<Begin Segment 22>

TI: So before we take you back to Hawaii, any other just memories or experiences in Japan?

AO: Yeah, one of the things I'd like to mention is that along the way I contacted my father's sister of the family in Oki-Kamuro, the island that my dad came from. And I had contact with her and so I told her I'm going to have a leave before I go home, maybe if you could tell me how to get there I want to visit Oki-Kamuro. And she says, oh, she'll come out to Osaka and she'll take me to the home, you know. So I said fine so I made arrangements to get the tickets and this is another interesting thing which is another, a foolish thing on the part of the American army. But because I was an officer and I wanted to go to this place in Yamaguchi-ken by train, when I reported in, because I'm an American officer, they gave me a whole train, a whole car.

TI: Just for you?

AO: Just for me and my auntie, you know, I don't know how many, fifty, sixty, eighty seats. And in the meantime all the Japanese are going crazy, they want transportation, they're on the rooftop, they're banging on the windows and everything else.

TI: So all the other cars are just packed.

AO: Yeah, they're all packed. So I felt sorry for them so I told the soldier in charge, "Let them in," and I almost got shoved out because of all the... but that's how bad it was but, you know, there was no gratitude on their part, all they wanted was transportation and somebody made it possible for them to got one but they gave me a, mind you, the whole car, it doesn't make very much sense, you know, again. But anyway I got to go to the island and from the main island to another island there was a bridge, no, there was no bridge at the time, there was a big boat that took us from the main island to this Oshima and then we had to go around this island by car and then from the end of this area from this Oshima town to go to a little island, you had to catch another small boat which I think at that time, I don't know if they had any motor on it, these guys kind of rowboat, you know. So there I went with my auntie, my auntie took me to this island and you know, the Japanese style we go to visit the graves so you pay your respects to the ancestors and so forth. And I think I spent, I don't know, I think one night or two nights.

TI: It must have been a pretty big event for --

AO: For them so therefore somebody told somebody to ask me if I would like to talk to the people there. And I said, "Yeah, I'd be happy to," so I said, "I don't know if they'd be able to understand." But the thing is, so when a group gathers, it was nothing but old people, small women, children and that's about it, you know. So I told them in my poor Japanese that I was a Nisei from Hawaii, that I represented the American army but I said the war is over... basically what I told them is, "The war is over, your people don't have to die for the nation, will you please live for your country now, the war is all over. So now you got to live for your country," I mean, that was the crux of my main talk. And I don't know if it meant anything to those people but... and it is such a small island but yet I think there must have been close to fifty, sixty, eighty people, I don't know how many, you know.

TI: Did anyone say anything to you after your speech?

AO: There were a few came to ask a few questions but I don't remember too much after that.

TI: That's a good story. So you got a chance to go back to your, essentially your ancestors' home.

AO: Yeah.

<End Segment 22> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.