<Begin Segment 18>

VO: And have you gone back to Japan?

EO: Yeah, we just went. We went primarily, I said, this is my last trip to Japan. We had gone several times before. I wanted to say goodbye to my relatives. So went up to my dad's country and I said goodbye to my cousin. My cousin had passed away, the one that was running the temple, but his wife was still there. So we stayed with her and we had a good time, and I said, "This is our last trip," so this is it. And then we went down to my mother's temple, and my cousin is still running the temple there, so we said goodbye to him. And then we went to Kyoto, because there's a big mausoleum, it's called the Otani Mausoleum, my parents' ashes are there. So each temple has a, it goes down underground about, what, five stories underground? And each temple has a little shrine. It's all locked. So we went there and gave our respects and our farewell.

VO: So even though your parents died here in America, their ashes are...

EO: Yeah, it's just a little bit. It's just the size of a little teacup that they store, storage, because it wouldn't hold the big box of ashes. So it's just a little bit of ashes.

VO: And that's because he was a minister, that he's buried there?

EO: Because all the temples, I think, in Japan, have the niche there. But we took most of the ashes back to his home temple, because they had their own cemetery, and they have this big urn, and they just throw all the ashes in there, so they're all mixed, all the ancestors' ashes are mixed. That was new to me. Then we took my mother's ashes to her home temple, because they had their own family. In Japan, the temples had their own cemetery behind the temple. So that's where we took her ashes, 'cause that's where she wanted to go. So I don't know where I'm going. [Laughs] Herb says he wants, my husband says he wants to go back to Kauai, to Hawaii, so that's where he'll go. I don't know where I'll go.

VO: Where do you consider home?

EO: Home? Yeah, I consider Portland my home. So I'll probably go to Rose City. But they're missing, their plot is all filled up, so I'd have to be inside somewhere. Isn't that right? They say that it's all filled up now. So I'll have to go in the building, buy a space in the building. Well, see, the ashes here are supposedly temporary. This is not a permanent repository, the one next door.

VO: Here at the temple in Portland?

EO: Yeah, uh-huh. We have a room, the room right next door? Oh, you'll have to see it. But people have left their ashes there forever, but according to the state law, it's not a permanent repository, it's temporary until they find someplace else.

VO: And that's... traditionally people have gone back, usually are taken back to their family plot or their family temple?

EO: Yeah, usually it's here temporarily, and then they're supposed to take it somewhere more permanent. But some families just, either they forget or they don't want to, they want to just leave it here. That's true with Seattle temple also, they have a fairly large room of ashes. And some of them are very old, so you know that they will never be moved. But anyway...

VO: I'll ask, do you have any questions?

Off camera: Well, sorry to interject for a second there, I couldn't help myself, but there is a row and a half left at Rose City.

EO: There is? [Laughs]

Off camera: So there's, things are in the works.

EO: I know one of my close friends, she opted to leave the ashes inside at that building. So that's nice, too.

Off camera: And this has been a wonderful interview. I'm just wondering, I know that at Crystal City, and taking care of the kids in Minidoka for your mother, that was quite a strain for her.

EO: Yes. She almost had a, she didn't have a nervous breakdown, but she almost had a nervous breakdown in Crystal City.

VO: Can you describe --

EO: Because I got up one night and she was hallucinating. She lost her dad at an early age, she was talking about her dad in her dream or something. And I think she just hung on until we got to Crystal City. She was not a real strong person, physically. And so I think she just hung on, and I know one night I got up and she was hallucinating, poor thing. Luckily my dad was right there with her. But we had, you know, we had good friends that helped her in Minidoka, especially when she was sick, they did come over and help. So it was community, people helping each other. You don't get that anymore, huh?

VO: Well, it sounds like you had that so much growing up within the temple.

EO: Yeah. You know, like we live on a dead end street, so one of... I don't know who started it, but we plotted every house through this street with their address and phone number. And so I just did that again recently to update it, and it's good. I got to meet all the families right in our neighborhood, and we're not real close or anything, but at least I know of them. We have their phone just in case. So I think it's really important. I don't think we do enough of that anymore in this day and age.

VO: You'd actually mentioned, going back to tagging along with your father when he would go do services in other communities, that you often accompanied him.

EO: I was a tagalong. I don't know why he took me. [Laughs]

VO: But you said that others said he really missed you.

EO: That's right. After I got married, I didn't give it much thought. And then much later, one of the church members said, "You know, when you got married and went away, your dad was so lonely. He missed you." I said, "What?" There were still six kids left in the house. How could he miss me? But he did. That was a real eye-opener. No matter how many kids you have, right? Each one is special. Yes, he was a very gentle man.

VO: And he was able to put up with you being a rebel?

EO: Yes, he put up with me. I can never remember him disciplining me, it was always my mother. [Laughs] Yes, my mother was, she went through a lot.

<End Segment 18> - Copyright © 2013 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.