<Begin Segment 2>

LT: So after your father became a successful hog farmer, how did he meet your mother?

KY: You know, in those days, they'd go with baishakunin. What that means is their wives are chosen by some other person and you had to marry her whether you wanted or not. I heard that one of the reasons why he didn't go back to Japan, he had a girlfriend that he wanted to marry, but it didn't work that way. In those days, the wife was chosen for you. And maybe that was, my sister said maybe that was one of the reasons why he never went back to Japan. Kind of unusual story, but that's what happened.

LT: What do you think might have happened if he had married his girlfriend instead?

KY: Well, I don't think they would have permitted that in Japan in those days. Because your mate is chosen by somebody else, in other words, baishakunin.

LT: Even if you're in another country across the ocean.

KY: Yeah. [Laughs]

LT: Okay. So where was your mother from, and how was she connected with your father?

KY: Well, she was born and raised in Nakashina. She went to four-year college in Tokyo, and she, after graduation, she was teaching grade school in Japan. And she was, she probably taught about three (or four) years, then she was chosen to be my father's wife.

LT: And when did they marry?

KY: Probably... well, let's see, I've got to figure this out. Probably in (1910), something like that. No, it can't be that. It had to be either (1910 or 1912), had to be that.

LT: Okay.

KY: Because he came here in (1904-1906).

LT: Okay, thank you. And she was six years younger than your father.

KY: Yes.

LT: So your mother did die when you were a youngster.

KY: My mother died when I was about two and a half years old, (in 1925). So I don't remember her whatsoever. Two and a half years old, you don't remember anyone. So I consider my stepmother as my mother.

LT: What was your father like?

KY: My father was in some sense a disciplinarian, in other sense, he was real soft, two dichotomies. It was kind of strange. We all respected what he has to say, but he was also a character. He was a good singer, a good speaker, he was president of all kinds of Japanese organizations in Fife and Tacoma. He was president of the Japanese school, president of the Japanese Society, president of something else, but he was president of everything that was around there.

LT: Can you give an example of what he was like as a father?

KY: Huh?

LT: Can you give an example from your childhood with your father?

KY: Like I say, he was a disciplinarian, so we had to work, whatever he said, we did. I didn't know any better, so I did say. There was no comparison with anything else at that time.

LT: For example, if you did something wrong, what would be the consequences?

KY: He would lecture you. He never physically spanked us or anything. We got by pretty good that way, because I don't remember him ever striking me in any way, but he would lecture to you.

LT: What did he say?

KY: He says, "There's two things, the right thing and the wrong thing. You did the wrong thing." So that always stuck to me, right and wrong.

LT: Important lessons.

<End Segment 2> - Copyright © 2014 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.