<Begin Segment 7>

TI: What are some other good memories or strong memories of Japan during these six years?

KT: Gee, that... because I wanted to learn Japanese, okay, that was it. That's how I learned my Japanese. And my father used to write to me, "Go and visit this person, I have something to do." Then I had to find a way to go. In order to do that, I have to talk to that person and find out how I can go and visit that person. So that made me independent, and the know-how, how to go about a strange country. Because I don't know Tokyo, I didn't know Yokohama, I didn't know nothing. All I needed was Tsurumi there, and Tsurumi was way up on the hill, and when you come down you have to walk to the bus, to the station. So I had to do everything. So when my father said, "Go visit this person," I look at the address, I don't know how to go about. Now, this is where I have to learn how to go about in a strange country. So I had to learn by myself everything. What I did was go to... where a man, station, a police standing in place, and ask that person how you go. And he explained. By that time, I was good in Japanese, I can talk. That's how I found people and found the house. And you know, Japan, I visit all of my father's friends, I never met the wife. Strange, they don't come out. It's only the person that I was supposed to meet. And it was, and it was always somebody, the front boy. And I met them, talked to what I want and got my message through, and I left. But that's how I met all of my father's friend in Japan.

TI: Now, these friends, earlier you mentioned there was high-class, middle-class...

KT: Yeah, they're all above me.

TI: They were high-class.

KT: Yeah. Captain of the boat Nippon Maru, and warship navy captain, all upper-class. And even the haiku teacher, they used to send the haiku over, I even went to him, his house, too. All by finding my way through without nobody help, my own decision, how to go about, where to ask, and how to ride the train. That's why I'm very independent today. I am. I do everything myself. I don't depend on others.

TI: That's good. When you went to these, these important people's houses, did you...

KT: They're well-kept.

TI: ...did you bring something from your father like a gift?

KT: Yeah. I always had something from my father.

TI: Do you know what that was, what you gave them?

KT: Sometimes, I don't know what it is, but I had something with me and I brought it over. Or sometimes it's a material. And then we just talk. And it's not a long talk, you know, just short one. Do my business and I get out.

TI: And did you, when you saw the different classes, so you lived with someone middle-class and then you met these upper-class...

KT: Oh, it's a very, very different... and I was very fortunate that I lived with the middle-class people. Then I went to the dorm, 'cause I went another school after I graduated high school. And I lived with a upper-class family. So I had dormitory life, a middle-class family, and a high-class. The high school... when I was in Tokyo, her husband was, I think, senate. And before that, he was a navy boat, top. That's how my father met him when they came to Hawaii. So I went with them and then already, he was already gone, so she was, his wife was alone. And she, she was strict. So every morning, we had ozen breakfast. Everything is ozen in a room, served by the maid. And you know, I cannot talk to the maid. Not like Hawaii, you know, you can talk and eat with them. We cannot do that.

TI: Because you were considered upper-class.

KT: Yes, we were. We were considered on the upper-class, because they were, treated me as...

TI: As family.

KT: Family. And then when people come, there's a boy, they called it shosei, that get all the message and bring. That's how it is. And the maid is in the kitchen, so you cannot... so when she's not around, I go and talk. So I learned lots from her also. And taking a bath, it's the master first. You're the last. It's always the master first, and I just happened to be, he was in the navy. He used to come back, but he always went first.

TI: And how did he treat you?

KT: Oh, they treated me like their own daughter, and he treated me like his sister. So I was really lucky. I don't know... that's why I liked, maybe that's the reason why. [Laughs] But I had my own life. I can do what I want to do, yeah. I can go out with my friends and all that. So...

TI: That's a pretty amazing experience. When I think about your, your beginnings in Hilo, very simple family, and then to live with a high-class family...

KT: Yeah. That's why, you know, the life in Japan was from, from the dormitory, ordinary, to a middle-class, and then to an upper school, and to the top. So my life was, step by step, went. So I did experience, for my ninety-one years, the life that I'm supposed to go, that everyone did. So I'm very lucky when it comes to that.

TI: Okay, good.

KT: When you come to that, I think I, that's why maybe I went Japan. Although, in Japan during the war, the Hawaii boys had a rough time, but I didn't have because I was always on the upper level class. So nobody did.

<End Segment 7> - Copyright © 2010 Densho. All Rights Reserved.