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AI: So, and then where did you go when you were released?

MK: Well, I came back to Los Altos. There was a group of Quakers in our Palo Alto area. And they helped the Japanese family resettle. We didn't have any government help or anything. I wasn't there. My parents had just the younger kids, and I believe they had a hard time. But they, no, the government didn't help anybody. They'd just give them $25 and a plane, I mean a train ticket, and that was it. Here they kicked them out of California, took away everything, and now they send them, them back with nothing, either. It's, it's unbelievable what the, the country did. Japanese Americans don't talk about it. They don't talk about being sent back in the, with just a train ticket. They, the San Jose area, they lived in hostel. I know in the Mountain View area, they lived in the old Japanese school. All they had was just the blankets separating living quarters. And maybe for about ten families maybe they had just one bathroom, one bathroom, that's all. And they survived. That's the amazing thing. They all survived without any help.

AI: So by the time you returned from prison, what was your family doing then?

MK: My family was living in, I don't know if you know what a tank house is. It's a kind of a rectangular building. They used to house a water tank on top with a windmill. They knocked the tank and the windmill down, and they made the tank house into a living quarter. They, for their right to live in that tank house, they had to do free gardening and free housework. So, maybe they got taken advantage of, but they had no place to go. So I'm sure they all, all the Japanese American families had tough times at the time. The way the money is thrown around today helping people, you would think that, it's the government that caused all those problems, that they would at least help them get on their feet. But it's not true. They did it themselves.

AI: Now, in the meantime, your older brother, what had happened to him?

MK: He was in the, still in the army.

AI: And your older sister?

MK: Yeah. They were back, husband's working, found... my brother was in the army. He went to Okinawa and to the Philippines. In Okinawa, he loved Okinawa because the, oh gosh, found a lot of girlfriends, I guess. He, he used to ask to, my family would send him makeup, send it to the girls. He was very popular because he had a lot of makeup. [Laughs] He was so happy. First time in his life he was treated like a human being. First time in his life he had so many girlfriends, I guess. So he didn't want to come back. So when I came back, my mother told me, "Write your brother. He, he's ending his two-year army." He's talking about staying there in Okinawa as a civilian employee of a large construction company, American construction company that was going to rebuild Okinawa. And my brother said, "Geez, it's the best job offer I ever had. All I do is supervise the natives over here to rebuild Okinawa." And he said, he says, "I love it over here," he says. But you know how mothers are. They want the oldest son back. So she kept pressing me, pressing me, "Write him to come back." Tell him, "Please, your mother wants you back." So I kept writing him letters, letters, letters, and finally he came back.

I think I, I don't know, maybe I ruined his life for him. But it's something my mother, my mother was very determined woman. Like I lost faith in the church. I felt the church let us down. But when my mother was sick, she made me promise that I'll support the church because she was very religious. And I said, "Okay." So I might go to church two or three times a year. [Laughs] But I was very disappointed in the church. I thought that at least they'd stand up and speak up over the wrongdoings the government was doing against the, their own people, the church people. What do we learn in church? Brotherhood, brotherly love, do unto, unto others, and stuff like that. I, I finally realized that religion is nothing but a fairy tale. It's a business like anything else. That's a mean thing to say, but I really feel that because of the lack of fighting for the rights of the citizens that were willing to speak out -- I know the, like the resisters, when they spoke out, the religious groups in the camp wrote letters and stuff to, "Hey, you're doing wrong. Cooperate with the government." I don't think that's really the church's purpose. So I, I was really religious when I was young. Up to, into high school, teenage, I looked forward to going to Sunday school. I really believed in church and all this brotherhood stuff, but no. Disappointment just like the JACL. It was a big disappointment for me.

AI: Now, so then after you returned and the, here it is 1946 already, and then that August of '46 you turned twenty-two.

MK: Yeah.

AI: Your family's still struggling, trying to get back on its feet. And then your brother did return to the U.S. What happened next for you and your family?

MK: Our family, we decided to, we decided to farm. My mother says, "I, I'd rather farm than do housework." And so we said, "Okay, Mom. Maybe we'll raise strawberries," which was a popular thing to do at the time. So we went into strawberry farming. Then we made a few dollars. A friend of ours was growing flowers, and he came over one day and says, "Oh, why don't you try growing flowers?" My brother and I listened to him and says, "You know, for this much sum of money you could start a nursery. It's bare minimum, but you could start." And my brother thought awhile, and he says, "Oh, maybe that's a good idea." So we bought a piece of property with this friend, and we both started a flower business. And it wasn't a bad business. It was pretty good.

<End Segment 18> - Copyright © 2001 Densho. All Rights Reserved.