<Begin Segment 4>

TI: Okay, so as you're growing up what, what happened as you got older in Japan? Why did you come back to the United States?

SK: I came back because my aunt, with whom I lived, passed away. She died when I was ten going on eleven. So my uncle, my father's older brother -- was section foreman also, just north of Spokane, at a place called Chewelah -- came back to Japan and made the arrangements and before I knew it, I was destined to return to Spokane to join my mother and my brother. And my mother had remarried in the meantime. So I traveled alone with some other Issei bound for Spokane and I came back to Spokane in 1927 -- year Lindbergh flew across.

TI: How did you feel about leaving Japan?

SK: I was happy to do so because I felt, here I am going back to the country where I was born, and to rejoin my mother and my brother, other brother whom I hadn't seen in six years.

TI: And how about your siblings, did they know that you were leaving and did you communicate with them before you left?

SK: I don't recall seeing some of my siblings. I know I saw my younger sister in Kobe, and, and, of course, my younger brother whom I left in Japan. But other than that, I recall I was very happy to be coming back to the United States. And of course, I was going on eleven and when school started I was eleven. And because my birth month is June, you see. And here I am, first day of school I'm eleven years old and I'm placed in 1B. In those days every, every grade was divided into two. 1B, 1A, 2B, 2A and so forth. And I'm in 1B. Biggest and the oldest kid in class. And everything went well except around, well, mid-morning, teacher suddenly turned towards me and called me by my newly acquired name, Spady, blah, blah, blah. And then we all went out and played. So at noontime when I got home for lunch, I told my brother, I said, "She called me by my name and said something and we all went out and played." He said, "Wait a minute. Did a bell ring?" I said, "Yeah, a bell rang, and then she called me by my name." And, and he said, "Well, that's because you're the biggest kid in class and you're the oldest and she wants you to take charge because that's the recess bell that rang." So I said, "What am I supposed to do?" "You just tell the kids, 'Let's go out and play.'" I memorized that: "Let's go out and play." That afternoon, sure enough, the bell rings again, she turns towards me, "Spady," she said, blah, blah, blah. I said, "That's my cue." I stood up, cleared my throat, and I said, "All right you guys, ret's, ret's go out and pray." And the teacher laughs the loudest, and that night I told, I told my brother, "Oh, these happy-go-lucky American kids, I told them, "Ret's go out and pray.'" And he said, "I didn't tell you say that. You should have said, "Let's go out and play.'"

TI: That's a good story.

<End Segment 4> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.