<Begin Segment 35>

TI: So now that the family's all in Japan, what happened next? How did you guys survive, I mean, what did you do for work?

FS: Well, for work, my dad, you know, here's the funny thing about cold-hearted people. I hate to say this, they're all probably gone and dead anyway. But here's a man that took care of my dad all his... he had land here in the next mura, he had land here in yama, he had pretty big holding, and this man was taking care of everything, paying the bills, hiring the help, all that. It was a hell of a big work. So when my father and mother came back to Japan, you know, within a week, you know what my dad and mother did? Kicked them out. Kicked them out. So they went to a place called Miyoshi where they had some relatives, and that was the last time. The last time I saw 'em was when I left. Before I left that place, they were gone. 'Cause I stayed five days or something after they came back, then I went to look for work myself. But I saw them leave the place. And I went up to Mr. and I said, "You know, I don't know what to say." I told my dad, I said, "That's kind of kitanai." You know, the man looks after you all these years, and you come in and you kick them out. He didn't even give 'em thirty days. Five days, he kicked 'em out. "This is my place," he said. "Of course I kicked 'em out, it's my place," if you say it in English. But that was a rotten thing to do. So I saw the dirtiness of the Issei people. That's their training, they're cold. So from that day on, I really didn't have much care for my dad. And then my dad doing everything himself without consulting the kids about going to Japan, you know. I told my dad before I went to work, to the Kure, got a job there. Anyway, I told my dad, "Maybe I'm not going to come back here. I'm disgusted. Iya natta. "Doushita?" "Yarikatta, the way you do things, you kick Mr. Sakamoto out, all those years? Did you give him any money?" "Nande tame, kane?" So that day on, I didn't want to help my folks out. Like an idiot, I did. I did a lot of things for 'em. But that was cold-hearted, huh? So I'm bringing, I'm dragging junk out of my family, but let me tell you this story. I don't want to be lying to you saying, "Oh, my father gave him a hundred thousand dollar and said, 'Goodbye, have a great trip,'" he didn't do none of that. He just kicked them out of our house without a penny. How cold can you get? All during the war years, and then four years before the war, how many years did he stay, anyway?

TI: You said '36, '37, so four or five years. Well, no, four or five years before the war, and then another, I guess...

FS: Ten years, maybe close to ten years. So that's the gratitude. You know, so that day on, I learned gratitude the real hard way of how people treat other people. If I treated somebody that way, I'll forget it because I try to hide my weakness, my dirtiness. But when somebody else do it, it's visible, it kind of stays with you. There's a Japanese word, ensho ni nokoru, everlasting, and stay with you.

TI: Yeah, that must have been difficult to see that happen.

FS: It is. It was one of the worst things in my life, I saw how one person could treat another person. And my mom was just looking. That was disgusting.

<End Segment 35> - Copyright © 2009 Densho. All Rights Reserved.