<Begin Segment 33>

TI: Yeah, and so I'm curious about the reception of your father's business partner. When you came to the house, was he expecting you? Was he happy to see you?

FS: No, no, he didn't know. I knock on the door and I says -- my dad told me who was there. He said, "You know, Sakamoto ga oru kara." He knew who was taking care because my father arranged it. He told me a lot about Japan, mura, so he put it in my head. So I knock on the door, I say, "Hello," English. And some lady came, the chimba lady. And I said, "Is Sakamoto-san home? Sakamoto-san?" "Ah, chotto matte," she said, then a man came. And he looked at me, and he knew right away who I was. He called my Japanese name. He didn't say Frank, he knew my Japanese name. He came and hugged me and cried. He said, "Nobody told me you're coming Japan." "Well, can't write, tegami dame, no letter." He said, "Yeah, wakatta, wakatta." He said he was glad. So, you know, I didn't eat for about a week. I was eating candy, all the candy I found on the boat, loose candy, Baby Ruth, Mars, I was eating that for five days. And then the center where we were, they had food for us, but that was a horrible food. Like wheat, one umeboshi. I couldn't swallow that. So I thought, "I can't eat this." I can't get it in. Umeboshi is the only thing I eat. So I was in that Camp Uraga for about three or four days, and then Yamane, I made arrangement for a train. Train, for the all the Hiroshima people, and we got one, one train. And we went to Hiroshima. And then I went, he told me how to get from one place to another, Yamane. So I wrote it down. And then he said, "There's a guy named Yamane that's going to get off in Midori, he's going to be the last one. So he's going to take charge until you get to Midori, and you ask him how far to Kabe from there. So he told me two three station, but then he didn't know where Imuro was. But he told me, he said, "Go to the Kabe no eki, and ask the ekichou, people that work in the eki. They'll tell you how to go where. So that's how I found out where Imuro was. And there was no way to get there. No transportation, no bus, all kaput. I had to walk, hachiri, that was about eleven miles, I walked. I'm telling you, that was a long ways.

BT: Well, you had heard all this confusing information about who was winning the war and what was going on in Japan. So when you got to Japan, what were your impressions of what you saw?

FS: Well, on the boat you can't see much. So you get on the other side and you see the port, you know, where the people get on. That's just warehouse and you see some settlement, looked like a bunch of buildings, like military warehouse or something there. And then you look way over there, and that's Tokyo, they say. You don't see nothing out there. Just openness. Because Japan is crowded. So from Uraga to the port to Tokyo, there's nothing but houses and buildings, should be. Nothing, just flat, flat as this. And here and there you might see one story concrete building. And then I think second or third day, third day, a bunch of Nisei came from Tokyo. Nisei GI, they're all officers, lieutenants, mainly lieutenant rank. And they were there to exchange money. They wanted our greenback for yen. You know, they weren't there to help us, they were just making money off. And they were kind of nasty guys, because they had a bar on. And I asked them, "You know a guy named Fujihiro Tadashi?" Said, "No." I said, "Well, he's supposed to be in Tokyo." That was my relative, nobody knew. But I heard he came in the second boat because his brother was on the second boat with his mother and father. But this guy Eddie was the youngest, Tadasu was the oldest. And he was a Waseda and a Fresno State graduate, B.A., two places he had B.A. he was a good linguist. And he was, you remember Konoye? Premier Konoye in Japan, you ever heard of Konoye? He was Konoye's personal translator and interpreter. So when Konoye got put to death, I think, he lost the case. It was all fixed anyway. Because Mrs. Konoye came to the place where he was staying with something long wrapped in silk, it was the family katana, the short and the long, and there was a dagger. Three piece, and she said, "This belongs to the family for eleven hundred years," or nine hundred, some kind of relic. And she said, "This is the only thing he had left." "Kore o katami de totte chodai." You know, katami means what? Heirloom? So he got that. And I saw him with it over here in L.A. once. I went to see him. He died, but he had it. So I said, "What the heck you going to do with it?" He said, "I can't sell it. I promised to keep it."

TI: And he didn't have any heirs to give it to?

FS: I don't know. I really don't know. Maybe he did. He was married, now, but, you know, he was the highest-ranking... this is what they make a fool out of the guy. He was a guy that had a B.A. in two countries, B.A. And the, what do you call that, military tribunal, he had a colonel that was supposed to represent Konoye, that's how high rank they give him. United States Army furnished Konoye with a personal what do you call it, guide or whatever, and a full colonel, American. And then my cousin was the chief translator. And this colonel was supposed to be a bilingual old Japan hand. That was the reason why he got rank. But, you know what? My cousin told me, "He's a bakatare. He can't even read decent Japanese." So he questioned the colonel and told the colonel, "Look. You either play my game, or you do this yourself."

TI: Yeah, I think that was pretty common where the Niseis were much better.

<End Segment 33> - Copyright © 2009 Densho. All Rights Reserved.