<Begin Segment 18>

TI: Yeah, but, yeah, Roy, I'm curious, when your parents came back to Japan and lived in the city, why didn't you and Takeshi go live with your parents?

RM: Well, later on after finish the elementary school there, then when I went there was, when I get into high school there, high school in Hiroshima. So then I moved to, but still have a, my mother, I mean, grandfather was living there. But that's comin' to later on but I like to visit village because I had a girlfriend there.

AI: Oh, tell us about, tell us about her.

RM: Yeah, that's why end up in... but I mention, I didn't go into detail, but what happened was... this is beside the point, but my grandmother didn't like the close marriage. And so happened that she was my second cousin, see. And same thing happened, my grand -- uncle. Well, there came in -- this, this not my story but, well, part of my story because my grandmother's involved. But my uncle came from... he was born in Hawaii but grown up in Japan, then came to United States, grandfather's place. And then had a cousin in Lodi, in California, near Stockton, and has a cousin, his mother's side, that is grandmother's side, see, that's his uncle's mother's side, and he fell in love and tried to marry, then my grandmother never came to United States but objected to it, see. So he didn't marry. So he was a bachelor until '65, until retire and get social security, then married and so forth. But that's somebody else's story, but anyway, same thing there. My grandmother objected. Somebody mentioned that I have a girlfriend there. But I didn't tell other people because I don't want somebody butts in there. Unfortunately, my mother, my grandmother found out, then harder, you know, highly objected to it.

AI: So you were, you, at that time you really liked this girl a lot, and, and were you --

RM: She likes me, but more than I liked her, see, but turned out that she was so nice. And, but she was goin' in girl's high school there and that's why she didn't like that. Then, she was, according to her, that my girl was a tomboy. And what it did was when she goes visit, always bring back some souvenir and she also... well, she was born in United States, too, but went to Japan when was small, so she grew up from almost a baby, so she was a Japanese by the custom and everything else, but she's American citizen. So I should have married there with no objection, but then, then I would be happy. But the thing is, I... later on that handicapped marrying a foreigner, me.

AI: Excuse me. So you were just saying that if your grandmother had not objected, you probably --

RM: I would have eventually, yes, I think so.

AI: And then do you think you would have stayed in Japan?

RM: Well, don't know, at that way the time come, but still too young to get married anyway.

AI: So, then, now tell us what happened after your grandmother objected and you saw there was no hope, that you would not be able to marry --

RM: That's one of the reason I decided to...

AI: You decided to...

RM: Decided to go back there because I hate to visit with my mother, my grandmother and I don't want to see her anymore. But I cannot kick her out. She's the one -- but I'm, I'm in the city goin' school and I looking forward to summer vacation and go fishing or visit with her and she will be, you know, summer vacation, too, but didn't go in too deep. But this a puppy love, I think is... you know, when I was small, go by my house and she stuck in some books or something like that, or reference books to study, you know. And I think she's, I don't know, her family might be wealthier than my family, I don't know. But my grandmother didn't buy me anything. And sometimes I have to buy... in the United States, when I went to school, they supply the material, you know, and the books and things like that. But in Japan you have to buy this textbooks.

AI: So, so you were --

RM: So go there and there is a reference to the textbook. The teacher uses that. So she got a hold of that and buy extra, pay, and give it to me. That's why I could study what they gonna teach and, and also Japanese meaning there. There's a kanji, that's a Chinese character, and what does it mean, other things, the explanation and very, reference book was very handy, the one the schoolteacher uses, see. That's why study, I don't have to study. I mean, of course, I read it but I was pretty sharp at the time, I remember, so, how to write. Now I could read the newspaper but I couldn't write, even the Japanese, forget how to write. Of course, I have to concentrate and figure out but that's too much so I, what I do, instead of Japanese I write in English, everything, that's why note and everything. Sometimes I write in Chin-, Japanese, but I gotta think of how to write that. But when reading, I subscribe three Japanese paper on account of my wife, she reads Japanese paper, so I read the English and Japanese but, see, like Seattle paper there, we have, I have a Nichibei Times, the Hokubei and Hokubei is here...

<End Segment 18> - Copyright © 2003 Densho. All Rights Reserved.