<Begin Segment 48>

TI: So, actually, we're a little out of sequence, but let's back up a little bit. So she went back to the United States, and I should back up, because prior to her going back to the United States, your mother returned to the United States.

TA: Yeah. The sequence is, my, my brother got drafted in Japan, and then he came --

CO: Mits.

TA: And then he came to the United States for basic training, and then for the army, army service. He's the second one that came back. Then my mother came back, and my mother came back with the understanding that she was gonna work, earn the passage for each one of the child. So each one of the child came back. I think Satsuki came back first, then Junko came, and then Tomo came last.

CO: And this was with your father's approval? I mean, he...

TA: Yes, he understood that. Understood -- I think he, he understood that our place was in the United States.

TI: Now, from your mother's perspective, though, she was always the, the advocate, the proponent of keeping the family together.

TA: True, true.

TI: And so here, this is about 1953, she decides to go to the United States to earn money to help bring the --

TA: The children back, yes.

TI: -- your sisters back. What changed in her mind to think that she would essentially leave the family?

TA: Because there's a promise, there was a promise by my father that he will return when all of the children are back. So he, she eventually felt that he was gonna be back. And it's, it's that sacrifice that, that a mother makes. "I'm making this sacrifice to bring my children back to the United States where they belong, and then my husband will join me when, when this is all over." So her objective was to bring the family back together.

CO: Still, though, I mean, when you mention, when you say things like, "where they belong," "the United States is where they belong," what, what came, what brought them to that conclusion that the children belonged in the United States?

TA: He always did.

CO: He always did?

TA: Sure. He always said that, in fact, when just before the, before he volunteered to go back to Japan, he says, "You, you people are -- you, mother and children are U.S. citizens. You stay here." He says, "I will go through all my applications, and you can then go and join the grandmother, and you can stay here." He says, "I'll go back to Japan, and after the war, I'll come back." So there was always that intention for him to come back. It was always his intention to have his children live in the United States. So I don't think it was anything different from what he was...

TI: So it would have all come together if he did return, or if he did come back to the United States, but he chose to stay with his students...

TA: He chose to stay with his students, and then, of course, he got ill, he had a stroke, and then he was not able to come to the United States. So that was a sad thing that, that he never got to come back, however, we abided by his wishes, and all the children got together and says, "Well, we'll get his ashes back to the United States." So his ashes are back, my mother, who passed away, of course, her ashes are -- so they finally joined together in the same, in the same grave.

TI: After your mother returned to the United States, were there any regrets that your father never joined her in the United States? Did she ever talk about that?

TA: That aspect she never did say. That, she never said anything. She was pretty silent about that. But deep in her heart, I think that she... I don't know, maybe felt, not betrayed, but felt that, gee, too bad that he didn't come back.

<End Segment 48> - Copyright © 2004 Densho. All Rights Reserved.