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TI: And so eventually, you decided to go back to the United States.

KK: Yeah.

TI: So what made you decide to go back to the United States?

KK: Well, the summertime, we always traveled. And so then one summer, one girl, (Shizu Yamaguchi), she was not a classmate, but she had been in Japan for a year ahead of me. But she said, "Well, let's go to Korea and Manchuria," because it was declared then, by then, Japan possession, and it'd be good, they were trying to promote traveling to make everybody feel that it was peaceful over there. So the two of us got tickets and we went up there to Harbin, and then came back again. But on the way back, I had a friend that had graduated from UCLA, and she had come back and married a fellow that used to work for the, something Manchurian Railway. And he, he made use of his having been in the United States, he was a Japanese citizen, and he landed a very good job in Harbin -- not Harbin, in Mukden, which is a stop on the Manchurian Railroad, about halfway into that. So she was there, so on the way back, we stopped in to see her. And at that time, the army was very suspicious of everybody that looked a little different. Well, we looked different 'cause we had strange suitcases and all. So got on the train at one point, and then we went through the rest of the train and got our seats. Well, I guess that was a suspicious move because that army guy followed us then into Tokyo.

TI: Oh, so they had, like, essentially a member of the Japanese army tail you as you went on this trip.

KK: I think so. He didn't make himself too obnoxious or anything, but I, every time I looked around, he was back there in the crowd someplace. So I figured, well, he's tailing us, you know. Got back to Tokyo and went back to my house, and then one day I saw him lurking around. I thought, "Well, I don't like that."

TI: And so it was that, kind of that presence that, being tailed, that helped you decide to go back to the United States.

KK: Uh-huh, yeah.

TI: Because you were feeling sort of unwelcomed? Or what were you thinking when you saw this, essentially, soldier, tailing you?

KK: Well, I had felt that it was, it was kind of uncomfortable for me. Because before that, I had hailed a taxi to go someplace, and the driver was a very forward guy, he wanted to talk. And so I had a, in those days, it was fashionable to have a fur collar on your coat. And just because I was wearing a fur collar, he insisted I was a Manchurian spy. So he kept questioning me and questioning me, and I told him, "I don't know anything about Manchuria."

TI: But this is the taxi driver?

KK: That's the taxi driver. And he kept, kept on that tact until I got off the taxi. So I didn't like, the flavor was very poor, I just didn't like the idea. So then when the army guy started following me to, after that, I just, it just turned my stomach. I couldn't feel comfortable. The rest of the population never seemed to feel any, too much different. I didn't know then who was watching me.

TI: And this was about, what 1937, '38?

KK: That was '38, the latter part of '38. So then during the spring of '39, I was walking down the street and I saw another army guy trailing me. So that was, just turned my stomach. I thought, "Well, I don't want to stay here." So I decided to come back.

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