<Begin Segment 8>

[Translated from Japanese]

TY: The Japanese people living in the U.S. must have endured a lot of hardship, including those things you mentioned. They were all the first generation and couldn't speak English well, worked all day long, then had their children grow up in an entirely different environment and as a result their language and culture were different from those of their children. Also they experienced various forms of discrimination. Your husband must have touched upon such issues during his sermons at the Temple, what kind of things did he talk about?

YI: Huh?

TY: About such an environment?

YI: Some couldn't even go back to Japan. One of my friends had three or four children. When her husband died of an illness, she came to us for advice. She still had a very young child. Somebody from my prefecture told her to go back to Japan with her children. So she was in a quandary. If she needed money (to return), the prefecture association would help her. But probably she didn't want to return because she came to my husband for advice. My husband told her to stay in the U.S. and endure the hardship. I'm glad she did stay here.

TY: So, did she do well here? With a lot of help from others? How did she overcome the difficulties?

YI: Her children?

TY: Yes. With those children.

YI: I guess she worked for others and also probably the people from our prefecture helped her. All her children are smart. She raised them well. I am so glad she decided to stay.

TY: By the way, did your husband talk about any hardship or discrimination during the general sermons?

YI: No. In those days, since the parents had to work and they couldn't work well with small children around. So they sent their children to live with their grandfather and grandmother in Japan. They sent money from here. Or their uncles and aunts took care of them. There were many such cases. The siblings were separated. Out of five children, three would grow up in Japan and receive a Japanese education. When you had them come back here after the war, the siblings could not get along because they had different educational backgrounds. As I said before, a young man once told me, "Don't ever separate your children and send some back. I am really having a problem now." He returned. Then he came here after he grew up. He could not get along with his other siblings. Their values were different. It's a real pity. But many people had a lot of children and sent them back to Japan. They gave their children a Japanese education.

TY: You had seven children, but...

YI: I didn't send them back.

TY: You wanted your children living with you. I asked you this before, but you said you didn't experience discrimination very much.

YI: Yes. I don't think I was discriminated against very much.

TY: Was that because you were at the center of the Japanese community? As a family member of the temple?

YI: Well...

TY: Did you hear any stories from other people? Other people's experiences of this or that?

YI: Well, sometimes in the newspaper, in the Japanese language newspaper were articles about some Japanese people's houses being burned down or something like that. But I don't think it was that bad. I think the U.S. is great. Particularly in that area.

TY: I assume you are talking about prewar experiences. Once I heard from a second generation Japanese American who said that he had excellent grades and went on to a university. But he could not find a job after graduating from a university.

YI: Before the war, the second generation Japanese Americans could not find a job, although they went to the University of Washington. Could be discrimination. So they went to Japan. Some of them worked for Japanese companies there.

TY: Is that before the war?

YI: Yes, before the war. It doesn't happen now.

TY: I personally heard that a person with an engineering degree could not find a job in his field...

YI: By the way, after the war, many went there because of the demand for English.

TY: What did you think about that? About the people who studied hard and achieved excellent grades but could not get a job...

YI: When you spent so much money to study... you could get a job here... but that won't happen now.

TY: You and your husband both received higher education and believed in education. I assume you wanted your children to be well-educated. How did you react when you heard the stories about the second generation Japanese Americans, that they could not get a job even with a college degree?

YI: It is not that way nowadays.

TY: Didn't you worry about it when Satoru and others were still children?

YI: No. At that time, many people already worked in the Caucasian community.

TY: So you didn't worry about their education.

YI: No, I didn't worry about it very much.

<End Segment 8> - Copyright © 1999 Densho. All Rights Reserved.