<Begin Segment 8>

MA: So your parents, you were telling me, took you on a trip to Japan? And can you talk a little bit about that trip and who you were visiting in Japan, and why they, why you actually went?

IN: That was in 1937. Very interesting year, 'cause that was the year the Manchurian War broke out. We went for about four or five months. My eldest brother had just graduated the university and was able to take over the ranch for that period of time. So my father and mother went, and then of course, I was the baby of the family, so they decided, I was nine, going on ten, that they had to take me. So I had the privilege, out of the seven children, to be the one to go to Japan. We took a liner called the Chichibu Maru and of course, we were on the lowest deck possible, where all of the motor was running, the pipes were on the ceiling. But it was a very exciting trip. Took a long time. We stopped -- [coughs] excuse me -- we stopped in Hawaii. I had an uncle there, living there. In those days, the kanakas, who were the Hawaiian, the native Hawaiians, would come to the boat in the water and ask us to throw money. So we would throw the money in, and as the money swirled through the water, they would dive and pick it up and then come back up and show us that they got the money.

MA: Did you get a chance to see Honolulu at that point? Did you disembark and see your uncle?

IN: We didn't tour, we stopped to see my uncle.

MA: And then you saw an interesting person on the ship, you were telling me.

IN: Oh, yeah. I, one day, with another friend, I was, I went up to the deck and this friend of mine was a little older than I was. And she pointed out a lady that was at the edge of the upper deck. And she says, "Irene, that is a very famous lady." And she said that was Helen Keller, with her, what was the name of her...

MA: Her mentor, Anne Sullivan?

IN: Anne Sullivan. And so, we waved to her, she waved back. At that time, I didn't know about Helen Keller, to be perfectly frank.

MA: That's interesting. And so she must have been headed to Japan.

IN: Must have been.

<End Segment 8> - Copyright © 2008 Densho. All Rights Reserved.