<Begin Segment 5>

DG: So, when did your father get married?

BU: Got married in 1913, I think, because the first baby came in 1914, so can't make it more.

DG: Then at that time he was still planning to go back to Japan.

BU: No, he was planning, he was planning to stay there.

DG: Oh, by then.

BU: By then. Because he was always, he had a group of people that I suppose depended upon him because he's the only one that had a, had a big house, and they all had all their meetings and everything there. It was very nice for us, too, because some of the lonely, loner, men adopted us -- I'm talking about me, I'm a male, they didn't adopt females -- and then they, they took us on a bike ride to Wapato and other places, and played ball with us. So it was nice.

DG: So you were born what year now?

BU: I was born in 1918, right in the middle of the, middle of the flu epidemic, the pan, pan world flu epidemic, in which so many thousands, millions of people died. And you know, ordinarily if a mother goes into the hospital for delivery, she stayed for two or three days. They, they kicked Mom out in half a day because they said it's too dangerous to be in the hospital because of flu. So that... I found out another thing, too, recently, the fact that the Saint Elizabeth Hospital in Yakima is a Providence Hospital, the one I was, I've been connected with all my life. So, anyway, it kind of runs around. [Laughs]

DG: It does. So then how long did you live in Yakima?

BU: I lived only eight years. What happened was this, the fact that because Mom and Dad had, had the laundry and it was so busy that they couldn't take care of all four kids so they took the two oldest one and send them to Grandma in Japan to raise.

DG: So you were number three?

BU: No, I was number four.

DG: You're number four.

BU: Number three and four were the youngest. My sister lives in New York and us were the only ones that stayed, and they sent the two older ones to Japan. They're Kibeis.

DG: So you had an older brother born in 1914 and then you had a sister born...

BU: 1915.

DG: '15. And then your sister, another sister.

BU: Another sister in '16 and me in '18, yeah. So that's what happened.

DG: Well, tell us a little bit about why they send your, the kids to Japan.

BU: Well, I presume they sent them over because four kids in a busy laundry, laundry business, just couldn't take care of them.

DG: But it's not just that, because other people sent them, too. Was it mostly because they were busy?

BU: Well, they are busy with work or what have you.

DG: But what about preparation to go back to Japan?

BU: Just ship them. Mother or father went with them, I presume.

<End Segment 5> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.