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MN: Now can you share a little bit about your mother's background? Where was she born?

KI: She was born in San Francisco. She was born in San Francisco, her parents were from Japan of course and they somehow were one of those people, immigrants that went to Hawaii. And they worked as domestics for hakujin people and when they moved to San Francisco they took my mother with them. I mean they took my mother's mother with them. And then so she was born in San Francisco. So that's where she was born.

MN: Now after your mother was born in San Francisco, how old was she when she was sent to Fukuoka?

KI: Well, first I think the family did go to Berkeley because my mother talked about being in Berkeley and going to grammar school there and being there when the big Berkeley fire happened. And so I don't know the first time that she went to Japan probably she went... she probably went back with them when she was young girl maybe like five or six, because she had three older sisters that were also born in the United States. And so when they went to Japan the parents left them all there and they stayed there. But my mother, I guess they did go back and forth because my mother said she never finished school and she felt very inferior about that. 'Cause she said she would go to school here couple years and then she would go back to Japan, go to school couple years there and come back over here. And so she actually never graduated. So she felt... she says, oh I can't speak English, I can't do this and it's just very you know. So she was in Japan at the time that my father's friends were saying it's about time he got married, yeah. So it's kind of like a baishakunin, mutual friends says I guess it was... anyway he said, "I'm going to Japan so I will go to look see if I can find somebody."

MN: And both of them were from the same Fukuoka-ken?

KI: Yeah, just happened to be, yeah.

MN: And the same mura?

KI: Uh-huh.

MN: Before you go into where your folks got married though, you said your mother came back and forth. How were your grandparents able to afford bringing --

KI: That's what I can't imagine. I mean, I know my mother was not the only one that was going back and forth. I've heard a lot of people who said that they remember their sisters or somebody going back and forth all the time. And I'm pretty sure they went third class which meant down in the galley or whatever you call, it you know. But it's amazing that they went, I was always amazed at that so I don't know how they could afford it and yet they did.

MN: And then your mother, she went to school in America for a while and then in Japan for a while. What was her primary language?

KI: Japanese, yeah, Japanese 'cause she spoke with her parents in Japanese.

MN: Now you were saying that your mother also had sisters? Now how many sisters did they have and how many were born in the United States and how many in Japan and where did they all end up?

KI: My mother was the only one that lived in the United States, the rest of them are all in Japan. I think my mother, let's see, one, two, three... I think four of them, my mother was towards the bottom or three quarters of the way down. I think she was the last one that was born here in the United States.

<End Segment 2> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.