<Begin Segment 46>

TI: And so for you, when you made your decision to go back to the United States, I mean, you were leaving a lot.

FS: I was leaving all that.

TI: And the 24-hour car service...

FS: Limousine, yeah.

TI: And all the privileges and perks, you were leaving. So it was a major decision.

FS: Yes. And you could say I was a fool in a way. Why didn't I stay until the job was eliminated one by one or something? I don't know. I think it hurt my feelings to start losing my job from underneath. So I thought maybe I'm top of the world, why not go blazing? But one of the worst things that happened to me that made another decision, I had to separate from my girlfriend. I had to make a decision. I couldn't do this, keep going on and on and on and on. She knew that I was married, but my wife didn't know nothing about her. And I couldn't get rid of her. You know, one time when I was out of luck, had no money, and she went down to the Japanese post office, they had a bank, and she got three hundred thousand yen, took all the money she had out of that and gave it to me. She said, "With this, feed your family and pay your bills." All the money she had in the world. You know, I never paid her back. I just, when I had the money, I forgot about it. But you know, (before) I left her in Japan, I had a meeting with the yakuza boss and the lawyer and her, and I had all the documents, bank statement. You know what a koseki tohon, family register? Hanko and jitsu han and regular han, they had two kinds. And I had all that, I had put it all on the table and I said, "Well, there's that's my general wealth." I had a deed to a place in Fuchu, a guy owed me money and couldn't pay me, so he paid me a bar, land and a building. And it was closed. But anyway, so I had all that on the table, and I had this meeting started, and they didn't know what the meeting was about. So I said, well, the meeting was, "In a way, I want you to be here because all of us, all four of us is the only one that's been together for the last seven, eight years, hell and high water, good times, bad times, making money," you know. But we faced the peak of life and bottom. You can't find person that could do that. Some people up here, but not here. Some people here and they forget here. But we went up and down many a time, and we stuck with each other. But I said, "Come a time I have to split. I have to go back to America. Made my decision. I'm gonna get old, I don't know what to do," I didn't say because of my girlfriend. But I said, "I'm leaving my hanko, I got a fifty thousand dollar account in Chase National in Tokyo, and I think I got about ten million yen in the bank." Postal savings bank, ten million yen, that's about, what, thirty thousand dollars, maybe more, I don't know. Pretty big money. So I said, "That's all going to Kay, Kiyoko," my girlfriend. "And this is all hers," koseki tohon, everything there. And so she saw that and she just went like that, "Iranai." She got mad, she started crying, bawling, what a scene. But I told her, I says, "Kiyoko," I said, "many a time we talk about this. Someday there's gonna be a time when this is gonna happen, and we're gonna have to face it. And I'm gonna leave, I'm gonna have to leave you. 'Cause you know I'm married. So the best thing I could do is give everything I got. I'm gonna leave Japan with eighteen hundred dollars," and I showed my checking, that's all I got. "The rest is yours." So that's when I parted. She couldn't get over it. She says, she told the lawyer that she might as well face death. "Better be dead," she said. "Shinda hou ga ii." But you know, I went to see her in 1965, and that woman, instead of nothing, she had a lot of wealth. Fixed that bar up, and I trained her in a way that you never use your own money if you could help it. Use other people's, borrow money, bank, anywhere. Use their money and make a success and pay 'em back. And not use your own capital. (Narr. note: She became an accountant. Without her help, I could not hold all the jobs. She had an auditor rank.)

<End Segment 46> - Copyright © 2009 Densho. All Rights Reserved.