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TI: There's one other thing I wanted to touch upon, and that was your older brother Mike. Your brother Mike volunteered for the service, and can you tell me what happened to him?

MY: Well, as soon as, as soon as the war broke out and Dad got picked up, so he came home and he says, "I'm volunteering." And he says, "You take care of the folks," you know, he told George, he says, "You just got married," and he says, "if I don't go, I'm still single, and I don't go, then you can be drafted right away." So he says, "You promise to take care of Dad and Mom, I'm volunteering." So he volunteered, but he had bad sinus problems, I guess, and they wouldn't take him. So he had to get doctored up for that, and then he, so he left in February of '43, '43, I guess. And so Dad and Mom came back when we moved back, and my husband used the truck and then my dad drove George's car and drove us back over here. And then George went right back, and then Mom and Dad stayed about ten days and helped me get things squared away.

TI: But going back to your brother, Mike, so he volunteered and he joined the 442nd.

MY: Well, I think it was before the 442 was...

TI: Okay, even before they were formed. But eventually was attached to the 442 and went to Europe with the 442. And what happened to Mike?

MY: Well, he was, I'm trying to remember, it was Company D, 442nd. And so it wasn't too long before he was, well, had to be a little while because he died in end of October during that "Lost Battalion" deal. I just, I don't think I would want to relive that again. Because my sister-in-law lived with us in Ontario. And she would wrap up a package every day and send it, and write one or two letters every day and send it. And, of course, she helped me with the kids and everything. And then she was at work when they brought the telegram to her at work. And then it seemed like the whole world fell apart. She said, "If I'd have worried a little bit more, he wouldn't have got killed." And then she'd say, "Well, I think Mike's still alive, but he's got amnesia and he's roaming around those woods over there." And she just used excuses and excuses, and I couldn't tell her, "No, he's gone," I couldn't tell her that. And so then she'd spoil the kids and do things for them and buy clothes for them and everything. And so the older one discovered rings. So she'd take the rings off and let him play with it. And I said, "Al, you do that," and I says, "he's gonna lose it someplace, and then what are you gonna do?" So she went downtown and bought him a signet ring so he'd have his own ring. So he's still got that ring. I said, "You're lucky Auntie (Alice) bought you such a nice ring when you could hardly walk." He said, "Yeah." In the meantime, he had bitten into it and broke the joint, so he had to get it fixed. But things like that. And she'd keep saying, "Well," she says, "if I just worried a little bit more, I think Mike would have been okay." But she said, "I couldn't believe it would happen to me, and that's what happened, because I didn't worry enough." And then I don't know how long it was after that, then the packages and the mail started coming back, and that was a pain all over again. And I thought, oh, if I'd have known that, I wouldn't have destroyed 'em, but I would have hidden 'em someplace where, give a little time for her to recover and then give 'em to her. I wouldn't have thrown 'em away, but I wish I'd known, because then I would have put 'em together and put 'em away someplace for a while. And then she started losing her hair in great big clumps like this, so great big bald spots all over her head. It just looked like somebody had shaved it. That was something I hope never, anybody ever has to go through.

>(...) She went to Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio. Then about that time, my brother, younger brother Oscar was, had gone through with his time in the army, and he came back from Japan. She said, "Well, if Oscar's gonna go to school back there," she says, "maybe I'll go hang out with him." So she packed up and went to Ohio, too, got a degree, and she taught nursery school in Seattle for quite a while.

TI: This is Mike's widow.

MY: Yeah. And then, well, she eventually married, and she married another soldier, ex-GI. And she was always close to the family, and they were coming over, going to Ontario for my mother's birthday, I don't remember what birthday it was, but around the winter for her birthday, Thanksgiving or something, and got in an automobile accident. So her husband was paralyzed.

TI: How tragic. What a difficult life.

MY: So at least she had gained a family, and she had two daughters, and she got to have her own family. And so it's funny how that works out, but when my boys got married, they said, "Mom, what can I take to Auntie Al?" And I said, "What do you mean? Just go see her." And he said, "Well, I want to," they want to take the girls, you know, to introduce her to the bride-to-be, but they didn't know how to do it. So I said, "Well, okay then." Maki was working in the Stokeley Van de Kamp freezing plant, so we'd have frozen foods from time to time. Said, "Take this and go over there, 'cause then you can't put it off. If you mess around, it's gonna melt." Said, "Take this and go see Auntie Al." And Auntie Al says, "That was so cute for them to remember and come and see me that way." So she was always close to the kids and everything. Then she was coming over and was in an automobile accident, killed her husband.

TI: Wow, that's... so, Mae, thank you for sharing all that.

MY: No, he didn't get killed, but he was paralyzed.

TI: You mentioned earlier, did your parents, after the war, live in Ontario, or did they come back to Auburn?

MY: No, they lived in Ontario.

TI: So they stayed? Why did your parents decide to live in Ontario and not come back to...

MY: Well, I don't know. I think kind of like, like George says, "Well, they didn't want us around here, so they treat us real good over there." They never told me any of that when I said I was gonna come back, they just maybe let me make up my own mind what I wanted to do. But it's an experience you never forget, but the one that you never want to go through again, you know.

TI: Yeah, that's difficult.

<End Segment 30> - Copyright (c) 2009 Densho. All Rights Reserved.