<Begin Segment 26>

[Translated from Japanese]

TY: When you returned to Seattle after the war, what did your husband... did your husband go back to the Frye company?

AT: Um, he didn't go back. We came back to Seattle, but he didn't go work again.

TY: He just retired, then.

AT: Huh?

TY: Did he just retire?

AT: Hmm, well, it was something like retirement. They asked him to come work for them even two days or so when they were busy. Because he was working as a foreman. He went. But, he said he didn't want to go any more. And, his own...

DG: How old was he at that time?

AT: I wonder how old he was. He was ten years older than I, so...

TY: About near sixty?

AT: If he could smoke, if he smoked, if he had money enough for his cigarettes, he didn't need allowance. So, when you work, it comes, right? He received what comes after you work for so many years. That was his allowance. I was working, right? So, I was just hanging out with my friends. If there was a baseball game, if someone said that there was a baseball game around noon, then I went to see the baseball game with my friends. Um, also, sometimes I asked him to buy so and so if he was going towards the Main. When I returned from shopping, he was sleeping. He didn't even cook rice or anything. I said, "Who are you, a master?" but it didn't work. Our children said this, too, "Papa, you are staying home but being totally useless." Well, he took very good care of the garden, though. The garden was the only thing I never had to take care of. If a tree grew, he grafted it, and when weeds, grass came out, he weeded. He was growing moss. He made a Japanese garden, a Japanese garden, and he placed a big stone like this and planted trees. He placed a stone lantern over here. And, over here, he put the Kasuga lantern, the shorter one. On the side, we had gold carps, gold carps. This was the pass, the pass. All of this side. Once, three hakujin came to take pictures. They said, "I heard you made a Japanese garden. Do you mind if we take pictures?" On this side, he placed a stone lantern. Then, this side was low, well, there was a low one. He put it there. And, there was a pond over here. They said, "We've never seen a garden like this." Of course they had never seen it. That was because Terao made it soon after the war ended. They made a garden just like Terao's garden. [Laughs] So, hmm, He did it all by himself, he dug a pond with his friends and made the shape into a style like this. For the water, he had a plumber to draw a pipe to the drainage. On this side, he only needed to turn on the faucet of clean water to change the water. That's how he did it. It was good. But, the house is no longer there. They were all torn down.

TY: Then, the Japanese garden is also gone now?

AT: Yes, it's gone. Because they tore down all the houses there. The government bought the area and new buildings were built.

<End Segment 26> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.