<Begin Segment 5>

TI: So let's now talk about your mother a little bit. Same kind of question. Is there, like, an example that would help me understand how other people saw her? Like was she involved in groups or anything, and what were those people saying about her?

KO: I use the word independent in the sense that she, I don't say she was standoffish. We as a family were standoffish because we were isolated in the yard, whereas the Japantown was almost a mile away. But my mother was active in the Buddhist church as well as the Konko church, which was the Shinto, which was her faith. And so she was active in both the Buddhist church and the Konko church. But she was social and yet she was very independent. This is a few years back, since that time, but her independence and her, I don't know, being her own person. After my father had retired from the railroad, he bought a hotel in south downtown Portland. And one of the things that... I take it back. This is after the war even. My sister had bought two hotels, and Mother volunteered to manage one of the buildings for her, which happened to be in an area of three or four other Japanese hotels. And when Mother moved into this hotel, the other neighbors came to advise her on how to run the business. And one of the things they said was, "And don't rent to black people. We don't really, you rent to one person, then there'll be a whole bunch of other black people coming." And my mother, without any hesitation, said, "Thank you for your concern, but I feel that housing is one of the human necessities, and all people need housing, and no one should be denied that on the basis of their race."

TI: So where did that come from? Because in the same way, from the interviews I've done, yeah, there was there a fear or ignorance with many of the Isseis when they talked about, say, blacks, or other races. For your mother to have this viewpoint, where do you think that came from?

KO: Well, I don't know, but she was a very religious person. But I think the fact that we lived apart from the Japanese community for a long, long time has something to do with, we think this way, whereas the community together might think, you know, what's common in that community. And I feel that the Onishi kids grew up in the same way. When I went to school, out of the railroad tracks and to Atkinson school where ninety-eight percent of the kids were either Japanese or Chinese, I felt a little bit out of place. I noticed that these kids all do things together, by consensus, and if someone says, "I want to do this," they don't get to do that. I mean, they listen to, "Well, what do you think? I'll do it if you..." well, I didn't grow up that way. If I said, "I think I'll go to the river to fish," or something, I went to the river to fish. No one told me, "Well, I'll go if you go." But the Onishi kids grew up that way, and there was just, I do notice that there was this community kind of thinking that went on, which is somewhat foreign to me. And I think my mother grew up that way, too.

TI: And do you think that difference and more of that independent streak was a function of living outside of the community, or do you think that was a function more of who your mother and father were?

KO: I think it was kind of innate in them.

TI: And then, perhaps, enhanced by not living in the community.

KO: Right, right.

TI: Really interesting.

<End Segment 5> - Copyright © 2014 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.