<Begin Segment 8>

AI: Well, so, so it was about maybe, since you were born in 1923, it was perhaps about 1926 that you came back to the United -- or you came to the United States --

MY: That's right, yeah.

AI: -- for the first time? And --

MY: Then Mike came around 1927, I think.

AI: Maybe '27 or '28.

MY: Yeah, yeah.

TY: It was kind of strange -- before you stop talking about her, is [inaudible]. She came to the States when I was four then. And, and oddly --

MY: About four and a half.

TY: -- I don't remember that first meeting or, and I just don't remember any of that.

MY: Are you talking about -- yeah.

TY: Do you remember me -- seeing me or anything?

MY: No.

TY: No?

MY: And --

TY: Well, I don't, I just don't understand -- I don't even remember going to the boat to pick you up or, you'd think that would've been a big event in our in our lives, but I guess it wasn't. [Laughs]

MY: Well, yeah -- I know. It's just, big deal. It's just your, the thing, and the thing that I started to say was that the, the thing -- that after, a few months after I was here, I was sick. I landed in the hospital with pleurisy and pneumonia.

TY: Was that when you got pleurisy?

MY: Yeah. And then I had that surgery for that.

TY: I thought you got pleurisy when you were a lot older.

MY: No. I was only about --

TY: When you were in, when you were in grammar school.

MY: -- about four.

MY: No. I was --

TY: Oh, my goodness.

MY: And, because I remember that very vividly.

TY: So you were, you were --

MY: I remember being in the hospital.

TY: -- you mean, you were three or, you were three or four years old?

MY: I, I remember being in a crib, you know, with the bars.

TY: You were still three then, or four?

MY: Yes. I was, well, I, I was three when I came.

TY: Yeah, well, how soon after --

MY: And I kind of figured that I was well by the time Mike came. So it was in between that period when I was, when I was really rather critically ill.

TY: Well, I remember you getting pleurisy, but I thought what, oh, I would swear that it was when you were --

MY: That was Mom.

TY: -- you were, say, in your very early teens.

MY: No.

TY: Oh, okay.

MY: So I had this surgery. I think I had an infect-, an infection in my --

TY: Yeah, well, you had pleurisy, that I know.

MY: Yeah, but then pleurisy is when water collects in your --

TY: Yeah, right.

MY: -- in your -- but then I, I had an infection. It was not water. It was, it was pus.

TY: Was it? Oh.

MY: Yeah. So they had to open me up.

TY: Oh, is that the --

MY: So I, so I had this huge scar --

TY: You have a scar on the back.

MY: -- all the way --

TY: I -- yeah. I remember.

MY: And as a small child, my mother said it just covered the whole back, whole of my back. And so I've had that my whole life.

TY: Yeah.

MY: They had to remove two ribs, which that was -- and they didn't have any antibiotics during that time. And --

TY: Well, I do remember, I do remember you getting sick, but it --

MY: Yeah.

TY: -- I, I thought it was just --

MY: And I, I always thought that the reason why the, I didn't remember anything about arriving and all of those early memories were because it totally eclipsed by the experience of being in the hospital and seeing the nurse -- you know, these, there was a big woman, white woman. I mean, it was just, I had never seen a white person in my life. And then there was this big -- and I remember her shoes. She had these huge -- [laughs] -- isn't that funny as a child? You know, well, you're down here, and you, you're looking -- and I remember she had these big, brown shoes that looked like gunboats, they were so huge. And, and the image, that kind of image that you store in your head, but I, I thought that -- when I was thinking about my foster parents and wondering why I didn't remember anything about my experience in Japan, I, you know, I thought, well, maybe it was because I remember so vividly about being in the hospital and, and this white woman --

TY: That's a good rationale. [Laughs]

MY: -- who was a nurse. You know? And it just kind of wiped out everything at that point. So I -- anyway...

<End Segment 8> - Copyright © 2002 Densho. All Rights Reserved.