<Begin Segment 14>

TI: During the pre-interview you explained to me that in February -- and this is about a week after President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 -- your father was in a discussion with other Issei men. Can you tell me about that and what happened to your father?

KO: I wasn't there. My sister Masako was home, because she was unemployed now. But said that Papa and this Mr. Sakano, who... we'd known Mr. Sakano for years. And in fact, when we were living in that first house I described, after we cleaned it up, Mr. Sakano had come to live in one of the rooms. He was an outspoken bachelor, but on that particular day, he was very pro-Japanese. My father was pro-American, in spite of what President Roosevelt said. And because of the nature of the, of Mr. Sakano's arguments, my sister tells me my father really got agitated, and during the discussion, said, "I don't feel well, I'm going to bed," and had a heart attack on his own bed. That was one week, February the 26th, after the President's announcement.

TI: And was it fatal at that moment, or was he taken to the hospital, or what happened?

KO: It was fatal.

TI: And did your sister Masako know right away that he had died, or did he, like, go to his room and almost like to take a nap or something, or he was found out later? Do you know how that...

KO: I don't know, but when I came home from school that afternoon, Father was gone already.

TI: What was the reaction of Mr. Sakano? It sounds like he was a family friend, and they had this heated discussion, but my sense was he was a friend of your father's, and it appears that his discussion may have contributed to the heart attack. Do you know anything about how he felt about what happened?

KO: You know, I have not seen Mr. Sakano after that. In fact, I don't even know where he went or where he is. I mean, he's long gone, too, but that was the end. Never saw Mr. Sakano again.

TI: What was the family's feelings towards him? I mean, your mother, did they in some ways feel like he was the cause of that? How would you think about that?

KO: I think in all matters, my mother and father's lessons for us is, "It's done with, we go on with it." Didn't ever blame Mr. Sakano for this or that.

TI: Okay, so you come home, and you find that your father had a heart attack and died. What was your reaction?

KO: I don't know. You know, I kind of feel guilty that even today, that I lost my father but I have never grieved it. I feel a little bit guilty about that. How come, or how am I supposed to deal with it? What am I supposed to show? I must have been too young or something.

TI: Now that you've had time to kind of think about that, the sense of not able to really grieve, there are other people who are young who would, if they lost a parent, would grieve. So maybe not just age. Do you think there were some other factors, or why else do you think you didn't grieve?

KO: I don't know. But I'm trying to think about the way I deal with all personal relationships, and I don't think I'm the only one. We don't really get that close to people. And here I'm talking about my father, and I have a great deal of respect for my father, and I learned a lot from him, but I don't remember any conversations about this and that with my father. But he taught us how to work, he taught me how to hammer nails and saw wood and things like that, how to build a fire and how to lift things. He was an excellent teacher that way. And so all my life I've done heavy work, but I've never hurt myself, mainly because my father taught me how to work. But emotionally I've never really gotten real close to people. I'm a friendly person, I don't have any favorite persons, I have a lot of friends, but I can't say, "This person is really special." My wife is special, and I've learned to say some things in words to tell her that, but I think part of it is just me.

TI: And this was even before this happened? This was like even growing up, you felt like this? Although you mentioned you're close with your sisters. Or is it even that, there's still kind of this sense of, there's still a little bit of distance or something between you?

KO: It's not a distance, we are close. [Laughs] In the last two or three years, if you can believe it, she's ninety-two, and I do go visit her. In the last two years, I have learned to hug her goodbye when I see her.

TI: This is Masako?

KO: [Nods] Until then it was almost like shake hands and say, "I'll see you again."

TI: And going back to Masako, she was home when your father had a heart attack.

KO: Right.

TI: How was she when you came home? How was she dealing with this? It must have been pretty traumatic for her to kind of...

KO: I don't really remember her. But I think I can say for most of us kids, the five of us, the six of us, we're pretty controlled, I think. Well, of course, there are times when I can remember crying so hard that it disrupted my sister Fumi's funeral service. She and I were very close, and I couldn't help myself. But generally speaking, we're pretty even keeled. I think of the five of us, Fumi and I were probably the more emotional that way. And yet, at the same time, I'm saying I'm quite distant to a lot of people.

<End Segment 14> - Copyright © 2014 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.