<Begin Segment 4>

MA: I wanted to ask you about the trip to Japan that you took right before the war.

LN: Oh, yes, that's right.

MA: And can you talk a little bit about your experiences there and why you went?

LN: Okay. I went along with my father, I don't know why. Oh, maybe because I'm the oldest girl, so they picked me, I mean, I had the choice. [Laughs] So that was fortunate. I think... I know why they took me instead of my brother. Because they later told me that -- at that time, I was already, I had been taking Japanese dance and instrument, right, some years. And my father thought that if I could go out there and try it out. 'Cause many people would study in Japan and then come back to teach or whatever. But I was still very young, so I wasn't really that interested in staying there or even studying dancing or instruments. How old was I anyway? Gosh... must have been like ten or eleven. But you know, in those days, at ten and eleven, we were very young, naive. Not like nowadays where they're much more sophisticated. So eventually all of that changed when the war started.

MA: When you were in Japan, did you notice, I mean, I think you were there right before...

LN: Oh, in Japan, yes.

MA: Did you notice any... did you sense that there was kind of, were people talking about war in Japan, did you sense any of that?

LN: You know, I was so young. I mean, I would say, not young in years, but so naive and not concerned about anything that was going on. It was just so much fun there with my cousins and all that. But I could hear my parents, I mean, my father talking about it, and the concern was to try to get a boat going back as soon as possible, because things were getting pretty hairy with transportation and all that. I guess there were a limited number of boats, they were already making arrangements with Japan and the U.S. So we thought, "Oh, gosh, this is" -- I mean, that's when I heard, and I thought, "Oh, don't tell me we're going to be stuck here." But fortunately, my dad knew... well, one thing was that my grandfather was really strange. He was going back and forth from Hawaii to Japan almost every other year. He'd go there and he'll say, "Oh, I've decided to come back after all. Can you come and pick me up?" So he would be doing that, and he was constantly doing that. And so because of that, my dad and those guys were very familiar with the immigration people, the hotel people and all that. So they said, "Oh, don't worry about it, we'll get you back. We'll find the first ship so you can get back to Hawaii." So I guess it was... I think there were only about three or four ships that was in agreement to sail back to Hawaii. So it was kind of worrisome. But I didn't really worry about it except I could hear my dad and my aunts talking about it. So I thought, wow. But... so what was your question? [Laughs]

MA: [Laughs] Well, I was just wondering about... I mean, you definitely answered it. But also, when you were in Japan, how did you, I guess, fit in with the other Japanese kids? I mean, you were American, but you were of Japanese ancestry. Do you remember that feeling?

LN: It was difficult because... well, as a kid, though, among the kids, there's no, how would you say it? There isn't a barrier really, except for the language. And after a while, I got to know it. But yeah, we used to, I used to play with the neighbor kids, and my cousins lived there, too. They had this big old house, and the neighbor was right next, the adjoining, you know, on the same street. So I thought that was fun, just playing with Japanese kids, it's so different. And I got to learn to speak Japanese more, and they wanted, they wanted to learn English. So it was really a very fun time. Because I was too young to worry about anything else.

<End Segment 4> - Copyright © 2009 Densho. All Rights Reserved.