<Begin Segment 5>

MA: And when you -- so when you and your brother, sister and mother moved back to Hawaii, I mean, where did you move back to?

EH: My mother's parents' home in Papaikou.

MA: And then home and possessions that your parents left behind? Was there anything...

EH: No. [Laughs]

MA: No.

EH: My parents, my mother's side, before the war, were pretty well-to-do. They owned a hundred-acre plot of land on which they grew sugar cane. That hundred acres of land somehow ended up with a plantation. I really don't know details, but I know they lost it. If you go to Hilo, the main highway, I understood they owned the land from the main highway all the way to the ocean. And there's a small plot right next to the family home, that the Hongwanji church, it sits on. So I also understand they donated that land to the church. So I said, lucky they donated the land before government took it away.

MA: And the time when your, so you said your father came back briefly to Hawaii, right, after you moved back from New York?

EH: Uh-huh.

MA: What kind of work did he do? Was he still pursuing art?

EH: Yeah, he didn't work. And that's... [laughs] -- I shouldn't tell you guys this -- but that's part of the reason why my mom came back to Hawaii. Because he couldn't find work in New York, and I guess, being a Japanese after the war, he couldn't even sell his artwork. Which today, if you ask people, is very good, and apparently would bring a pretty good price. But he couldn't sell his artwork and couldn't find a job. So my mom got fed up having to support him, too, so she just brought us back to Hawaii and lived, I guess, in her parents' home.

MA: And that's where you grew up, was in your grandparents'...

EH: Yeah, initially. That didn't last too long either. Not only, maybe even a year. But she did move out on her own with the three kids.

<End Segment 5> - Copyright © 2009 Densho. All Rights Reserved.