<Begin Segment 18>

MN: Now before the war, when she found out your mother had passed away, where was she living?

MY: She was in Portland, Oregon, but she says, "You know, I didn't have too much then." I mean, times were hard, but still she wanted to take us in and raise us as her kids. Because she had one son that she lost early and she wanted to take care of us.

MN: After you reconciled with your father, did you two ever visit Hiroshima together?

MY: No. Before he passed away he used to come out every year, and I told him me and the older brother Hiro was going to go to Japan on a tour. "Don't you want to come?" I says, "We'll take you to Japan." "No, I don't want to go." He refused to go and I found out that my aunt was saying something like to the effect that he was sort of like a black sheep or outlaw in the family, but he never wanted to go. I thought maybe if he went with us he could take us to show us different places, but he wouldn't go. Yeah, I wanted him to go but he wouldn't go. This was in about 1980 so we went on a tour to Japan but we didn't know anything.

MN: Did you ever learn about your mother's side?

MY: Yeah, I had a cousin that was... this must have been about 1960, I guess. Anyway, after I found out that we had an aunt, she sort of kept in contact with us. And this cousin was in New York with her husband and she was pregnant and wanted to have the baby in Japan. So then she was talking to my aunt and my aunt says, "Yeah, you know, you have a cousin in California. When you go there, I'll have him pick you up, you can stay with him." 'Cause she had talked to me earlier. I said, "Yeah, if she wants to stop by I'll be glad to pick her up." So I went to the airport and picked her up, but it's tough being... conversing in Japanese when I can hardly understand myself. And I learned a few things about my mother's side. She came from a big family. I think there was something like eleven or twelve siblings, and she told me they were all real well... did real well in Japan. Like one was a mayor or something, another was a ship builder, but when she came she stayed with us for about a week and we had her address and everything, but we never kept in contact. Well, when we went on this tour, we had lost the address, we couldn't find anything so we didn't know anything. And it was too bad because if we would've known I would have looked them up. I'm pretty sure she was telling us quite a few of my mother's relatives were in Osaka. And we had gone through there, but like looking for a needle in a haystack, so I never got in contact with anybody. It's too bad because my dad, I mean, he knew everything but he wouldn't say too much. And my aunt, when we'd see her, she'd tell us a few things but we didn't see her that long.

MN: Now your mother died in 1933?

MY: Yeah.

MN: When did you locate her ashes?

MY: After we came back from... after I got married and my dad came out. Yeah, after he came out and we went to the Fukui Mortuary, and my mother's ashes were still there. So then we got the ashes, we bought a little plot in Evergreen Cemetery and we buried her there. And we had a little service there. This was... must have been around 1960, somewhere around there. So she was at Fukui Mortuary for quite a while.

MN: How did you know her ashes were there?

MY: My dad knew. We would have never known, 'cause Memorial Day they used to take us to Evergreen Cemetery and I guess some of the other kids had relatives... somebody that was there. But I'd go there and I'd get a few flowers and I thought it was my mother but it wasn't. Because I found out later that my mother's ashes were at the Fukui Mortuary. And I remember when I was in Shonien they used to take us to Evergreen once in a while, Memorial Day.

MN: So was your father paying Fukui Mortuary to keep her ashes there?

MY: I don't think so. I really don't know.

MN: So when you had the burial at Evergreen, was your father present?

MY: Yeah, he came and that's when we buried her there.

MN: And she's still buried at Evergreen?

MY: She's still buried at Evergreen. And so when my father passed away in Chicago, we went to Chicago. In fact, when he was sick, he had a brain tumor and he passed away from a brain tumor. But my aunt called and says, "Hey, your dad's pretty sick," so we went to visit him and things and then not too long he passed away. Well, we went for a funeral service and then had the ashes, we brought it back and buried him in Evergreen with my mother.

MN: Your experience with your father, has that affected your... how you raised your children?

MY: I guess so because I don't think I would have ever, even if something happened to my wife, I would have never let them go. I would have kept them with me as long as I could. In fact, one of my friends lost his wife very... when the kids were real young and that's what I told him. I says, 'Don't ever let your kids go." I said, "It's not a good experience."

<End Segment 18> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.