<Begin Segment 7>

AI: Well, and now, you had mentioned that your grandfather did quite well in farming and that he was able to retire early.

RM: Uh-huh.

AI: So, and in fact I think you showed us a picture earlier that your grandfather and your parents, of course, that you had a car, and a truck, which at the time was unusual. Not many families could --

RM: Well, maybe unusual because a lot of people just came from Japan. They didn't have money and probably they would like to have, but just financially impossible. But fortunately, my father, later on find out, but he didn't come to my father's -- grandfather's place right away. He went to town and became a schoolboy and learned English, see. And also, I, later on I found out he was self-made because he studied in the correspondence course, then that's why he learned everything, so he was very proficient in speaking in English, Japanese. Then he must've been pretty good because he was chairman of the kenjinkai, the board, like board of governors. And he was the kanji, kanji they called, that is, he was chairman of the board.

AI: Your father?

RM: Hiroshima Kenjinkai. And Hiroshima Kenjinkai big, and picnic. And he always... he didn't play because he was small like me and, but baseball, he was umpire all the time.

AI: Oh, so, so when you were a young child then, did you go to many of these kenjinkai picnics and get-togethers?

RM: No, they don't have... well, summertime they have kenjinkai picnic. And also we got a lotta people appreciative to what my grandfather did, and so my father benefited that, too, invite us in certain occasion, you know, Bon Odori or something like that, it's a festival. And I was pretty well-treated, not only when a child but after came back from Japan they treated nice.

AI: Well --

RM: But unfortunately, at the time, the Depression started, see. So they had a hard time.

AI: Well, I wanted to, I wanted to ask, then, about one of the big changes in your life happened when your grandfather decided to retire and move back to Japan.

RM: Uh-huh.

AI: And you were still a young child then, maybe in first grade or second grade when he moved back to Japan?

RM: Well, I was younger than that, probably I was five years old, I suppose. But I always remember good things. He was always nice to me and so I missed him, he go to Japan to retire. But early he retired because he made -- well, reason is his wife, is, you know, my grandmother in Japan and so he want to go back there. So he went there, then I missed him.

<End Segment 7> - Copyright © 2003 Densho. All Rights Reserved.