<Begin Segment 44>

TI: So what kind of things did your, your father and mother and Tosh and you do, to survive? I mean, to help...

TA: All right. What happened is that for the repatriation program, the government allotted land. There's sort of a, like a consignment that you, you cleared the land and work on it, and within thirty years the land would be yours. So we had a little plot of land, trees growing, rocks and boulders and whatnot. So we spent most of our time -- my father says, "We have to clear this land before, before the planting season." So we all frantically, with what we called kaitaku, reclaiming land, and worked hard, and also, to pay my uncle for letting us stay there, Tosh and I had to help my uncle, we carried the rice buckets, swinging that stuff and taking it over there, scooping it all over, this is the, the night fertilizers.

CO: Yeah. Human waste, yeah.

TA: Stink, and it spills on you. We didn't know how to do it. You have to get it in a certain swing, you know, so that it, it doesn't spill and you still could walk. And hell, the first time we grabbed it, went like that, and the damn thing spilled all over. It was awful. But anyhow, we went through that, and then we had to stomp on his wheat fields to... because if you stomp on it, it grows better, it gives you better growth. And then we had to go collect wood up out in the hills, carry that. We did that in addition to kaitaku, so we were pretty busy.

CO: Gee, you managed --

TA: Had very little contact with people.

CO: Yeah, managed to eat, though. That's amazing.

TA: We managed to eat, and later on, things got easier because my uncle was able to send some care package.

CO: Oh, from the U.S.?

TA: From the U.S., but it was a long time in coming. But it did eventually arrive, and that saved us a little bit. But, and then, what happened is that my father said that probably he could -- and relatives don't help. Relatives do not help when you're in dear need. I mean, they won't give you nothing. Because --

CO: And that's so contrary to the way you were raised.

TA: Yeah, they, they wouldn't give us anything. You think that -- but, of course, it's after the war, defeated, they're starving themselves, so I guess they, they want to protect their, whatever little bit they had. But my father says, "Let's go visit this, the admiral." I think I read the book that -- I wrote in the book that I later met him. Well, we did. We went way up towards Kurume, went out there on a jinriksha, which is one of these hand things, and we went there and, and my father told him our situation, and asked him if can spare a bag of rice. And they're a wealthy family, and they, well, they gave us a bag of rice. And boy, my mother stretched that rice to no end. Rice, she'd put a little bit of rice... you know okayu, the rice gruel?

CO: Yes, I know okayu.

TA: And you know, it's a luxury if you get rice gruel with potato, sweet potato, but we didn't have sweet potato, so she chopped up... we went and salvaged the, the tops of, of the vegetables. Well, really went out and did a little bit of night requisition. We cut these things, then my mother chopped it up, and we put in there, and it was filling. It was probably better nutrition than the stuff that we ate, we're eating today. But...

CO: Yeah, greens. [Laughs]

TA: Yeah, but she really, it's a wonder how she was able to feed us. But it got to, it got to the point where we were, Tosh and I, working and everything else, we, and we were eating. And he says, "Look, sorry buddies, it's time for you guys to go." Says, says, "You need to help the family, why don't you look for a job?"

TI: I'm sorry, this was your father's talking, or your uncle?

TA: My father's talking.

TI: Okay, your father's saying, "It's time for you to..."

CO: Yeah, I, I was interested in how your father was feeling. I mean, if you know, having brought, gone to Japan, he must have felt bad. I mean, I don't know, but...

TA: Well, he, his, his concentration was getting that land cultivated so he could plant, and once he plant, he figured that we'll have enough vegetable and things like that. But he, he dedicated all of his effort into planting, so every day he was out there. And we says, "Well, we have to help you cultivate." I mean, not cultivate, "to clear the land." And he says, "No, Mits will help." He said, "Mits, Mom and I will do it, and you just go out there and see if you can find a job." So Tosh and I went, and Tosh got a job --

TI: Oh, keep going, we'll finish this and then we'll...

TA: Tosh got a job with the, with the Air Force. I mean, not with the Air Force, but with the company that was refurbishing, repolishing swords to present to the army officers for souvenirs, and he worked there, and I got a job with a company called Nodomi-gumi, it's a Japanese construction company that had a contract with the Air Force to construct a, build a road up to a radar site on top of Mount Seburi, it's the highest point in that area. And so, and there, and since the Japanese could handle demolition, they had a demolition squad assigned on top of, as we moved, to do all the demolition, and they wanted an interpreter to work with them, and go-between the, the Japanese contractor and the Air Force and the demolition crew, so I got a job there. So...

<End Segment 44> - Copyright © 2004 Densho. All Rights Reserved.