<Begin Segment 2>

TI: Let's go back to your parents. You mentioned your father going to medical school in Fukuoka.

FK: Uh-huh.

TI: So I'm assuming that's pretty much where he was raised and was from?

FK: He's from Kumamoto.

TI: Kumamoto. And do you know what his family, what kind of work his family did?

FK: Well, one of my cousins told me -- the Japanese cousin -- told somebody in our family that way back in some, tonosama, you know what a tonosama is?

TI: I don't, so explain what...

FK: It's an...

MN: The prince or the head of the, of that clan, of the Kumamoto-ken.

FK: Right. They used to have, I don't know Japanese history, so I wish I could tell you, but they were in a feud. And my ancestors were with the winners of this feud, and so when there was a, peace came about, the winners were allotted a piece of land. And so someplace back there, my great-great grand, whoever, was given this piece of land. And in Japan, having land was, you're the boss. So some ancestor back there has this plot of land, and it's still there.

TI: And so that's your father's side. So they were landowners. And he went off and got his medical degree.

FK: Right.

TI: Why did he decide to come to the United States?

FK: Well, my grandparents were farming in the San Gabriel valley.

TI: That's right.

FK: And before my mother died, she came upon this small diary in which my father had written in English, handwritten in English, about this one particular summer when he was working as a student teacher at this boy's school in Kumamoto, where he had charge of, it sounded like middle school boys, and he used to supervise our games and the studies and all. And while he did that, his parents were over here, stateside, farming. And I don't know how they did it, but they were farming. And they would, ever so often, send cash back to Japan, and my father would be able to pay his bills and continue with his education. And I don't know how they mailed money back in those days, but this diary, which I read myself, I thought, "How did they handle cash transactions from overseas?" Especially when you don't, can't just push a button and assume that, well, I don't know, they're quite clever, I guess.

<End Segment 2> - Copyright © 2009 Densho. All Rights Reserved.