<Begin Segment 7>

TI: So let's move on to a little bit later when the family decides to go to Japan. So can you tell me about that in terms of why your family went to Japan?

JM: Well, the only reason we went back to Japan is my uncle and my mother, they're brother and sister and he says, "You never know what's gonna happen, so why don't you people take a vacation on Christmas and come over to Japan?" because they know that Christmas holiday, American people don't go to school or anything like that, so one -- nineteen thirty, was it seven or was it, I forget, '38? -- we asked the principal that, we want to go to Japan and meet our uncles over there and so we're gonna take off three weeks. And the principal says, "Oh, that's very good," says, "Yeah, you better enjoy and go, go to Japan, see your families."

TI: So this was just gonna be a Christmas vacation, three weeks?

JM: Yeah, Christmas vacation, three weeks, we're gonna come back again.

TI: And this was the whole family, so all six kids and the mother and father?

JM: Yeah, but when we went to Japan my mother and two sisters and the youngest kid, we, they went home on a different boat and then we went on the second boat that was leaving for Japan. It was Fumi, Fred, and myself, we went on the second boat that carries their lumber. You know that Japan has to buy lumber and everything? So...

TI: And you went with your father, then, with the second trip?

JM: No, my father was still, we still were farming, so that's when the Wakamatsu family and the Filipino family, they were, and the German family, they were helping my father.

TI: Okay, so let me make sure I understand this, so your mom went with Emiko and Sadako and Kiyoshi.

JM: Yeah, Kiyoshi.

TI: So the four of them went first, and then Fumiko, you, and Fred went on --

JM: Afterwards, yeah.

TI: And your father was back at the farm.

JM: Yeah, yeah, still working at the farm.

TI: So, so it's three, I mean, Fumiko's not that old either, so you're pretty young.

JM: She's a year...

TI: She's about thirteen, twelve, thirteen years old?

JM: Oh, Fumi? Yeah.

TI: Yeah, so it's the three of you, so tell me about the boat ride across. I mean, what was that like?

JM: Well, it's the first time I ever rode on a boat like that, but my dad says, "You guys might get lonesome," because my mother and other guys, sisters, they were back in Japan, so he bought us big orange, case of oranges, said, "If you guys get hungry and everything be sure to eat that." But the captain of the ship too knew that it was just the three of us, so we all kind of got together and he welcomed us in his captain room and everything, kind of spoke half Japanese, half English to them and got, went to Japan, yeah. We had a nice time, though. But the weather was rough. It took us three, three and a half weeks to reach Japan that time. 'Cause the captain, too, he was getting seasick.

TI: That must've been really rough then.

JM: Oh, it was rough.

TI: Any other memories on that, so this wasn't a passenger ship, you said?

JM: No, it was a freighter.

TI: It was a freighter.

JM: Carrying lumber too that time.

TI: And so were there, besides you, any other passengers?

JM: No, no, just us. That's all.

TI: Wow, so it really was kind of lonely then.

JM: Yeah, lonely, but we were treated very good. Even the captain and all the sailors and everything, they treated us real good, 'cause we were the only kids on the boat.

TI: So how did you pass the time? I mean, three and a half weeks...

JM: Well, we'd get out and play on the deck and go inside, and captain would say, "Hey, come in our room," and invite us and things.

TI: And you had your own little stateroom or little room that the three of you stayed in?

JM: Well, it was a big room, fairly big room. Yeah.

SF: How did your dad arrange for you to get onto this freighter, since it was not a regular passenger ship?

JM: I don't know. I guess they went through the American consulate or something like that, because, well, later on too, but my dad too, he caught the last Japanese boat that was leaving Portland and he caught the boat right away. Because when I got sick I, we couldn't go back to Japan no more, so my mother says, "Hey, better have Papa come home and, because we can't go back," so my dad came home on the last boat that was ready to leave. He caught it two days earlier.

<End Segment 7> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.