<Begin Segment 7>

DG: So then when you were eight years old you went to Japan.

BU: Yeah, yeah. Grandma wanted to see the other two, so we went, we went back.

DG: Did he sell his business?

BU: Huh?

DG: Did he sell his business to go?

BU: No, he, the business he leased to somebody, but he was going to Japan and get all his money and go into business in Japan. So I presume he went there with the idea of staying there, but he was smart enough to leave himself a little lifeline. In other words, he put enough money aside so all four kids, (Dad) and Mom (...) could come back. So when the time came to do that he had money to get a passage here to this country.

DG: So how long did you stay in Japan?

BU: Two years.

DG: So did you think of yourself as American at that time?

BU: More or less, I think. Because I, I only spoke English. But in school -- the two years of school -- I spoke very good Japanese.

DG: Was there, now, maybe in two places, was there prejudice in Yakima?

BU: No, I never felt it.

DG: But what about going to Japan, since you were American?

BU: No.

DG: You didn't feel that either?

BU: No, we didn't feel anything because, you know, it was my brother. My brother was a -- do you know what a gakidaisho is -- toughy. I had to go to school in Japan and if somebody spoke bad to me or pushed me, he go and punch them, punch them in the nose. [Laughs]

DG: So he was already there?

BU: He was already there.

DG: So how long had he been there?

BU: Oh, he'd been there about five or six years. He was already in junior high school, and he used to come down and the junior high school was right next to the elementary school so he used to come and beat the whole of them. [Laughs]

<End Segment 7> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.