<Begin Segment 5>

TI: Okay, so going back to when you were six, when the family went back, so it was your father, your mother, and four boys went to Japan, and then one brother stayed back.

PY: Right.

TI: Why did Ralph stay in Hawaii?

PY: Well, I think he was still attending UH. And then he wanted to, he wanted to graduate, he wanted to stay in Hawaii. So we left some money, and he lived in the Hongwanji dormitory or this and that. But after he graduated, he did come back. He was doing some kind of assistant of the football team or whatever in athletic department.

TI: Okay. But was the thinking that when he finished University of Hawaii, that he was going to join the family in Japan?

PY: I don't think so.

TI: Okay, so it was always that he was going to stay in Hawaii.

PY: Yeah, he was planning to stay in Hawaii instead of going back to Japan, yeah.

TI: Now, do you remember the trip to Japan when you were six years old?

PY: Well, yeah. I know that, not too clear, but yes.

TI: Do you remember your first impressions of Japan, when you got to Japan?

PY: No. I think it was, that ship was Asama-maru, I think, yeah.

TI: So when you went to Japan, where did you go live?

PY: We traveled, we went to Kyoto, I know we traveled a little, and then we arrived in Hiroshima. And my father rent one house and then we stayed in Hiroshima for one year. And then after that, went back to Atatashima, because Atatashima, that house was so small, I think, we couldn't go back and live over there. But during the one year, I guess they went, expanded a bit.

TI: So describe the island, Atatashima. What was that like? How would you describe that?

PY: Oh, it's a small little Seto Inland Sea island, and oh, I think those days we had only about two hundred people or... two to three hundred people living over there. Mostly, of course, fishermen, and they had a farm, too. It was, I enjoyed the island. I went to school on the island and I graduated primary school over there, and then I went to Hiroshima to, for attend the middle school chuugakkou.

TI: And so when you go to middle school, do you board in Hiroshima or do you go back and forth?

PY: Yeah, board, right, yeah.

TI: Because the island's so far away that it's too hard to go back and forth.

PY: Yeah, yeah.

TI: So how long does it take to go from Atatashima to Hiroshima?

PY: Hiroshima, well, the boat take about forty to fifty minutes. And then from station of Kuba to Hiroshima take about one hour train ride.

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