<Begin Segment 15>

[Ed. note: This transcript has been edited by the narrator]

TI: But going back to, so your biological father had three daughters, you were his only son?

FT: Huh?

TI: So you were his only son, is that...

FT: Yeah, so I'm the oldest son. His oldest son, yeah.

TI: And did he ever talk to you, did you guys stay in touch after you met him?

FT: After I met him? Yeah, we were in touch with the family, (too).

TI: So talk about your connections with your biological father. What else?

FT: Well... but his wife made me renounce any inheritance (...). She took me to the city registrar to renounce any interest or whatever it is (from) the Okamoto (Estate). So when he died I didn't get (anything). But Masami, the youngest, (said) that one night, she dreamt that her father came to her (...) her bedside and told her to go to America (...) and meet Shinichiro and give him something. So one day, I get a call, (...) I was retired in Seattle. I get a call from Masami saying, "I'm here (...) (in) SeaTac." (...) I told her (...) how to get to my place. And she (came), and she (...) has one brown paper bag. That's all she had. No luggage, (but) (...) She had a million yen. And she (...) told me that her father had come to her in her dreams (to give me my inheritance). So she got (the) million yen and came (to give the money to me). (...) She was going to leave on the next plane back to (...) Tokyo. Well, I (asked), "How the heck did you get through the customs?" She (said), (...) they stopped (her) when (she) was departing (...) Narita, and but she told them that she had written the music for Empress Michiko's lullaby. (...) They passed her through. So I told her I didn't want the money, (told her to) take it home." (She said she would but wanted to) change some of that to dollars and buy some clothes (...). So I took her to (...) Fredrick & Nelson, and she bought some clothes. And I told her (to) stay for three days (and) called Northwest (to reschedule her flight). She stayed three days and I took her around J-town (showing her) where we lived (and) the bathhouse and all that kind of (places) and all that. She was very excited, and (we went) to Bush Garden for a dinner. (...) She was very famous, she wrote the music for Michiko's lullaby (...). She was married to (...) Yamamoto Naozumi, who had an one-hour Here Comes the Orchestra program on NHK. And he had written music for a lot of movies (...). And they had two sons. Junnosuke and Yunnosuke. And Junnosuke is now following his father's footsteps and is (with) a symphony orchestra, I think he directed the Tokyo Symphony for awhile, and he's a musical teacher at one of the universities. And Yunnosuke is (...) famous (...), and he tours the country (giving) cello concerts.

TI: So I'm curious, that musical side, did you pick up any of that, the music side? Was that something that you grew up appreciating also?

FT: No, I had no idea.

TI: Okay. Well, that was a great story about your biological father.

<End Segment 15> - Copyright © 2008 Densho. All Rights Reserved.