii to see his parents. Of course, now they're gone, so we don't go as often. We go when, unfortunately, we go when one of the siblings passes away. It's sad, but it's getting to that point. We still think of Hawaii as kind of like a second home yet. We always go to visit the family plot, where all his family's graves are.

VO: In Kauai?

EO: In Kapa'a. There's a large, fairly large plot of all the Osakis, because his dad had, there were six of them, and they all stayed on Kauai. So a lot of relatives there. I think my husband's the only one that came over here and never went back. We have a nephew that has a business in Berkeley, but he may go back to Hawaii. So they're almost all, his family is all in Hawaii. His nephew is a graphic artist, and he designed some of the logos for the major football teams. So he's quite well-known. I don't know which team he did, he did the Hawaii emblem.

VO: For the state?

EO: University of Hawaii. You know that H? Are you familiar with it? It's green and white. He designed that. They use it on all the uniforms.

VO: Have your children ever, have they had much interest in your experiences through wartime and internment?

EO: I want to make sure that they know what we went through, so I'm sure they do. Like when my grandkids are around, one time I just got them all together and talked about it, and I showed pictures, so they all know about it. Maybe not all the fine details, but they know more or less what we went through.

VO: And did your parents ever talk after getting back, indicate to you what it was like for them?

EO: They never talked about it, never. Except it seemed like my brother has a lot of the letters that they wrote to each other, and he mentions that many of the letters my mother talks about how lonely she is, for him, her husband, and they're quite emotional letters. He has translated a number of those letters, and given them to us. I think he has a box that need to be translated. But he's the only one that can do it, because... I don't think I can do it.

VO: Oh, so your brother speaks Japanese better?

EO: Well, he was in CIC, Counterintelligence, so he got through the training in Japanese language. And, in fact, he was stationed in Japan, in occupied Japan. And it was kind of touchy for him to go visit the relatives, because they had been defeated. But I guess things went okay, he did visit the relatives when he was in Japan.

<End Segment 16> - Copyright © 2013 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.