<Begin Segment 19>

TI: Now, with so many Niseis coming to Tokyo, did anyone bring any news about your mother?

MO: Yeah, that... well, my brother knew where she was, because he went to visit her in Crystal City. And then there were a couple of students, her students that were interpreters, too, and they would come and say, "I just saw your mother, and she said don't worry about her."

TI: Okay, good. In fact, there was, in particular I read about, there was one woman, Jean Ito?

MO: Jean, yes.

TI: So tell me about her and how you met her.

MO: Okay, she was in the same camp as my mother, her family. And then so she came to visit me with somebody. But she was working in Tokyo after the war, and then I met her through... there's a group of foreign nationals. We were all foreign nationals after the war, American citizens, but... born in America but not considered Americans. So we could go and have meals at the General Headquarters, all those who worked for the, for the General Headquarters. So that's where I met Jean. And then Jean, as we were talking, she said, "Oh, I know your mother. We were in the same camp, Crystal City, Texas." So that's how we became very close. And then she used to come and stay with me. I think an exchange ship, Jean's family decided to come back, come to Tokyo, come back to Japan instead of going back to... I don't know. Very confusing around there.

TI: Well, going back to Jean and her talking about your mother, do you recall anything she said about your mother and what she did in camp, or anything like that?

MO: She said, "Oh, Tanaka-sensei was so good. She always taught us about Japanese school." They had, in their camp, they used to have classes so that they won't forget their Japanese. They had Japanese school, and she was, she had, especially, she would teach the young girls how to sew, how to arrange flowers, a lot of things that ordinarily they don't get. So they all remembered my mother. And so when Jean came over after the war, I was so happy to see her with all the information. In fact, before, she came to Japan because she was on the Gripsholm exchange ship.

TI: Right, okay. And so it was just comforting to hear about your mother and that she was doing well, and actually helping lots of people, it sounds like.

MO: That's right, yes.

TI: That's good.

<End Segment 19> - Copyright ©2009 Densho. All Rights Reserved.