<Begin Segment 9>

TI: So you mentioned earlier that your father wanted to go back to Japan in 1940, but that you were sent earlier for training.

MK: Earlier, yes. Just a few months. As it turned out, it was just a few months earlier, to Japan.

TI: A few months earlier. So explain why you were sent earlier.

MK: Well, we had... we were coming out of, we're coming out of summer school, elementary school, and then it was something like if I didn't make the -- I can't remember whether it was February, February or March -- if I didn't get on that ship then, I wouldn't be able to go 'til July or... July, I believe. And my grandfather had some kind of schedule that I had to attend, he wanted me to attend, in my preliminary, to join, become a minister. There's some... I'm not sure, but this is the reason why I was sent ahead of the family to go to Japan. I was sent alone to Japan, and my grandfather met me at Yokohama and they took me back, but I was supposed to go there to learn to become a minister.

TI: This is, what, about 1940?

MK: 1940. 1939, 1940, yes

TI: So you're only, like, seven?

MK: Seven, eight years old, somewhere thereabout, but minister families, when they become -- the day you're born, if you're gonna be a minister you're gonna study religion, so it's a very strict procedure that you follow through. It's a lifetime career.

TI: So you were being groomed to be a minister.

MK: I was being, yes.

TI: And at that point did you think that you were gonna become a minister?

MK: Yes, I had no doubt at that time. I was receptive, and I had no remorse about having to become a minister. I had no choice or anything to that fact. No, there was no... I expected to become a minister. Whether I would be a minister in Hawaii or Japan never occurred to me at that time.

TI: So what were some of your impressions of, your first impressions of Japan? So Yokohama, you get off the ship, your uncle's there, so what, what does it look like?

MK: Crowded place. [Laughs] The most crowded place I had ever seen. And I said, but I felt that the train ran so well. I'd never ridden a train at that time, rode the train to Osaka. It was a full day's trip, but the train ran so well and seemed to run on time, but was, every train we went on was very crowded, overflowing. And I remember my grandfather telling me, "This is the first class, so you enjoy it." And I couldn't believe it, I says, "This is first class? It's so crowded." He said, "No, it's first class, so enjoy it." Until we got to Saga, Beppu, and we rode the regular, common, and we got pushed into the corners, and I said, now I know what the difference between first class and coach was.

TI: Earlier I said you were picked up by your uncle, but, yeah, you were picked up by your grandfather. Now, was your grandfather wearing anything that would --

MK: Identify him as a minister? No, not really. I never thought it was, maybe it was, but he always wore a robe, and he wore a, not the ceremonial robe, but just a regular robe that looks like a regular kimono. But he never had a pattern on it, I remember. It was always solid brown or solid black. And then he always wore a black over, over robe on top of that.

TI: And how was this for you? So this is your first time meeting your grandfather, what was that like? What was, how was he with you?

MK: I don't know. I can't remember. He was my grandfather. [Laughs]

TI: So when I think back when, with my grandfather... I mean, there are some things, like was he gentle or...

MK: He was a big man. He was a very big man to me. He was about, I think he was about... my grandfather's big. He was 5'11", six feet tall. And I remember him -- in fact, when I approached him I was kind of afraid of him, really, because he was such a big man. Then on top of that he had big geta on. I thought to myself, "Why he wearing geta? Why is a man wearing geta on the dock?" And then he came up to me, and he, he saw my tag or something, he identified, and he said, "Ojiisan." And I said, oh, yeah, and I held his hand, and I'm like this to him [raises arm over head]. I guess this...

TI: So as you were coming off the ship you recognize, or you didn't recognize, but you notice this man.

MK: He, I knew who he -- well, I didn't know that was my grandfather.

TI: But yet you kind of...

MK: He came down to me after I came off the dock.

TI: But you noticed him, though.

MK: Yes, I did, because he was a big man.

TI: And then it turned out to be your grandfather.

MK: Yeah. But I found him to be very gentle. He was very, very like... I think he treated me very preciously like. Because he was my mother's father, not my father's father, but this was my mother's father.

TI: So this is the Tashima?

MK: Tashiro.

TI: Tashiro, Tashiro side. Tashiro side. Okay.

MK: And he looked... I don't know, like he was a jolly green giant. [Laughs] You know, he was a gentle man. I don't know how else to describe it. He was a very... and he never, he never raised his voice or anything. In any, all the time that I was there, the only time that I remember was every morning when I was at this church, we'd sit there and he'd, we'd go through the prayer, five o'clock in the morning, go through prayer, I'd be in the altar with him and I'm like this, and eight, eight years old, nine years old at five o'clock in the morning I'm going like this [bobs head]. He reached over and -- you know that gong stick? He hit me in the back of the head. Boy, that hurt. That was the only time that I fell asleep. But he never said anything, and then he kept going.

TI: So you were chanting?

MK: Yeah, he did his chant, but he never raised his voice or anything. Never scolded me.

TI: That's a good story.

<End Segment 9> - Copyright © 2010 Densho. All Rights Reserved.