<Begin Segment 3>

AI: Well, in fact, I think in our earlier conversation, you mentioned that something that you don't remember yourself is that you were taken to Japan as a very young child.

MN: We were, went for a visit, and they took the whole family, and I think Anne was still in my mother's arms when we went for the first time, but then that was a short visit. And then, I don't know what year it was, but my mother got... was it typhoid fever? And she was very sick, and when she recovered, they decided to go back to Japan, and that was for good. Well, fortunately, we came back, but we were there about ten months, and I went to school for a while there.

AI: Was that the first school you can remember going to?

MN: Yes.

AI: And you would have been, then, maybe about five years old?

MN: Uh-huh.

AI: So that might have been about 1927 or so.

MN: Well, if your math is right. [Laughs]

AI: And tell me, do you remember much about that school in Japan?

MN: No, I don't remember much about the school. Probably we were a misfit because we didn't know how to speak Japanese that well, and I could remember we were so spoiled, we said we didn't want cold rice for lunch, and so we had a maid, and she would come every day with a hot lunch for us. But that's about all I can remember.

AI: Tell me about where you were living then.

MN: We were living with the relatives first, but then soon after, we had a home and were living in a house. The only thing I remember was when the man came to empty the toilets, they emptied it and carried it on their backs and went out.

AI: Tell a little bit about that kind of toilet.

MN: Oh. I guess it's just this, I can't recall too well, but I've seen pictures of it, just a hole in the ground, and you just sat and did your thing.

AI: And then the man would come and cart that away.

MN: Uh-huh.

<End Segment 3> - Copyright © 2004 Densho. All Rights Reserved.