<Begin Segment 31>

[Translated from Japanese]

TY: Today, do you think it was good that you immigrated to the U.S.?

AT: It was good. It is better than Japan. First of all, if we were in Japan, when we went to the store early in the morning, we had to go, "Good morning. Good morning!" What a nuisance. In this country, everybody goes, "Hi, good morning," and that's it. That's it. In Japan, in Japan, in my hometown, they were precise about maintaining a good relationship with their neighbors. It was done courteously. So, when I went back to Japan last time, the houses that I went to say hello to, the houses that I didn't visit were complaining. Three across the street and both sides of neighbors. My mother told me to visit at least those neighbors, so I took some stuff I took from here, like candies, and I said, "For so and so reason, I am back home," then this time, they brought out something big. They said, "Well, Oneesan, I had heard about your returning, but you returned earlier than I had expected. Well, please tell us the stories about Amerika." The neighbors had been friends over decades already. So, they were always asking my mother, "When is oneesan coming back?" My mother said, "I don't know since I haven't received a letter, and I had received a letter saying that she was going to visit around Tokyo or Yokohama on the way for a couple of days with the reverend, but I don't know until she actually gets here." [Laughs]

TY: Nowadays, we can exchange letters in a week, from the U.S. to Japan, and from Japan to the U.S.

AT: Yeah. It took about a week.

TY: A long time ago, around the time you just came here, it must have taken for a long time.

AT: It took quite a long time back then.

TY: Then, it gradually became shorter.

AT: Nowadays, we can just make phone calls.

<End Segment 31> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.