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TI: So earlier we talked about how to regain your U.S. citizenship, you had to return to the U.S. by a certain date. So let's pick up the story there. So I believe this was about 1947 that you had to return. So you come back to Hawaii, so describe that. What's the name of the ship, and what was it like coming back?

MO: General Gordon was the ship, I think.

TI: Okay, the General Gordon. And what was the ride back from Japan to Hawaii like? What was the General Gordon like?

MO: That's a troop ship, so we had to, people like us, Niseis, we decided we wanted to come back to Hawaii to regain our citizenship. So there were about fifteen or sixteen. What was it...

TI: And how was the trip on the General Gordon coming back?

MO: Oh, we were just gagging because we're not used to riding a long, it was about seven or eight days. And it's not like flying in an airplane, we were really sick. Half of us were really sick. But when we saw Pearl Harbor, everybody got excited. "There's the island, yay, we're home, we're home."

TI: And describe the reception. Who was waiting for you when you reached Hawaii?

MO: Well, a few people, my old friends. Because they knew that the troop ship was coming back, so there were about half a dozen of my old friends from the church. They were there, and they greeted me and took me back to Wahiawa. And then my mother was so happy to see me.

TI: So describe that first meeting of your mother. Where were you, where was she, what was that like?

MO: I can't remember. Just excitement that we were home safely. And she kept saying, "Yokatta, yokatta."

TI: Was this the same home that you left?

MO: Yes, uh-huh.

TI: Okay, so she lived in the same place.

MO: No, I think it was a second home, because the first home, they had taken it away from her. She was a language teacher, so they confiscated her first home. She lost a lot of things that she had. But some people were so kind that they said, they took the things and threw it up on the ceiling so that nobody would take it away from her.

TI: Oh, so by throwing it up on the ceiling, that actually saved these items.

MO: Yes, that's right. Some friends, her students were very good about that.

TI: And what was your mother doing in Hawaii? I mean, what kind of work was she doing when she returned?

MO: When she came back from the war? Well, she was beginning to teach her ikebana or sewing or whatever. And then, in fact, some of the students said, "Oh, I used to go and have..." in fact, one lady that keeps calling me, she said -- I just met her recently -- she said, "Oh, you know what your mother used to do? She used to teach us Japanese. We have to get up at six-thirty in the morning so that she could teach us Japanese." These are young men, and they really appreciated that. In fact, one of the girls, Julia, just recently she's communicated with me again.

TI: And so Muriel, so initially you lived with her?

MO: Pardon me?

TI: So when you got back, you lived with her?

MO: My mother?

TI: Yes, with your mother?

MO: Yes, uh-huh, for a while, until I got, I got proposed and got married.

<End Segment 20> - Copyright ©2009 Densho. All Rights Reserved.