<Begin Segment 40>

TY: [Jpn.] Then, Hideo graduated from a school and came to visit.

MK: [Jpn.] Yeah, that's right.

TY: [Jpn.] Which side wanted the visit?

MK: [Jpn.] No. We didn't ask him to come. His parents sent him to us.

TY: [Jpn.] I see.

MK: [Jpn.] His adoptive parents sent him here because we had not seen him for a long time. They thought we must have missed him. So Hiroshi, oh, Akira, Akira and his wife...

TY: [Jpn.] What?

MK: [Jpn.] I guess they sent him here.

TY: [Jpn.] Was that because...

MK: [Jpn.] Because they wanted him to meet our father and us. Uh-huh.

TY: [Jpn.] The reason Hideo could come to the U.S. was because he was born here, wasn't it? In those days, Japanese people...

MK: [Jpn.] Yeah, that's right. He was the first. Yeah.

TY: [Jpn.] If he were a Japanese, he wouldn't have been allowed in.

MK: [Jpn.] Yeah.

TY: [Jpn.] So what did you think of him when you first saw him? It was almost the first time, wasn't it? You saw him only when he was a baby.

MK: [Jpn.] Yeah. That was the first time. He was so open. His parents must have raised him very lovingly.

TY: [Jpn.] I see.

MK: [Jpn.] Uh-huh. He was nice. Uh-huh, yeah.

TY: [Jpn.] And then he was just visiting the U.S., but the war started...

MK: [Jpn.] Yeah.

TY: [Jpn.] Huh.

MK: [Jpn.] That's right. Uh-huh.

TY: [Jpn.] He ended up staying here, didn't he? Because he couldn't return.

MK: [Jpn.] So I felt sorry for him, but it couldn't be helped. He just couldn't go home.

TY: [Jpn.] Yeah.

MK: [Jpn.] So he went to the camp and endured for four years. Shikata-ga nai. Yeah.

TY: [Jpn.] Well, let me see, your father returned to Japan just before the war started.

MK: [Jpn.] Uh-huh. So he never saw Hideo again after that.

TY: [Jpn.] I see.

<End Segment 40> - Copyright © 2000 Densho. All Rights Reserved.