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LG: Okay, so both Louise and Saburo were born in Hawaii.

MR: Yes.

LG: Do you know where your family came from in Japan?

MR: No, but I don't exactly know the place. I know that Louise went back to the family farm. I don't know... you know? Oh, okay.

LG: So your grandfather had a Japanese language school?

MR: Yes. That's in Puunene, probably wherever they were.

LG: Do you know on Louise's side, what sort of work they did?

MR: Oh, my grandpa was a banker, the grandparents. And let's see, one funny thing about Grandpa was, being traditional, a traditional Japanese-type person, he didn't bother to make a will, because he figured everything goes to the son. The two daughters are married and, well, they're taken care of. However, I think his son, my uncle, said, "Wait a minute, Grandpa." So he finally managed to get Grandpa to a lawyer, and the lawyer said, "No, you've got to do something slightly different." [Laughs] So that's actually why I'm here at Watermark because I think he was a banker. He owned property in Honolulu and he had an apartment and he had apartment houses and he had money. So I think they made it a divvy, one half to the son, and between the two daughters one-third each or about half about half. Otherwise, I don't think, I wouldn't work... on my salary, I would not be able to afford living here. That was sort of just an accident.

Off camera: Well, Grandma also was very good at saving money.

MR: Yeah, she worked. And actually, whatever she got... oh, she got a pension from Saburo, so she didn't really live off that pension, she lived off her salary and put the pension away. And I think when this money came from my grandfather's estate or something, she also put that money away, so that those funds are available to me now. Because she didn't, I think she lived her off her salary, and the things she got from... I think, and also Saburo had an insurance policy, I think took out insurance policy. And I think on her, you know, when I would read her bank account, she got stuff from that and lived on her salary, and whatever social security. And since she lived, she didn't retire 'til quite a late age, she got pretty good social security and way back in the '50s, I think she got an insurance policy that I guess you're supposed to die at sixty-five or seventy or something like that. So from the age of seventy-five, she was getting money from this insurance policy fund regularly every month.

LG: Do you remember what your parents, well, was Louise like growing up? How was she as a mother, and what was her personality?

MR: I always thought she was a very smart lady, she seemed very smart. And always seemed to, well, she was very busy, she was always very busy. We always had conversations with, I would get taken to these little get-togethers or made dinner with her friends and things like that. So most of the socializing was with her friends and things like that. So when I was just growing up, what did I do when I was just growing up? I think for a while I might have been in a daycare center, vaguely remember that. Then when I went to, I may have had a caregiver briefly and then I was sort of on my own. I would go to Friends Select, Friends Select is a school very close to here, Quaker school, private school. And I think because she was a widow, she got a discount on the tuition, so for a while I went there. And I would back from Friends Select and sort of park myself in the apartment and listen to the radio until she came home and fixed my dinner. I don't remember helping her out with chores or anything of that sort. Let's see, what am I supposed to be remembering? Oh, dear, I remember visiting with friends and things like that.

Lucas Rotman: Didn't she also have people staying over?

MR: Oh, yes, that's right, that's right. When we first moved in to, when she first moved to Philadelphia, she lived in an apartment, a rather large apartment on Sixteenth around Spruce Street with about three other women, I think, or two other women. And then they moved out. And I think at some point, she may have also had people, students from Hawaii who came and were boarding with her also. And then I think in '52, she bought a house down in, near Fitler Square, down in the city of Philadelphia. And there, she also, she had two, maybe one, two, three students who were coming on the, spending on GI bill in Philadelphia, at University of Pennsylvania, probably, and they would stay there, that was kind of fun. [Laughs] I remember one night -- oh, they would all stand out, be in the backyard playing their ukuleles and singing, [inaudible]. And then they would have parties. One night, they had a party, and of course, they were up doing their party for quite a while. And then when I got up in the morning, I came downstairs, there was this big metal thing, a keg or something like that, sitting by the front door. Said, "Oh, gee, what's that?" and it's going buzz, buzz, buzz. "Oh, what's that?" And all of a sudden, whoosh, beer all over the place. [Laughs] So they all had to get up and clean up and everything. I think I went and hid or something. But I remember the whoosh. [Laughs] So she had fun, they sort of had all these guys. After a while, I don't think we had those guys anymore, I don't think. I don't remember them being around that much anymore, it was just me and her in this house in 2430 Pine Street. I was going to, where did I go? I went to high school, girl's high. But she was very busy, but I don't think I had to do too much work around the house. [Laughs] She would be very tolerant of the things that I was doing, like I think I was making, I would spread out a big table, I got interested in art or something, I was putting up, making Christmas cards, and there was this big mess, and she'd be okay with that for some reason. What other things happened?

Oh, do I remember things about the Japanese House? Because was involved with that from the 1950s, what I do remember is that there would be... she had a friend who was up in New York, a Japanese woman who had contacts, somehow, in Japan, and could order gifty things from Japan. So there's always these boxes and boxes of stuff spread out for some festival or something at the Japanese House, stuff all over the place. [Laughs] I remember those piles and piles of stuff. But that was sort of later, I guess, but I remember that she was very tolerant of me making a big mess and things of that sort. She sort of was interested in my activities, sort of encouraged them, if I was interested in painting and things of that sort.

<End Segment 3> - Copyright © 2023 JACL Philadelphia. All Rights Reserved.