<Begin Segment 11>

TI: So eventually your father and mother, they join you?

MK: They came up in... June? July? July, I think, they came up, with the intention of going back in three weeks. End of July, first part of August. And I was supposed to stay 'til December, at least, stay with my grandfather. So they came up as a, like a vacation and a homecoming, they came over. And hakamairi for my grandfather and my... and visit my other grandmother. My other grandmother, of course, had been in Manchuria, and she came back and secured in Japan at that time, so there was opportunity for my father to meet with her. So this was one of the reasons that they went to Japan in 1940. But as it turned out, in August when they were planning to go home, United States wouldn't allow ships to sail from Japan, because of the impending war.

TI: It's almost like there was an embargo...

MK: Embargo on the United States, on Japan by the United States. So then we, he couldn't leave in August, so then they decided that if, if we can ever go back, if they can go back, I was gonna go back with them. So in October of '41, there were three ships sailing, and I don't know how, but Dad got on, we were listed on the first ship that was leaving October, so we came back in October of '41. And I came back with them. The whole family came back together. By this time we had, all my brothers and sister were with them, so five of us siblings went, came home together.

TI: So tell me all your siblings. You were the oldest, and then, tell me...

MK: My sister, my sister is two years... let's see, three, three years younger than I am, so she's...

TI: Maybe 1936?

MK: '36 -- '35, 1935.

TI: And what was her name?

MK: Fumiko.

TI: Okay, and after Fumiko...

MK: Fumiko, and... my little brother, next one is Noritaka, N-O-R-I-T-A-K-A. He was born 1936. Then Kunihiko, K-U-N-I-H-I-K-O, 1938, and Yoshikata, Y-O-S-H-I-K-A-T-A.

TI: About, what, 1940?

MK: '40.

TI: Okay, good. So the, your parents and the five kids return on this last, on this ship in early October.

MK: Yeah, Asusa-maru.

TI: And then you return back to...

MK: To Hawaii. Kauai.

TI: Kauai. Kapaa. So this is October --

MK: Of '41.

TI: And two months later -- October, November -- two months later the war starts.

MK: We had the war.

<End Segment 11> - Copyright © 2010 Densho. All Rights Reserved.