<Begin Segment 57>

AI: Do you recall getting rid of anything because it was Japanese?

MY: Oh, yeah. I think that we burned a lot of things in the fireplace.

TY: Yeah, yeah. Sure did.

AI: Did you have some --

MY: But then, see, most of the Japanese stuff, the FBI took them. And whatever, they were gone. Like my dad's desk was just totally empty. So all the letters and things like that. And so, but my mother had some scrolls and things like that, that she felt we needed to get rid of, and we burned it in the fireplace. But, but there weren't that many Japanese stuff in the house. Most of the things that Dad wrote were in his desk.

TY: Were gone.

MY: They were gone, yeah. And --

JY: What happened to all the swords and stuff? What was done with them during the war?

MY: That was, those were stored. And Mom got those back.

JY: Stored where?

MY: In somebody's house, probably.

TY: All the what?

MY: Sword.

JY: You know, the samurai swords and all that.

MY: I think you have one, but you know that, the sword -- so some of them were quite antique. But then Mom sold it to some Issei guy after the war.

JY: No, but I'm wondering -- yeah, but I'm wondering what happened to them during the war.

TY: I don't think I, I don't --

MY: It was stored in somebody's house.

JY: Somebody's house?

MY: Mr. Bonham's house, or --

TY: I don't think we had -- not the sword Dad got after he got to Chicago. As some of the, he got them, I think...

MY: He bought them later?

TY: Or he got 'em as a gift, or whatever.

JY: Oh yeah?

TY: Yeah.

JY: Huh.

MY: I don't think so.

TY: No?

MY: I don't remember Dad buying anything while he was in Chicago.

TY: Then where did we have, where did we store the swords, then?

MY: Those, I think those were one of the things that were stored in --

TY: The one, that sword that I have right now?

MY: Uh-huh.

TY: I don't remember having that before the war. I think that was given to Dad after, in Chicago, as a gift.

JY: I have no, I don't remember him getting, I just don't know. Because I wasn't there that much in Chicago.

TY: Yeah, but I --

MY: I thought Mom, Mom remembers --

TY: Because I don't remember seeing that.

MY: Mom remembers kind of specifically who gave this to us, and who gave -- they were, you're right, they were gifts. But I don't think it was during the days in Chicago.

TY: Nothing, in Chicago?

MY: No, I don't think so.

TY: Oh, that's --

MY: I think most of them were from Japan.

TY: Yeah, but one with that beautiful stand that I have is, I can't remember seeing that before the war.

MY: Well, you probably didn't notice it.

TY: Probably, well, that could be.

MY: Because she remembers specifically, this was from so-and-so, Mr....

TY: Yeah but, sword like that would have been, I think sword like that would have been on disp-, she would have had it out, or Dad would have had it out.

MY: But they had so many of them.

TY: Yeah, but that's, that had a nice stand. That's the only one that had a beautiful stand.

MY: Oh, that's true.

TY: And I would imagine, it would be, in places like the photo that we have of the house in Massachusetts Street, Beacon Hill house, on the piano we had bunch of stuff. Ningyo --

MY: Did you see it in the photographs?

TY: Huh? We had Hakata ningyo and that horse, wooden horse?

MY: It's on the piano.

TY: Yeah, it was on the piano. And I thought that maybe you put things like that beautiful sword --

JY: Yeah, getting back to Jeni's question, we lived in that house for what? Ten years?

TY: Ten years, yeah.

JY: And you accumulate stuff in ten years. I just wonder what happened -- did you have a garage sale?

MY: [Laughs] No. Garage sale.

TY: They didn't have garage sales in those days, I don't think, really.

MY: Well, a lot of --

JY: They had evacuation sales.

MY: Evacuation sales, a lot of people did, yeah.

TY: Oh, that's right.

MY: I don't remember selling anything.

TY: No, I don't think --

MY: I think if anything, I either threw them out, or they were just stored.

TY: Well, we had friends store it.

MY: Uh-huh. And all the other excess things were just tossed.

<End Segment 57> - Copyright © 2002 Densho. All Rights Reserved.