<Begin Segment 12>

TI: Before we go to the war, when we came back to Hilo, how was that for you? How had the family changed, Hilo changed?

KT: That's the part. [Laughs] They were all stranger to me. So I was alone, let's say. Because they don't talk Japanese, they only talk English. It's something that, I couldn't get too close to them because of the six years that, the best year of a girl, fifteen to twenty-one. That's when you get very close to your sisters, yeah? That I didn't have. I lost that. So when I came home, I was a stranger.

TI: How about with your mother? Your mother...

KT: Oh, Mother was all right. She was waiting for me to come back because as soon as I came back, says, "I'm going to have my operation. You're gonna come and sleep with me." She had a gallstone operation. She waited until I come back.

TI: And she wanted you to be with her?

KT: Me be with her. So I was with her at the hospital until she got her gallstone out. She waited for me.

TI: How about your relationship with your father?

KT: Oh, my father was, he was happy to see me, too.

TI: And did people comment on your Japanese when you came back? How much it had changed?

KT: No, they don't say it. There was nothing, because most of them speak English. And even picking up the phone, the word, "moshi moshi" came out. Without thinking, it just come out. You know, instead of saying, "Hello," I used to say, "moshi moshi." They used to laugh, so I had to stop.

TI: And what was it like for you going from Tokyo, one of the major cities of the world, back to Hilo? Was it a big shift for you?

KT: Oh, I think Japan... those days, it's safe. Those days was safe, so you can go alone anyplace you want to go, as long as you have money to ride the train and go out. So you can do most of the things by yourself, and I did it because I learned how to go about. So I was okay. I did a lot of things by myself. I didn't depend on others. So I know I can leave there, and through my father, I met friends, and the family, they all greeted me to their house. Even one family, one of the guy, he was a bright guy. He liked me. And then the lady that I stayed with wanted me to get married to him. She was trying to get... well, he was already married on that birth certificate. You know, Japan koseki? He was already married. So she said, "He's already married." [Laughs] But I went with him all over the place, 'cause he always called me, "We're going this place, you want to come?" Just as a friend, we went. So I had ways of going about in Japan, so safe for me to stay there as long as I can find a job. But I didn't think about job at that time, 'cause my mother said, "You better come home," so that's why I didn't do that.

TI: So it seems the big shift for you was that in Japan, you were very independent, you do everything, and then when you came back to Hilo...

KT: I was close.

TI: Yeah, the family and there were certain expectations.

KT: Yeah. Because I didn't know them. That six years was something that closed it, I guess. It took a while, anyway. But it was okay with me, because I was independent, I can do it myself.

TI: Well, how did you like teaching Japanese?

KT: Well, I didn't think I was going to be a teacher. [Laughs] Because most of while I was in Japan, I... after I graduated the high school, I went to a school that teaches sewing, flower arrangement, tea ceremony, those are the things my father wanted me to learn anyway. So that was my intention of teaching those things. So I taught most of that. But when they approached me and they wanted a teacher there, said, "Okay." So I went up there.

TI: And how did you like that?

KT: Oh, not that bad. I liked it. It was okay. And it was something different, and I learned how to do it, as long as you can read the book. And the principal, and we all, only three teachers, so we got very close, and how to go about, he taught. So it was okay. It was okay. The children was bright, though. [Laughs]

TI: I'm sorry, they were bright?

KT: Oh, they were bright children. One of them became a mayor of Hilo.

TI: Good.

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