<Begin Segment 9>

HH: By many standards, you accomplished a lot. And as you look at this, Mary, what might you count as among your most important resources that supported you through all the things that you worked on, and all the things that you achieved?

MW: Without agreeing or disagreeing with your premise, what have I used as the resources for my, for helping me get through whatever? I had to get through, I think, the friendship of people, like the people that helped me get through Radcliffe, these people are still friends. My sister lives with the remaining women of that family, I think the people that we grew up with in California, I think they influenced my life. I think that's an aspect, Herb, that, in my life, was a little bit odd for the average Japanese American. My father died, see, when I was just about seven and a half years old, and my mother brought us up. My mother was a housekeeper in a white family. And so I'm there doing all these things with that white family, going in and setting the table and learning all their cultural baggage, almost as much as I learned the Japanese baggage. I don't know whether I'm making myself clear, but I think it makes it rather different from if you grew up in an entirely Japanese community.

HH: I guess the part that's striking, Mary, is, throughout, there was a sense of confidence that you always seemed to have that you could do things.

MW: The question is...

HH: And you have. And not only that you believe in yourself, but you actually have gone out and done many, many impressive things.

MW: Thank you. Do you have a question in connection?

HH: And I guess the question, if there is a question here would be, speculate as to how one develops that kind of confidence?

MW: I suspect it's partially... how does one develop a kind of confidence to be, to continue to work along in a community? I think partially it's because you grow up poor and hungry, and you try harder. And in my case, as I say, my mother was the sole breadwinner for many, many years, and you become very self-reliant. And if you become self-reliant, I think that sort of helps you to believe you can do it. You sort of go ahead and try to do it, I think. And I think all along the way, there are certain teachers, key teachers or key friends that come in and tell you that, "Now, look, if you're an educated person, you should learn to be able to adapt to any environment in which you are, and try to render some good service in that community," or something like that, and that kind of sticks in your mind. I think the friends, people we lived with, communities that we had gone into, like the Horikawas and so on, I think those are the kinds of things that really helped.

HH: Thank you very much.

MW: Not at all, thank you.

<End Segment 9> - Copyright © 1994 JACL Philadelphia. All Rights Reserved.