<Begin Segment 5>

[Translated from Japanese]

KS: And then when you arrived in San Francisco in 1929, do you remember what it was like?

TT: Uh, well I had my citizenship and birth certificate, but I was still sent to Angel Island, and I was given a cup of black coffee and two crackers, and I spent one night there.

KS: After that, what happened? You were supposed to be picked up by your uncle --

TT: He came to pick me up, but I couldn't meet him right away. I was kept for just one night at Angel Island, and the next day I was released to my uncle's place.

KS: Hmm.

AI: [To Ken] While she was at Angel Island, does she remember any Chinese graffiti on the walls?

KS: When you were at Angel Island, do you remember any Chinese graffiti?

TT: Well, there were so many Chinese people crying there. Boo-hoo. They would let the Japanese out after one or two nights, but they kept the Chinese there much longer. And since I'm a woman, they let me go after one day, but my brother was kept there for a whole week.

KS: When did your brother arrive?

TT: My brother came one year earlier than I did.

KS: [To Alice] Her brother came the year before and he had to stay for a week, but she only had to stay for one day at Angel Island. [To Tomiye] So, then, you met your uncle, and where did you go next?

TT: I went to my uncle's house in the countryside near Sacramento, and worked in the tomato canneries, growing tomatoes. I had never done farming before, so I would have a hoe -- a hoe is a kua, by the way -- I would have it and plow the soil, you know, but I couldn't do it. I wasn't used to farming. So then, I went to Sacramento to learn sewing. I went to a sewing school, while baby-sitting. I was a school girl, as they called it in Japan at the time. So, while I worked as a baby-sitter, I went to a school to learn sewing.

KS: When you first arrived in Sacramento, what kind of impressions did you have?

TT: Well, I thought in America people lived in beautiful houses, but back then it was barracks, houses not even with any paint. Then, the table was a simple one made at home by assembling several pieces of lumber together, and the only benches were simply made from wood. And there was only one light in the whole house. It was the same as Japan back then.

<End Segment 5> - Copyright © 2000 Densho. All Rights Reserved.