<Begin Segment 31>

MN: Let me ask you short questions about redress. When talks of redress started, did you think that was possible?

MT: No. I didn't think we were going to get anything. And all of a sudden, hey, it became a reality. Like this here. [Laughs]

MN: You used that money for this?

MT: Yeah. See that wall right there to there? That used to be a back of the house. Our door used to be right there, where your light is standing now. That used to be a back door and that's all we had. Said, no, I got the money, let's build it.

MN: Were your parents alive when the redress bill...

MT: Oh, yeah. Wait a minute, my mother was gone. I think my mother was gone, just my father was alive. And my father lived quite a bit longer than my mother. My mother, they used to, I don't know, in Japan they call it kotaizu, they have a container and they put charcoal in there, burning, she used to sit there and smoke. She was a smoker. I said, "You never smoked in America." She said, "Yeah, but I used to hide it from you guys." She didn't want us to see her smoking, but she used to smoke. So anyway, that's the way it was over there.

MN: Now do you think the money and the apology made up for what you and your family lost during the war?

MT: No, uh-uh. If they hadn't put us in camp, you know, like I said, my father was independent. He had enough money to buy both of his things that he needed. So the company, like this guy Friedman, he couldn't tell my dad, you can't do this or you can't do that. He wanted my dad's business, 'cause he knew my dad had the money to buy most of his seeds and fertilizer like that. So we had no problem. And that's what he had to give up. And like I say, the only money we had was two hundred dollars and we took it to Japan, and a few hundred dollars in a savings account, that was it. That was all that's left.

MN: I've asked all my questions. Is there anything you want to add?

MT: No, not really. I've been talking too much. [Laughs] Not much more we can add. Like I said, if it weren't for that money that, redress that you gave us, that wall there to that washing machine like that is, that wouldn't be here. That was the backyard; all this was grass. [Laughs]

MN: Well, thank you, Min, for sharing your story with us.

MT: I hope you can use it, but it's just rambling, that's what it was. But it makes you think about, yeah, we did all those things. It was a hard life, really. [Referring to wife] 'Cause she came back in January in 1950, and I came back in February. And it was around March or April before I even knew that she was back here. Then one day we were talking to my friend, and he said, "Oh, yeah, she's over there. She lives over there." That's where we got, "Hey, you want to go to this? Want to go here? Want to go there?" [Laughs] We got married.

MN: Well, when you had your marriage, were your parents, were they able to attend it?

MT: No. We just had a small... her father and mother was not here either. They were in Japan, too. Then we had our first daughter, and then their father and mother and the two sisters wanted to come back, so they got the money together and sent it to her. And whatever we can, and then they borrowed some from the other places. And then they came back, we went... well, I don't know. If you go to Fourth Avenue and Jefferson, there was a Saito, doctor there. It was a small house by the alley. If you see that small house, you'll say, how can four other people besides me and my wife and a baby live together for a while? Because they came back and they didn't have any money, but the father, boy, he was gung ho. He went out looking for a job right away, he got a job, and he took the family and moved out. Well, he knew they were hard on us. But then he was broke. I give him credit. Well, he feels he's the man of the house and he's supposed to be the responsible person. He went to work at the Tam O'Shanter in downtown L.A., he got a job there. Boy, he stayed there all that time until he retired.

MN: You know, you had a rough life before the war, but your life after the war was also pretty rough. How would you say, how would you compare it?

MT: When we got married, what was the hardest part is I couldn't give her much money. And I started a service station in 1978, I'm sorry, '58, got enough money together and got a service station. In those days, she had two kids by then. How can you feed two kids, her, and she wasn't working? And only gave her a hundred dollars to pay the rent and everything, electric, food, diapers for the kids and everything. She did it all. I give her credit. I just didn't have the money. And the service station that I bought, that guy was just barely doing fourteen thousand gallons a month. And I bought that, and I built that place up to a hundred and thirty thousand. Until then, she had to struggle. I give her credit. That's why I can't say anything bad to her. She says, "jump," I jump. She tells me, "sit down," I sit down. [Laughs] She had a hard life, really. When I think about... only had that much money to give her, a week, and she had to do everything herself. I give her lots and lots of credit. Well, she was one that I wanted to marry.

MN: Well, thank you very much for your story.

<End Segment 31> - Copyright &copy; 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.