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Were you close with your mother? What was your family dynamic like?

Close to my mother, I think my mother kind of ruled the roost as it were. As a child I did a lot of Japanese dancing. It's not exactly folk dancing, but it was dances that go along with the Japanese songs for children. I did a lot of that, and my mother was always pushing me. I don't know why I did it, because my younger sister didn't. Then I also learned, there's a Japanese classic, the Noh plays, and as a child I learned some of those, the Noh dances. That was what I did.

Would you say that your family was more culturally Japanese or culturally American, when you were growing up?

Growing up was more Japanese because we were told you speak English outside, but once you come in the house you speak Japanese. Our food, of course, was all Japanese. I think this is why as I grew up later, my mother would say she wanted us to learn the American ways, so this is why we go live with an American family.

Can you tell us more about your mom getting remarried? How did you feel about that? Did you like the man?

We knew nothing. That time, children weren't told anything. All we were told was we were moving. Didn't even know where we were moving to, and we move. On the way, we stop off in San Jose at a church. I thought my sister, older sister, who is much older than I had gotten married, and I thought this ceremony is just like hers. My brother walked out. He was a sophomore in high school and he wasn't told that we were moving because my mother was remarrying. Here we are, we have the ceremony and then in those days the reception was always at a Chinese restaurant. This was in San Jose, Japantown. Then we go to the house. In our room there's a girl already, because that was her room and my sister and I shared that. My brother shares a room with the young boy there. I think it was a shock for all of us. Here we are just uprooted from the city into the country into a family we didn't know. So it took us a bit of adjustment there.

How long do you think that took?

We were still kids though we were about sixth grade, fifth, sixth grade, so it didn't take too long. I think it was harder for my brother, but not for me or for my younger sister, because then we are going to school and we make friends. We're still, this is the day and the Santa Clara Valley was still a farming community. You don't see a farm there anymore. So we had to walk a half a mile to catch the school bus and there'd be kids along the way, and so we'd become friends with them. So it didn't take long, and then going to school make friends.

Can you tell us about the wedding day when your mother re-married and how you felt?

This again goes back to children not being told anything. All we were told is we were going to move. This is my brother, by then was a sophomore in high school. I was in fourth grade and my younger sister must have been in second grade. We were told we were going to move, and so we go to San Jose and we stop off at the church, and I thought, the service was in Japanese, but I thought it was so much like the service my older sister went through. Oh, my brother knew what was going on and he walked out. We were not told. Then after the ceremony we go to a Chinese restaurant, that seemed to be the thing to do in those days. You have a reception later. They were all people we didn't know, and then we go to the house. My step- father had three children, an older son, and a daughter, and my younger sister and I were to share a room with her, and my brother was to share a room with the younger boy. So here we are, not told what was going on, because children weren't told, and thrust into that situation.

What was your brother's reaction like when he left the wedding?

See, he was five years older, he knew what was going on, and not being told- he just walked out. Somebody must have gone out after him because he came back.
Was he angry?
I think so, most upset.
Did he remain upset for a long time?
What happened was, shortly after that he was sent to Japan. He was sent to Japan to go to school and live with my grandparents, and I think that was the happiest time for him.

What was your initial reaction once you realized what had happened?

I'm young, I'm only fourth grade, so I think you just go along with it.
It didn't bother you?
I guess not.
As you grew older and started to understand what happened more did your opinion change?
No because this was Depression time, and my mother was having a hard time raising three children, and I think she had to do something.

How did life change for you after you moved in with your step family?

It was going to school, having to walk a half mile even to get the bus, this is country—life changed in that I was a city girl and moved into a farming community at that time. Everything changed, as walking half a mile to catch a school bus. But I think one adapts and I think I did. I think I have said before in my interview too that I became a snob and didn't associate with the other Japanese children because they are farming children from the farming community. If you know Japanese at all there are many dialects, and my mother was very proud that she was from the Tokyo area where she spoke the Tokyo dialect. The people who are farmers are from other areas, and so they have a different dialect which they speak. I speak the Tokyo dialect, so I'm not associating with these others because I can't understand them. I think now "Oh," but that's how I was, and so my friends were all Caucasian.

Did your step family consist of farmers?

