<Begin Segment 31>

TI: And so the way we left it off was, you talked about taking the first boat to Japan with the bachelors, single, and then the second boat coming.

FS: Family.

TI: In between the first and second boat...

FS: How many days?

TI: Yeah, and what were you doing during those days?

FS: Well, here was the problem. You got fourteen, fifteen days before the second boat came. We didn't know when the boat was coming. But actually, the time was about fifteen days, maybe twenty, I don't know. It was so chaotic, and I was just a young kid in a foreign country, yeah, but I was lost. I couldn't buy nothing. No food, none for sale. Money didn't, no, money was worthless. People would rather have kimono, goods, exchanged for food. So that period, I was lost. I was in transit. I couldn't get work, I couldn't make no future because my folks were coming, and I didn't know when they were coming. I had to find out when they came and when we got together, then we could decide. So that period of waiting was the hardest. But I didn't suffer because... for two things. My dad's place was a nice place, a good place, had a big old house, four or five bedroom house, and then it had a kura, you know, storeroom, big storeroom, two-story, then they had a naya where they had an ushi, and it was two-story. One side was storeroom, upstairs was all storeroom, and the ushi was on the bottom, one side. So it was compact unit, but it was more than a lot of people had. Lot of repat like Tad, they went, and they had no place to stay. Because Tad said that the father told them they had a place, but no, no. Somebody sold it. Brother wanted it, brother sold that place and moved the house out. Because Japan, you could take apart. So there was nothing there.

TI: But going back to your place, who was staying at that home?

FS: My father's business partner and his wife, which he married later. It was a lady that... they were married later in life. He was a single man a long time. And I didn't know he was married, but he told me that, you know, "My wife." And she was a bikko, one leg was funny, but she was a nice lady. Good-looking, you know, for the age. God damn, she was good-looking. I was kind of envious. You know, I had eyes already. [Laughs] But she knew how to cook, and she was very kichomen, meaning, very tidy person. So the house was kept clean around the garden, wherever she can work, she was nice. And he was a hard-working man.

BT: Well, what I'm -- would you go back a little bit and talk about your transport? I mean, where did you leave from to go to Japan?

FS: Oh, Seattle. Went to Seattle. A lot of people were saying Oregon, Portland, but we didn't. I remember some kind of tower, huh? What is it?

TI: The Smith Tower.

FS: That tall tower by the harbor?

TI: Uh-huh.

FS: You could see it there in the military, there was a military harbor there. You see, a lot of people think that we went on a plain harbor, but no. It was a military warehouse where they put stuff, and the boat stopped there. They put the troops and goods. So that's where we went because, it was a U.S. Army and Navy, USS Randall. "Randall" was the name of the boat. And a lot of people say differently, but then I think it was about November 25th, we left. Somewhere around there. Took ten days to reach Japan. A lot of people say twenty, but why would they go from Seattle when we went the northern route, which was shortest. Went to San Francisco, you go, take the long route. Short route, ten days. And I don't want nobody to give me controversy, because I know it was ten days.

TI: Okay, good.

<End Segment 31> - Copyright © 2009 Densho. All Rights Reserved.