<Begin Segment 72>

TY: [Jpn.] I see. By the way, you left Heart Mountain in August of 1945.

MK: [Jpn.] Yeah.

TY: [Jpn.] That was right after the war ended, wasn't it?

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

TY: [Jpn.] And I was told that you first went to South Park.

MK: [Jpn.] Yeah. We went to South Park.

TY: [Jpn.] I see.

MK: [Jpn.] Because Sunnydale was...

TY: [Jpn.] Yes.

MK: [Jpn.] The person who occupied the house wouldn't move out.

TY: [Jpn.] Oh, that neighbor?

MK: [Jpn.] If he wouldn't move out, how can we move in there even if it's our own house?

TY: [Jpn.] I see.

MK: [Jpn.] I received a favor at South Park until that place became empty. Until he moved out.

TY: [Jpn.] I see.

MK: [Jpn.] The house in South Park was full of people because all of us showed up there suddenly.

TY: [Jpn.] I see.

MK: [Jpn.] There.

TY: [Jpn.] Then, did the Arakis leave before you?

MK: [Jpn.] Yeah. Before or not, I think we left at the same time.

TY: [Jpn.] I see.

MK: [Jpn.] But I don't know where they left because we stayed at different camps.

TY: [Jpn.] Yes.

MK: [Jpn.] You know? So they probably left a little earlier because they had their own house.

TY: [Jpn.] I see.

MK: [Jpn.] They leave early. Yeah. So it looks like they left earlier.

TY: [Jpn.] I see.

MK: [Eng.] Uh-huh.

TY: [Jpn.] So the Arakis were like your sponsor and you went to the Arakis' house.

MK: [Jpn.] Yes.

TY: [Jpn.] Then if you couldn't have gone to the Arakis' house, would you have stayed in the camp a little longer?

MK: [Jpn.] No. I don't think you can stay in the camp. Everybody had to leave when you were told to leave.

TY: [Jpn.] I see.

MK: [Jpn.] I think they had to clean it. You had to go out and find a job or do something. I didn't think about those things.

TY: [Jpn.] So when the war ended, did you feel that finally you could leave or did you worry about what would happen from then on?

MK: [Jpn.] No, I didn't have to worry because once we got home, we had everything to run the greenhouse.

TY: [Jpn.] So all you had to do was to rebuild the greenhouse.

MK: [Jpn.] Yeah, Yeah. All we had to do was go home.

TY: [Jpn.] I see.

MK: [Jpn.] Well, since we were away for as long as four years, we were prepared to find nothing.

TY: [Jpn.] I see.

MK: [Jpn.] Yeah, so we had to start all over. It wasn't easy to start. Even if you had some money saved, if you didn't use it... you know? So you could say we became poor because of this war.

TY: [Jpn.] Yeah.

MK: [Eng.] Uh-huh.

TY: [Jpn.] When your life was getting in order, the war-

MK: [Jpn.] If it weren't for the war, we would have been pretty well-off. In everything. But everything was halted suddenly. But I thought we would be back in one year.

TY: [Jpn.] I see.

MK: [Jpn.] That was a mistake.

TY: [Jpn.] Yes.

MK: [Jpn.] Yeah. No wars end in one year. Really.

TY: [Jpn.] But you didn't know that at that time. How long it would be.

MK: [Jpn.] Yeah. So the sooner we returned, the better off we would have been, but four years was too long. Uh-huh. So it looked like we lost everything.

TY: [Jpn.] That's right. Even if you had your house, your car was... by your neighbor...

MK: [Jpn.] Everything, you know.

TY: [Jpn.] Yes, I understand.

MK: [Jpn.] That's right. Uh-huh. Because it was so long. Yeah.

TY: [Jpn.] By the way, you could return just before your home was put on the market...

MK: [Jpn.] Oh, yeah, that's what I was told.

TY: [Jpn.] I see.

MK: [Jpn.] In addition, if it weren't for [inaudible], we wouldn't have known it. Yeah.

TY: [Jpn.] I see. That makes you shudder, doesn't it? If you had returned a little later...

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

TY: [Jpn.] You had no other place to go.

MK: [Jpn.] But shikata ga nai.

TY: [Jpn.] Yes.

MK: [Jpn.] Because the war was Japan's fault.

TY: [Jpn.] I see.

MK: [Jpn.] Because we are Japanese, shikata ga nai.

TY: [Jpn.] Yes.

MK: [Jpn.] Yeah.

TY: [Jpn.] By the way, you returned to South Park from Heart Mountain by train...

MK: [Jpn.] Yeah, well, we returned to South Park and then by the time the school started in Sunnydale, we returned to Sunnydale.

TY: [Jpn.] Then you didn't stay in South Park very long, did you?

MK: [Jpn.] No, no. Until my house was vacated.

TY: [Jpn.] I see. Then how long did you stay in South Park? At the Araki's?

MK: [Eng.] Uh-huh.

TY: [Jpn.] How long did you stay there?

MK: [Jpn.] Oh, that's why we didn't stay there even for one month.

TY: [Jpn.] I see.

MK: [Jpn.] How many days did we stay there? It wasn't very long. Because my children had to start school. They had to go to school.

TY: [Jpn.] Lilly was already a junior high student.

MK: [Jpn.] Yeah. That's right. Uh-huh. Yeah. But there were big problems.

TY: [Jpn.] This time you had five children and also a baby...

<End Segment 72> - Copyright © 2000 Densho. All Rights Reserved.