<Begin Segment 9>

TI: Okay, so about the time you graduated from high school, let's pick up the story there. So you graduated from high school, you, yes, and then what happened next?

MO: My uncle had gone back to Japan already, and so did my aunt. My mother was by herself, and she... oh, at that time...

TI: 'Cause this is where you had problems with your gallbladder?

MO: Yes, uh-huh, about the same time when I finished. And then doctor at Straf Clinic, they said, "You have to come in and have a gallbladder surgery," and that was going to be a big surgery. And so my uncle said, "Come to Japan, they have better doctors." So I promptly went to Japan, and then I still remember that hospital across from Japan Broadcasting Company, it's called the Ichiyo Byouin.

[Interruption]

TI: So this was right after high school, you had problems with your gallbladder, and the doctor in Hawaii said you needed to have surgery, which would have been a very serious...

MO: It's all the way down.

TI: Right. And your uncle was the one saying, "No, you should come to Japan because there are better doctors there." I mean, was that pretty common thinking? That back then, the medicine was better in Japan than Hawaii?

MO: Yes. Because doctors in Japan were coming, educated from, in Germany. German-educated doctors in Japan, they were all going to Germany. They felt that they were more advanced in medical history. So I remember that very distinctly.

TI: And then you went to this special hospital.

MO: Yes, Ichiyo Byouin, right across from the Japan Broadcasting.

TI: Okay. And in Hawaii, they suggested doing surgery. What did they do in Japan to treat your gallbladder?

MO: Well, that's the thing. They called it the ryon kensa. They had me swallow a tube, and in five days, they cleared the gallbladder, all that gook was coming out. And I would lie down and watch the thing all coming out. They were irrigating my gallbladder. That's Japan's new way of doing that, and so I didn't have surgery.

TI: And apparently it worked really well.

MO: Yes. In fact, yes.

TI: Interesting. And so after you got well, you were in Japan, why didn't you come back to Hawaii?

MO: Okay, my uncle said, "Since you're here, why don't you do something extraordinary?" Because my major was journalism and art, he said, "Why don't you go to the women's art university?" And he made arrangements for me to attend the Women's Art College in Japan. That's where I graduated.

TI: So your uncle -- and this is the same uncle that used to live in Hawaii, who's now back in Japan. And at this point, how many children did they have?

MO: Nine. [Laughs]

TI: Nine children? And you mentioned his wife wasn't used to having...

MO: And I was just like a maid, I always, they would call me Chiichai Neechan. I would, you know, take care of them. They had a maid, but I would always help her. So it was an interesting experience for me.

TI: So while you were going to this Women's Art College, you would also be kind of the live-in housekeeper, in other words. And what was that like? Did you, was that okay?

MO: Pardon me?

TI: Did you enjoy doing that?

MO: Yes, the children, they all got attached to me. "Oneechan, itsu taberu?" They would come and ask me instead of asking their mother. They were very attached to me.

<End Segment 9> - Copyright ©2009 Densho. All Rights Reserved.