He had a farm, yes.
Did they have that farming dialect?
Right.
Did that make a difference in your relationships with them?
There must have been, because right away the daughter who was there, my step sister then, she went into a home like an au pair, because she was older. She might have been out of high school—almost out of high school—and I can think of what a traumatic experience it was for her. It was just as hard on them as it was for us.
So there was some distance?
Yes.

By seventh grade, though, my mother decided we should go to Japan and meet our grandparents, see what their life is like. We were there for two years. So I learned what living in Japan was like. This was seventh, eighth grade, and I went to an all girls' school. My brother went to a boys' school, and my sister, younger one, was put into first grade because she didn't know much Japanese and so here she was about third grade by then; she was the tall one always in the school pictures. It was an interesting experience going to a school in Japan because this was a private girls' school run by Presbyterians. It's the American Presbyterians that had started this school, so it's what we would have called the mission school. There were just a few of us from England, America. Where else were they from? Korea. We formed a group of our own called the English club, and were able to speak English sometimes, and meet each other, get together. The teacher who taught English was from the States; the principal for years had been American. That was an interesting experience, because I could speak Japanese but I couldn't read it or write it enough to know history or geography, manners, also customs. That was an interesting experience. At least I knew then I'm American and not Japanese.

How long were you there? Why and when did you come back?

Two years. My mother thought maybe if she could find work there, she would stay there with us, but she couldn't find anything really. She had been a kindergarten teacher, but I don't know that she wanted to go back to being a teacher, I don't know.
Did you move back to San Jose?
We came back to San Jose, yes.

Could you please talk about living a double life of both American customs and Japanese customs?

As a child I learned Japanese culture in that I learned to do Japanese dancing.  I learned to do what's called the classical NOH drama in Japan—the dances that go with it. It's only now that I appreciate what I went through because I know what it was all about, now I know what it's about. At the time it was just something that I had to do. Then you ask about the American culture, it was my life as a child speaking Japanese and English, you learn the Japanese culture, you learn the American culture and you just learn to live with both.

What was "it" all about?

The NOH drama? As a child I didn't know what it was. Now I know it's a classical drama, the particular dances that I learned, for instance are old folk tales, legends. But as a child I learned the words to it, learned to go through the motions, but didn't know what it was about.

Would you identify yourself as Japanese or American, or Japanese-American, as a child?

Probably more Japanese because the school I went to, I find out about two thirds of the students there were Japanese. The church was all Japanese, so our neighborhood was all Japanese so that I was probably very Japanese.

Can you talk a little bit more about this relationship that you mentioned between you, the urban community, which moved to the country?

To the country and the way I treated the other Japanese? I think now, I was a snob. Because here I'm the city kid and I'm with the country kids. In Japan, depending on the area where you lived, there's the strong dialects. My mother being from Tokyo was very proud of that fact that she's from Tokyo, and that's how we grew up. These kids speak a different dialect, it doesn't sound Japanese and it took us a while to understand what they were saying. Their way of living was quite different from anything we had known. As an example, my mother, having come from the city, having taught there in this farmhouse, was invited to a neighbor's, a Japanese. I think the poor lady there didn't know how to treat my mother except serve tea. In those days they had candy, wrapped up butterballs or something. She put them in the dish with chopsticks. This was how she was going to treat my mother. My mother comes home and tells us that kind of story so you know, we are all more snobbish. I just was not very friendly with the Japanese kids. There weren't that many in Campbell anyway.

You said that their way of living was different. Can you give an example? Are there any other examples?

They have what they call the bathhouse. Did anybody tell you about this one? The Japanese way of taking a bath is quite different from ours in that they—lets see, what's a good way of saying it? There's a big tub and then outside would be all tiles, and you wash yourself clean before you ever get into the tub. The tub is deep and usually a big one. You know when we lived in Alameda we had regular bath tubs. We went to the country and here was this bath house outside, and it's a metal box-like thing and they have a rack which floats so that when you get on it, you know you go on down. This is outside and you build a fire under it to get the bathtub hot. This was a brand new experience to us and you have to be sure, someone says, that you wash yourself before you get into the tub because everybody else is going to be getting into that tub and there's to be no soap scum. Soap scum is it? That was a brand new experience. You'll find if you go to Japan that's the way they bathe. You wash yourself clean first then you hop into the bathtub.
So the purpose of the bath is different?
That's right. You get warm in the bathtub; you get clean before you get in.

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