<Begin Segment 6>

MN: Now where did you land in Japan?

AI: Yokohama.

MN: What was your first impression of Yokohama?

AI: No idea.

MN: What was one of first things they made you do when you arrived in Japan?

AI: Well, the funny is when you go to Japan it seems like all the children get the boil and it gets real itchy, eventually you scratch and they'll get infected. And to prevent that they said, "Eat lot of tofu." So I remember we're eating a lot of tofu on the first day in the Yokohama hotel. But we didn't have a boil then but when we got on the train from Yokohama to Hiroshima, boils start coming out. I would start scratching and I had that problem for a few years in Japan, first three or four years.

MN: Was it something to do with the water?

AI: You know, I don't know why the adults don't get but only the children gets that. And it wasn't just us. I talked to a lot of the others, the same thing. I guess just the weather change caused that.

MN: Now when you got Hiroshima, who did you live with your mother's side or your father's side?

AI: I lived with the uncle and my grandparents.

MN: And where did they live?

AI: Hiroshima.

MN: Near the city?

AI: In the city, yes.

MN: In the city.

AI: Yeah, in the middle of the city.

MN: Did you get to meet your mother's side at all?

AI: Not at the time. Probably did but I don't remember.

MN: When you first arrived in Hiroshima, how much Japanese did you speak?

AI: I don't think very much. Probably we may not even call Japanese. [Laughs]

MN: Did you get teased by the other kids because you were from America?

AI: Yes, mostly by clothing that we wear. We took the apron pants and jeans and so forth. You never see that in Japan. And I assume we were talking funny too because probably mixing some of the English in it and the Japanese word may not be like in Japan. Even here we have all the Niseis and Sanseis they kind of talk funny Japanese, funny accent and I assume that's what it is so they immediately start teasing us from first day they saw us and they start teasing us. And I remember that I got home and I complained to my auntie that I don't want to wear this clothes anymore. They've been calling us all kinds of names.

MN: When you say "eipuron pantsu," that's the overalls?

AI: Overalls, they used to call it apron pants because of the apron in the front.

MN: Now what about the teachers? How did they treat you?

AI: There wasn't any difference I don't think because in Japan in those days there's fifty students in the class. And the teacher cannot be teaching one student separately. I don't think they'll even see who's who there out of the fifty people in the classroom.

MN: Now what grade were you put into?

AI: I was, my age I was supposed to go into second but I guess my Japanese wasn't good enough so I got put into first grade with my brother together.

MN: How did that feel like to be in the same class as your younger brother?

AI: I didn't like it but not much I can say. I had to do what they say.

MN: So you know the other students are teasing you, did you get into a lot of fights?

AI: I didn't really have a so-called fight but I guess I had been older, one year older than classmate so in that respect I had more of a... I guess my brother was teased more than I did because he was smaller and younger. It really didn't bother me much what they say but the clothing really bothered me.

MN: Did a lot of the teasing stop after you got more Japanese clothing?

AI: Yes, eventually they stopped. I guess I start talking like them and I start wearing clothes like them so then teasing stopped.

<End Segment 6> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.