<Begin Segment 10>

MA: And you also were able to go off to Korea, is that right? During your time in Japan?

IN: Yes, and then of course we went back to his village. And my father had gone back primarily because the father was getting very senile and they wanted to settle the estate. They had gotten to be one of the wealthiest farmers in that village, Ishikaki. Because my father would send back money every year, and the exchange ratio was so great that they became very, very wealthy and landowners. Brought up, contrary to America, the rice plots were not in one place, like on a ranch. You bought property where it became available. So they owned many, many plots of rice, located in different parts of the village. And the grandmother at that time was the matriarch of the family, and I guess, was the spokesperson for the settling of the estate. My grandfather was very, very senile. And I guess they had given my father -- my father, by the way, was the second oldest brother, so of course naturally, the oldest brother would get the prime property. But my father was not given, as a second son, the prime property. He was given a lesser. And he was very, very angry about that. And my grandmother and my father never really, I guess, agreed on the plot that he got. And he left Japan in a very angry tone, which was really unfortunate. But because my father's thought was to, because he was not wealthy, but you know, he had enough money, that he was going to return that property to one of the members of the family, but she didn't give him that opportunity. So he left very angry at my, at his mother, which was really unfortunate. And we returned, I think, a little earlier than what we had planned.

MA: So when did your trip to Korea happen?

IN: Yeah, it was during that time. Our stay, we, my mother's sister was an ikebana teacher. And so, I guess the government had asked her to go to Korea. And so they were living in Korea, and I went with them, met my aunt and uncle and their children.

MA: What was Korea like that you remember?

IN: Very backward. Very backward. Poor, they cultivated their property in a very, I guess you'd say, old-fashioned way. But very poor.

MA: And then you were telling me that you actually had cousins who were going off to fight in the Manchurian conflict.

IN: Right, because it had started. And what it would be was you'd go to the train depot with the recruit, the military recruit. And they would get on the plane and everybody would have a Japanese flag. And we would wave it as the train pulled out, with "Banzai, banzai."

MA: How were you treated as a Japanese American in Japan? Were you treated like a Japanese person?

IN: At that point? Oh, just normal. It was nothing different that I could remember. I was a child. So, I remember distinctly that the schoolchildren, the boys were definitely, definitely the preferred ones, you know, they were very aggressive. And the girls were more of the little, they would stay in the background. But the boys were very aggressive, even at the early age, dominant.

MA: And so how long total were you in Japan?

IN: I'd say four or five months.

MA: So that's quite a long, long time.

IN: It was.

<End Segment 10> - Copyright © 2008 Densho. All Rights Reserved.