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MN: Now, in the summer of 1941, you and your father were going to Japan.

JD: Yes.

MN: And why did you plan to go to Japan?

JD: Well, in the spring of 1941 my father received a letter saying my grandfather was ill and so my father became quite conscious about traveling to Japan, and he wanted me to go with him to meet my grandfather before he happened to passed away, before he passed away, so we made a plan from the spring, after getting the letter, and getting ready to go to Japan. We got a fare on the ship that left from San Francisco port called Tatsuta-maru, and apparently that became the last ship that left United States and we were able to board on that ship from San Francisco. And we were supposed to depart at the last week of July, but we were prohibited from traveling by the government agent, comes aboard doing a search of the ship, so the ship was delayed almost by a week and we didn't depart until beginning of August. In doing so, the ship did not stop in Hawaii. It just bypassed Hawaii, went straight to Yokohama, and it took us two weeks to cross the Pacific.

MN: Do you know why these agents came on board the Tatsuta-maru?

JD: Well, as you know, there was, the war was raging in Europe and for Japan, Italy and Germany was the three Axis, and so Japan was under suspicion at all times, so that's, that would be my understanding of why they wanted to search the ship, to see if there's any contraband or anything that would be supporting the war effort in Europe. I assume that's the reason why they boarded the ship and stopped it for a while.

MN: Why didn't your mother and your siblings go with you?

JD: Well, because we were just going on a short trip, summer vacation trip to be returning about a month. And so I wanted, I was anxious to get back to school, of course, continue my education, and that's one of the reasons that -- and somebody had to work on the hotel to keep the business going, so that was my mother's duty, to watch the children and work on the hotel.

MN: Now, how did you feel about this trip?

JD: Well, for me, I was very excited to go, of course, any trip to go, especially go abroad is something unheard of at the time, and to be able to travel across the Pacific like that was a great adventure for me. I was excited. I know, I can't remember, my mother tried to stop me from going. Because felt that she would not see me again, something might happen on the trip, but we persevered in the travel to go to Japan.

MN: Now, when you traveled on this ship, did you travel first class, second class, third class?

JD: No, our traveling rate was third class. We were in the bottom of the boat and we were on the bunk bed stacked about two or three high on the boat. That's all we could afford. And we were off limit to go to upper, upper deck too high. The main deck was fine, but couldn't go anywhere else, so that was a limitation on, as traveling privilege.

MN: So what kind of people were traveling on third class?

JD: Mostly Japanese people, as I recall, so we made a lot of friends on the ship, but probably similar situation like I was, they were returning to Japan. Some were permanently returning to Japan, some just visiting Japan.

MN: Did you get seasick?

JD: Yes, on the first, soon as the boat started to leave San Francisco harbor I became sick and I couldn't eat for a couple, couple, three days, and I remember my father nursing me, doing whatever he could to feed me. But eventually I got over it and I was able to enjoy the travel.

MN: How, what kind of omiyage did you bring to Japan?

JD: As I mentioned, I don't know, well, I mentioned my grandfather ran a grocery store in Penryn, and of course, then Japan style grocery store in Penryn, they had many other things, clothing, chinaware, canned goods, and also some farm equipment that he could carry, so any other of the items that they could gather and put in a box we took with us. Took some radios with us, and being, being a hotel, some of the tenants would leave an item behind, so we gathered those, like some abandoned radios we took home with us, some probably old clothes, many sheets and towels that we could carry, fit in a box, took those with us and took advantage of whatever left behind in the hotel, packed it to take it to Japan. And when we got to Japan we distributed them to the neighbors, I remember, as a gift.

MN: Now, when you got to Japan were you able to keep the radios?

JD: No, we, of course, as the war started in December the police came to our house. We were, course, well-known as we were foreigners, of course anybody who comes from a foreign country were known as the gaijin or the foreigner, and we were under suspicion of the police department at all time. Although, we had an uncle, my father's brother was in the Japanese army, so we were a pretty upstanding family, but still we were under suspicion of the Japanese police department. So we were, all the radios were confiscated, any other thing they could, thought was suspicious were taken away from us.

<End Segment 5> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.