Densho Digital Archive
Densho Visual History Collection
Title: Tomiye Terasaki Interview
Narrator: Tomiye Terasaki
Interviewers: Ken Silverman (primary), Alice Ito (secondary)
Location: Klamath Falls, Oregon
Date: July 3, 2000
Densho ID: denshovh-ttomiye-01-0002

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[Translated from Japanese]

KS: So then, when you were three years old, you were able to return to Japan?

TT: I was taken back. Back then, all of the kids were sent back to Japan. Either because they wanted their kids to have a Japanese education, or because if the kids were around, they would be in the way, and the parents couldn't work. I think those were the two reasons.

KS: Oh, is that so?

TT: Yes.

KS: So, when you went to Japan, whom did you stay with?

TT: I wonder who I went with? It was probably my mother who went with me. I don't really remember.

KS: So you went to Fukuoka, and in Fukuoka, you attended an elementary school and a middle school --

TT: Yes, I stayed at my grandfather's house.

KS: Uh-huh.

AI: [To Ken] What did her parents do there?

KS: [To Alice] In Fukuoka? [To Tomiye] Before your parents came to the U.S, what kind of work did they do in Japan?

TT: Well, they were farmers. Back then in Japan, everyone was a farmer.

KS: Uh-huh.

TT: But, the first-born son succeeds the family, as you know. So the second and third sons have to find their own work, otherwise they can't live with the family. That's probably why they came to the U.S.

KS: So you were in Fukuoka, and then when did you move to Tokyo?

TT: That was after we had been living in the U.S. for a number of years, and in the 12th year of Taisho [1923], there was a big earthquake in Tokyo. After that, my father returned to the U.S. My mother had returned long before.

KS: So, when you moved to Tokyo, where did you live?

TT: In Kichijoji. And we started a cafe. It was called "Higurashi." It is a name of a cicada, but it also could mean "a hand-to-mouth existence," and so everyone laughed at the name. As a result, our business was not very good. We lost all of our money. We had never run a business before, and young people who came to Tokyo to study would visit our cafe. My parents had just returned from living in the U.S, so you could tell they were different from other Japanese people back then. So those students would come to the cafe to just chat with my parents. My parents would feed them, and they would leave without paying. They were so naive.

<End Segment 2> - Copyright © 2000 Densho. All Rights Reserved.