<Begin Segment 4>

TI: Okay, so let's talk, let's talk about the trip now from Honolulu to Japan.

KT: Oh, the Honolulu to Japan, I rode Asama-maru, I think. Yeah, Asama-maru. It was August 1934, and it was a ten-day trip on the Pacific to Japan. I was sick for three days on the boat. And my father, I don't know why, but he told me, "When you ride the boat, don't forget to tip the man that takes care of the room. Don't forget to tip them, he'll take care of you." So that's what I did. I gave the tip, and that man took care of me for the three days.

TI: Oh, so when you were sick, he would bring food to you...

KT: Yeah. When I couldn't move or anything, he took care of me. That was my father's idea. So I got, I got my treatment, and I was okay. And after that, I stayed up and stayed out in the deck, watched the ocean. And that was the first time I ever saw a whale shooting the water. I was amazed with that. That's the first time I saw a whale in the Pacific, middle of the Pacific Ocean. And the rest was just going to, until you reach Japan. And I reached Japan August 16th, that I remember, and I was, I wonder who's gonna come pick me up, 'cause I don't know nobody, and this is a strange country even though it's my parents' country. I just wondered. I just debarked. When I came down the street, there was a man holding my photo, I think, and was looking for me. And that was my uncle-in-law in Tokyo. So he met me, and then we went to Yokohama. I think it was Matsuzakaya Hotel.

TI: Yeah, and before we, we talk about all those things, what were just your impressions of Japan? When you first got off the boat and you're looking around, what did you think?

KT: Because I didn't know anyone, and I didn't know who was gonna pick me up, I just looked at that place, it was a harbor, Yokohama harbor. And going down the steps, I saw a man right in front of me, and that was the uncle holding a picture.

TI: With a picture. So you must have felt...

KT: Oh, what a relief, somebody is there. And he, we went to the hotel, Matsuzakaya Hotel, and my father knew the manager of that hotel, so he made all the arrangement for me.

TI: Now, how would your father know these people in Japan?

KT: I don't know how he does it, but my father was a man that, when the boat came to Hawaii, like the navy boat or all the training ship, he was the one that met them. And through that, he must have known who and who and all that.

TI: So when these ships came, he would make friends with them.

KT: Yeah, yeah. And then he went to Japan before I came to Japan, because he brought three girls to the school that I was supposed to, I was going. So he knew the manager of Matsuzakaya. That's, I think that's the way it must have been. Because it was two years before I went, he had the three girls. I met them after that. So that's how he must have met the manager.

TI: Oh, that's interesting. So in some ways, maybe two years before, he was doing this and --

KT: He had already made some kind of plan in his head that he's going to send me. He had that in mind already. So when he asked me, when I said yes, he was very happy, I'm quite sure. I'm don't know. That feeling, I don't know, but that's what I think. But when I went there, his name was (Kato), I think. I forgot. I cannot remember. But he approached me. He didn't handle everything for me. But after my uncle took me there, he stayed, wait until everything was okay with my arriving and all that. He took me to Tsurumi dormitory. I didn't sleep at the hotel, I went straight to the dormitory. I think that was the arrangement, that I don't know, was at the Tsurumi dormitory. And he dropped me there, and he took, he went home, and he said, "When you have a day off," he'll come pick me up and take to his house.

<End Segment 4> - Copyright © 2010 Densho. All Rights Reserved.