<Begin Segment 11>

[Translated from Japanese]

DG: This is a little bit different subject, but then, when you were young, did you know about the United States?

AT: Oh, I didn't know, I didn't know. Well, brother, not brother, I mean, my uncle used to come to the U.S.

TY: Was that your maternal uncle?

AT: Yeah, it was my maternal uncle. He came here. When he came back to Japan, he gave me money, some candies from here, and he returned sometimes. I thought a place called Amerika was such a nice place. Whenever he returned, my uncle, that uncle gave me things whenever he returned. And, at Obon and other seasonal festivals, he sent me money to add to my allowance since my father died early, he said that I would be needing money while going to school, so I thought there would be money found everywhere on the road in the place called Amerika.

TY: Were there a lot of people whose relatives immigrated to the U.S. around you?

AT: No, there weren't too many.

TY: There were many from Hiroshima itself though.

AT: Right, Hiroshima itself had a lot of them. Around me... nobody. There wasn't any. But, the family of Terao did, the younger generations had already been to the U.S. He came to study but he couldn't study as he wished, so he started working.

<End Segment 11> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.