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MN: And then you had the story when you got the chicken pox. You have this story about you were quarantined and there was this lady next door.

JM: Oh, yeah, yeah. So I had to stay in for about ten days, and my neighbor, they were our neighbors out here in L.A. The wife got sick, and I don't know exactly what the illness was. It could have been cancer, but every day, she played the music that, I guess, reminded her of her time in Japan. So she kept playing this same record over and over daily. And it was, it was a number called "Ruten," R-U-T-E-N. And it was sung by, I think he was the Bing Crosby of Japan, Uehara Bin. He's a very well-known singer. In fact, when they had these nostalgic songs of Japan, they always throw one of his songs in there. And I believe he was in the Japanese version of the... what do they call it? Entertainment corps? He wound up in New Guinea, and he was killed in New Guinea, or he died over there. I don't know whether he was killed or not. But when you go back to the music of the '30s, Uehara Bin was... so she kept playing this "Ruten." So that thing is fixed in my mind. One day it stopped, and the following day, they were holding the funeral services for her, and apparently my father gave the eulogy. You know where I heard that tune again was when I was with the (Pioneer Center) we did this, we did these mochitsuki things for the Pioneer Center.

MN: This is years later.

JM: Years later.

[Interruption]

JM: We're having these mochitsukis for the, for the Issei that lived in this area. This was sponsored by Pioneer Project.

MN: Which you co-founded. Oh, you --

JM: I didn't, I didn't. No, Moe was one of the most active founders of it. I just, I just... me and Moe were the two members of Pioneer Project that were founders of the Pioneer Center. So we were right in there with Pioneer Center. I was, I was their recording secretary for about five or six years. I still have the articles of incorporation in my closet somewhere. But anyway, the main thing was we were having this get-together, this mochitsuki every, on New Year's for the Issei that lived in these, these hotels around there. So I thought it would be a good idea to play some music for them, some hits of the '30s that they would relate to. And I remember talking to an Issei, I said, "Gee, I'm sorry, the music I got hold of is kind of old." He says, "Oh," he says, "those music, classics like that never get old." So I said, oh, okay, I'm on the right track. So one of our board members for the Pioneer Center was Hiro Saisho, he ran Magic Radio. And so I approached Hiro. I said, "Hiro, I need some, I need some music for the, for the Issei." And he says, "Oh, yeah, you can have these," and he just gave 'em to me. So anyway, I took.. so I played them to transfer it onto my tape, and I was really, like, stunned when all of a sudden, this "Ruten" comes on. I'm like, "Oh, my god. Is that what it was and is that who it is?" All those memories of being, having chicken pox and being in the, being in the barracks and listening to Mrs. Ota pass away. Did you ever hear "Ruten"? It's a very nice...

MN: Not until... not until you mentioned it. I went onto YouTube and I listened to it.

JM: Oh, you did?

MN: Yeah.

JM: It's a very catchy little tune.

MN: Yeah, yeah. So it brought you back twenty years, when you were a kid.

JM: Yeah, you can't help it, 'cause it gets drilled into your mind, you know. 'Cause the walls aren't that thick. And she must have loved that tune, she played it every day.

MN: Now, your parents are from Hiroshima.

JM: Uh-huh.

MN: And so when August 1945, the U.S. dropped the atomic bomb. Do you remember your parents talking about the nuclear bombing at all?

JM: No, but I looked at a map of... when I took a trip to Japan, I went to my parents' house in (Kusatsu). And then I had a map also of the, I guess the radius of the atomic bomb. And in a sense, my father's house dodged the bullet, so to speak, because the impact died out just before it -- relatively speaking, this atomic bomb in terms of nuclear weapons was, in today's weaponry is not, wasn't that powerful, so to speak. I mean, it's all relative, you know. But today's, today's weaponry, no, it wouldn't be considered a very powerful weapon, 'cause now we have these thermal, you know, these really, superbombs that blow everything up. But, of course, so his house and things are still there. Sort of an eerie sensation when you're in Hiroshima, you know. Like I was standing by the train station and you could hear the, and late at night you could hear the... I guess the squealing of the sounds from the railroad tracks. God, it sounds almost eerie.

MN: But as far as you know, your parents and your relatives and family in Japan were probably spared.

JM: Pretty much, they were, they needed help. I don't know where my father took out a loan, or he got his, he got hold of three or four hundred dollars somewhere, and we were, I remember, constantly mailing packages to Japan.

MN: And this is after the, after you were released from Manzanar?

JM: Yeah.

<End Segment 12> - Copyright © 2010 Densho. All Rights Reserved.