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RB: I also recall a photo, I think, from the same time period, of George Tsuneyoshi Haneda working at the Hotel Whittier.

PU: Yes, yes.

RB: Is that your uncle or your grandfather?

PU: That was my mother's father, yeah.

RB: Do you know how long he worked at the hotel?

PU: No idea. [Laughs] I don't even know where the hotel was, but he was a chef's there. I think he might have gone back to doing gardening, which is what I understand he did before the war.

RB: Do you have any memories of his cooking?

PU: No, I don't. [Laughs] Not at all.

RB: It was kind of interesting, because I think, of course, professional chefs, there were many men in that era. But knowing the Issei, especially the women, tended to be the cooks, and I was curious if you had any kind of memories, I guess, or food memories in general with any of your grandparents.

PU: I think it was it was more my mother's mother. And I just remember going to her house which is in Mount Airy for, you know, family get-togethers and having meals there and so on.

RB: So you had a pretty large extended family that was in the region by comparison to most other people that grew up here and the Japanese American community.

PU: I mean, it was pretty significant partly because my mother had six siblings and then my father's sister, Yuri, also ended up in this area, and she got married and settled here. They had four kids. So a good number of cousins around.

RB: We just interviewed Miyo Moriuchi, and I'm curious, do you have memories that you could share of your Aunt Libby or Uncle Tak?

PU: Oh, yeah, I mean, we used to spend a lot of time in each other's houses when we were little. And their house was noteworthy because their behavior was very different from ours, it was a very noisy household. And I think it was kind of reflected in my Uncle Tak. He was just kind of a loud, boisterous guy that was always yelling and screaming and everything, and his kids were the same way. [Laughs] So there was a lot of running around and yelling and whatever. And so between, you know, four kids in that family and four kids in our family, so when we got together, there was a lot of noise in that house and a lot of vibration and so on. So, you know, it's nice. I remember, I think I got sent, sent over to stay with them for a couple of weeks, one time when my mom had to get an operation or something like that. So it's like an everyday thing to be in a pandemonium over there. [Laughs]

RB: I saw some photos of Apple Blossom Hanami that was done at the Moriuchi farm, and I'm curious if you had any memory of that.

PU: No.

RB: It may have been slightly before your time. But I think in actually the '50s and also into the early '60s is when they were doing it.

PU: Okay, yeah, the '50s I wouldn't remember.

<End Segment 4> - Copyright © 2023 JACL Philadelphia. All Rights Reserved.