<Begin Segment 18>

AI: Well, I'm wondering, it sounds like you received such a warm welcome there in, in Madison, and that the business opportunities were wonderful, and family life as well.

MH: Uh-huh.

AI: But I'm wondering, did you and Iwao ever consider moving back to Seattle or back to the West Coast?

MH: We never considered. My family did. I mean, Iwao's father and mother wanted to go back to Seattle so they could be around... and they lived in the house that we owned. They lived in that house, so that was very convenient for them, because he could walk to most of the points of interest that he was in the Japanese community (...). My husband's brother went back because they had a, a drugstore and owned the property there. And they did not resume their drugstore (...). He and she both were pharmacists, so they worked with a, a good pharmaceutical center, (...) took care of their property. And then Min, my first brother, went back. And then he, he was an accountant with Klopfenstein, the clothing store, and he became like a district manager, having quite an area of Klopfenstein stores. And then my second brother was a ichthyologist. He was with the Smithsonian (in Washington, D.C.). He served at the, as an army medical, non-combat medical, for which he has a Silver Star and Purple Heart and citation and all that. And he ended up as an ichthyologist at the Smithsonian in the fishery department and until, up 'til his retirement many years after. And then my third brother was an architect. The one (who) was trained in Chicago. And he has resumed his architectural practice in Madison for all these years until he retired. Since his retirement he's a chief architect for the Habitats for Humanity, working with that group, and he's very active in that. And my youngest brother, after serving with the 442 boys, landed in Dallas, Texas, and he was connected with the E System until his death. So, and then (...) sister, Mari, taught at various schools. Her husband is the one that was a mechanical engineer, is connected with land reclamation and, and they ended up in the Ephrata Valley in Washington (...), worked with land reclamation, irrigation control until his retirement. And then Mari herself taught at every country... they lived in about six or seven different countries before they settled in Madison. They started off in Jordan and he was there for about four and a half years putting in the controlled irrigation down the Jordan valley, and that's what they're fighting over today. And he was... and every country that they were, Mari taught, not in the American school, but in the native (schools). So she taught in the Arab school there and made wonderful... and then the next country they were in was in Conakry, Guinea, West Africa. And they did the same thing. While Bill was working in his (field), Mary was teaching in one of those. And from Conakry, Guinea, they went to Tunis, Tunisia. And the same thing there. And then from Tunis to Laos. And from Laos to Rio de Janeiro. And then from Brasilia, then Santa Domingo and then came home.

AI: Oh, my.

MH: So... and everywhere while Bill was doing his work, Mari was teaching in the respective fields. So they've had a wonderful (experiences). Mari has written a book called the Floating Candle, which is nothing but her Christmas letter every year from all these different countries informing us their life and the, and so... and then her second book, I think the title is (...) Give Man a Fish. And it fills in each chapter the life and the things that they did and what they observed and what they enjoyed and the characteristic of each country, so... but unfortunately she had a slight stroke, and I think she has two more chapters to go, so it's not finished, and Bill is struggling over what to do.

<End Segment 18> - Copyright © 2004 Densho. All Rights Reserved.