<Begin Segment 32>

TI: So eventually the ship gets back to...

JY: We were in a convoy, big convoy goes back.

TI: And back to New York City?

JY: New York City, uh-huh.

TI: And so when you get there, was there anyone waiting for you there?

JY: Well, the Red Cross, a big welcoming committee, of course.

TI: How about personal people?

JY: No, no.

TI: So where's Aki at this point?

JY: Well, the Red Cross has a bank of telephones right at the dock, and you tell them whatever, you're trying to find your family, but they're apparently very efficient, because an hour or two, they said, "We found your wife." And she happened to be in, outside of New York. I got the address and everything. Before we got discharged, we had to see a film, and we were going to this big auditorium, big flash of the Japanese battle, it just keeps flashing over and over. And it says, "Two down, one to go." So that was our welcome home.

TI: So I'm sorry, explain again. Big movie about the Japanese?

JY: No, no, no big, about the Japanese, just a battle ensign. We're in a big auditorium, and we're home, right? So the battle ensign's there, and under there there's a caption: "Two down and one to go."

TI: So I don't get "two down."

JY: Italians and the Germans.

TI: Okay. I was just thinking of the European, but they're both the Germans and the Italians.

JY: Yeah, and now the "Japs," right?

TI: But at that point, you guys didn't care, you were going to be all discharged.

JY: [Laughs] We didn't care. That's right, get us out of this auditorium.

TI: When you say discharged, I mean, discharged from the army?

JY: No, no, discharged to go to your families.

TI: Okay. And in that auditorium, were they all former prisoner of war, or just all people that were just...

JY: Well, I guess it was all prisoners that was in our ship.

TI: And so after the movie, then you see Aki?

JY: Yeah, well, everybody has duffel bags, their loot of war. And we had told the, Germans had told us America has ration problem, they're starving, too. So I had the keys to all the food on the ship, and the thing that disappears first is the alcohol. We had ethyl alcohol for medicinal purpose, and I had the keys. I was the only one that was supposed to have keys. Well, the GIs, they could get around that in nothing flat. So that ethyl alcohol disappears quickly. Now, I got to take something home to the family, right? So I stuffed my duffel bag with canned food, and was barely lugging it off the ship. [Laughs] So when I get to see Aki first, the duffel bag has all these old canned food.

TI: When you saw her, describe it. I mean, what was that like? Because this is, you were gone for about six months?

JY: Something like that, yeah.

TI: And when she got the phone call from the Red Cross... I should back up. When you were captured, all she knew was that you were missing in action.

JY: Right.

TI: But then there was something that was interesting. The Germans did something where they asked the U.S. soldiers to write letters back home, and you wrote a letter to Aki. And it was selected, and it was actually read over a German station, and she heard about that, so she knew that you were alive in a prisoner of war camp.

JY: Right.

TI: But up until then, you had no other contact. This was really the first time you had seen her.

JY: That's right.

TI: So, again, what was it like.

JY: Well, you could imagine. So I guess one of the first questions was you asked about the baby. She told me what happened.

TI: So let me... so before you left for Europe, Aki was pregnant.

JY: Yes.

TI: And at one point did you find out that she was pregnant? Was it before you left?

JY: Oh, yes.

TI: So you knew she was pregnant.

JY: Yeah. In fact, that little girl that's there, it's her granddaughter. And we had become friends with this army, this other army doctor in our outfit, and the two wives got along well. So we kept our friendship up after the war, kept in touch with each other.

TI: And so one of your first questions was, "How was the baby?" Because you were thinking, at that point, she should have been, what, about eight or nine months pregnant?

JY: No, no. You mean when...

TI: When you left... I mean, if you had left the, when you were reunited...

JY: Yes, she was fairly pregnant.

TI: She should have been.

JY: Yeah, both mothers were big. That was in November.

TI: Okay, and so you were thinking that she would have delivered by then. So what happened to the baby?

JY: Well, baby apparently had some malformations of the heart, and while we were at O'Reilly, she did have a febrile illness with a rash, which could be interpreted she had German measles. And German measles early in pregnancy causes structural defect of the heart, brain damage, too.

TI: Okay, so the baby didn't live.

JY: Yeah.

TI: So that must have been hard to hear.

JY: Yeah, that was.

TI: That was kind of bittersweet.

JY: So we felt that she took more than the brunt that I took, is the way I felt. She had no, one trauma after another.

TI: Yeah, it must have been really hard for her to think possibly that she lost her husband, and to lose a child. But yet, I'm sure she was so happy to see you.

JY: Yeah, so mixed emotions there.

TI: So at this point, what do you do to celebrate with your wife coming back from this situation?

JY: Well, the next morning we just went out for a stroll. And I think it's a town near Mamaroneck, and we just went out for a walk. I think there's a street called Boston Post Road, it's a well-traveled road, and we came by a restaurant, it must have been before noon. We just walked in there and got a big shore dinner. I haven't been in a restaurant where they served a shore dinner that well. They had a silver bucket so tall, full of clams or some sort of clam, had lobster, just lived it up for a meal.

<End Segment 32> - Copyright © 2005 Densho. All Rights Reserved.