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MN: Who was the backbone of the nursery business? Was it your father or your mother?

TS: My mother. Oh, she was an aggressive businesswoman. My father, I think, was just taking orders.

MN: So your mother sounds like she came from a pretty educated family. Can you share a little bit about what, her family background in Japan?

TS: (Yes). One of the guys in the family was a military governor of Indonesia during World War II. (His name was) Ishihata. But I don't know too much about (this event because) right now my memory isn't good enough to recall, but I remember in 1936 we had a new 1936 Ford and we drove him down, he wanted to see the naval base at San Diego and I told my parents, "This guy's a spy." I was just a young kid, but I said, "This guy's a spy," because he wanted to see the naval base. And he saw a few submarines and he said, "Let's go." I said, "That's all you want to see?" I said, "There's a big naval base here." He said, "No, let's go." And then a few miles out of San Diego, coming back to L.A., (...) border patrol stopped us. They didn't ask this guy, this guy I thought (who) was a spy sitting in front. They asked me, "Where you from?" (I said), "L.A." "How old are you?" I don't know, whatever age I was. He said, "Go." I told my parents, "They asked the wrong guy. They should ask the guy here. I think he's a spy." (...)

MN: Do you think the immigration asked you because children are usually pretty honest?

TS: (Yes).

MN: Was he a spy?

TS: No. He was a military attache in London for the Japanese. He may have been a spy. I always said he was a spy, but he had a legitimate job in London and he was coming through to go back to Japan.

MN: And this was your, was it your mother's cousin?

TS: (Yes).

MN: And then after the war, when you were in the military, US military, you saw him again.

TS: I saw him in Hiroshima. He was hoeing weeds in his farm. I says, "What did you do from last (time) I saw you 'til now?" He said, "I was (the) military governor of Indonesia." I said, "Wow." Had a big job.

MN: So it sounds like he actually just wanted to see what U.S. military submarines looked like and (...) he wasn't really a spy.

TS: Well, we didn't spend enough time. We just drove up there in our new '36 Ford and, "Let's go." He just wanted to tell the people in Japan that he saw a naval base, I think. He didn't spend more than a few seconds there, so he couldn't have seen anything. I told my parents, "I think he was looking to see what our submarines look like."

MN: I wondered also, about your mother's side, now they in Japan had cattle. Is that correct? They had cattle? Tell me about that.

TS: I don't remember, but they had a big farm. I don't remember too much about it. I went there a few times and I ran into guys that knew my folks.

MN: But of course, it was very unusual for families in Japan to even have cattle, so your mother's family must have been doing very well. They were probably trading with foreigners.

TS: I don't know why they had cattle. Think they had twenty-nine cattle. I said, "What are you doing with cattle?" They just had 'em.

<End Segment 3> - Copyright © 2010 Densho. All Rights Reserved.