<Begin Segment 28>

[Translated from Japanese]

TY: Could you talk about the reconstruction of the Nikkei community?

AT: What?

TY: After the war, it was reconstructed. Everybody worked to reestablish Japanese, Nihonmachi, I mean, the Nikkei community.

AT: Yeah... At that time, not much of... Let's see. I, everybody, Terao said this. Because he said, "We are going back when tofu shops are back," we stayed in Salt Laki as long as five years. [Laughs] Nobody really stayed for that long. We were there for five years, well, that was because a good person was watching the house. That's why we lived in an apartment for five years. We also made friends in Salt Laki. It was good. From Salt Lake, from Salt Laki, we went to a place called something. There, to Mexico.

TY: Oh, you went there?

AT: And, we already had a permit. I said that we should go to the iminkan and get a permit in case we might go some places because we didn't know where and how. So, we got it. At that time, he took us by car. Three, four of us went. There are nice places. Amerika is a large country as I expected. I knew people in quite a long range. And, the goddess. There is some woman thing. We went close by on the ship to see it. [Ed. note: Mrs. Terao is talking about the time she went to New York and saw the Statue of Liberty.]

TY: You went to various places.

DG: Wherever you go, did you face discrimination? Where...

AT: It happened sometimes. But, there were places it didn't happen. They wouldn't tell you in the face. But, about discrimination, we were like, "Oh, they do it here." "Yeah." We didn't really get mad. We were all absent-minded. [Laughs] When we went there, to Alaska, there were bean-jam buns, and we were speaking in Japanese with friends, "Oh, those are good. There are the names of candies from Japan here." When we said, "Let's buy them to take home," then, a clerk at the store said, "Oh, where are you from?" We said, "Oh, oh, we are visiting from Seattle." She said, "No, I am asking where in Japan you are from." "In Japan, we are from Hiroshima." Then, she said, "Oh, I am from Okayama!" Encountering us made her miss Japan so much. When we asked her, "Where did you make these bean-jam cakes?" she said, "We have artisans here." She said, "We have these made there every day." We said, "Then, can we have ten of these and ten of those, please?" She wrapped them up. We said, "These are for souvenirs." When we went home, there were twenty-two in the box. There were two extra pieces in the box. Even though we told her that we wanted twenty. She only charged us for twenty pieces.

TY: She gave you those for free.

AT: She gave us those for free. But, she didn't say anything about it. We appreciated her kindness. At my place, we bought at the Sagami-ya, and there was another place called something. In Japan. The place wasn't good. So, we said, "These are better than the ones from the Sagami-ya," a friend and I, two of us said so, and we took them to the church. We said, "Well, please try even half a piece." [Laughs] When they saw it, we were sometimes told, "These are really good." It is a story from many decades ago. We have been to Alaska. We went to Alaska and spent one night there, and we came back. Oh, the reverend guided us. It was good that the reverend guided us. Because the reverend had been there before. He took us there by ship. And, the ship, in the ship, we had to buy the tickets for the third class. And, we ordered the meals from the second class. We ordered the meals from the second class, and we were served on the deck. It was nice.

<End Segment 28> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.