<Begin Segment 15>

TI: You're, after three months then you got the paperwork done, and so you come back to America.

PF: Yeah.

TI: And so where did you, how did you come to America? Was it by ship or is it by plane?

PF: No, no, ships. We came. Gordon, that was Gordon boat, yeah. It looked like you were in the water all the time, Gordon, third floor. But...

TI: And then would you go to San Francisco?

PF: Yeah, San Francisco, and then my father and mother came and picked me up.

TI: Okay, so tell me when you first when saw your, you were reunited with your mother and father, how was that for you? Because it's been a long time.

PF: Yeah, ten year, almost ten year, yeah.

TI: And you probably changed a lot. You were a little girl, and now you're a young woman.

PF: Yeah. And my father said, "Oh, you didn't get sick or nothing?" I said, "No." I was there almost nine and a half year, ten year, but I tell myself I can't afford to get sick, no doctor. So he said, "Oh, yeah." And my mother was surprised, yeah. Suppose I was weak and got sick all the time? What am I gonna do? But no, I was healthy.

TI: How about your mother and father? Did they look different after all those years?

PF: Yeah, my father got older, my mother, yeah. And then I said I'm going to stay with my mother until I get married, and go help them with the farm work. That's what I was worried about, they were farmers. So I had to help 'em. But I said I don't want to marry a farmer. [Laughs]

TI: Because it's too hard work?

PF: No, but I said I want to marry somebody who got a small farm, then I could marry. But lucky I married a watch repair man, and he was college education.

TI: Well, let's keep going on this story. So you meet your mother and father, and do they have a farm in San Jose?

PF: Yeah, they were strawberry. Small, three acre or something like that, we came home to.

TI: And there were just the two of them that lived there?

PF: Yeah, two.

TI: Okay, so you come, and then did they, at that point, tell you about Heart Mountain?

PF: No, no. My mother and father didn't talk about Heart Mountain. Because they're sitting in a place that no bomb. Like me, I was sitting where the bomb is, so I think my father and mother didn't like to talk about it, what I went through. So they never asked me.

TI: Oh, so they didn't ask you about Japan?

PF: No, they don't ask. They don't ask. If I pop it out and say something, but they didn't ask me. They never asked me how every day I was living.

TI: Do you think they felt maybe a little guilty or bad that you...

PF: I don't know how they feel, but what's past, past, I say. We were home together, so we do everything together.

TI: Now how about your other brothers and sisters? So did your sister come back to America?

PF: Eight years later, those two came back.

TI: Your brother and sister.

PF: Brother and my sister came back. Then, ten years later, my sister decides to go back again, so they went back with five kids. But I told her, "You know, your kid lost ten years coming to America, now you take 'em back," and then I said, "They're not gonna study Japanese." And she said they will because mother and father is with them. And I said, "Uh-uh. Mother and father with you, but they're ten year, twenty year different now." I said, "Think about that." That's why my sister and I, we didn't get along, because they took it back. And guess what? They didn't go school, they went one year, one and a half year, and then what? They're selling tickets, lunch, and train, and none of 'em have a college education. Who they got to marry? Korean wife and somebody. And she spoiled her five kids. And then now she lost her husband and she's herself there. Nobody can help her. The kids don't like it.

TI: But for her, she wanted to go back to Japan because she liked Japan better?

PF: No, because her husband want to go back. And the husband didn't want to learn English, and he say he can't go to the bar. I said, "You don't have to know English to go to a bar." I said, "You could have good time. Why you taking your kid?" I said, "Your mother spoiled ten year, we went to Japan, and then now you're doing ten year and you're spoiling your kid." I said, "Why you do that?" But he said he want to go back, so they went back.

TI: Now going back to your story, when you came back to San Jose, did you ever see some of your old friends from before? Before you left, like classmates from school?

PF: Yeah, few, few, but they're all gone now. They're all grown up. I was short, yeah. And then I said, "Oh, look at that," I told my father, "I could be tall if I was in America." No, but my, yeah, girlfriends, yeah, because we were same age.

TI: So did they ever ask you about Japan?

PF: No, they never asked one question. They didn't say, "How was Japan," or what.

TI: Why do you think that?

PF: I don't know why they didn't ask. If they say something, I'd tell 'em, but they didn't ask me, "How was Japan?" or what. I tell 'em, if they ask me, I'd tell 'em, but yeah.

TI: How about, did you ask them, especially the Japanese American friends, did you ask them about the war years and going to maybe a camp?

PF: Camp, they went to camp, huh? I didn't ask them.

TI: Now, why didn't you ask them? [Laughs] They didn't ask you and you didn't ask them, how come?

PF: No. Yeah, I said, only thing I said, that, gee, if I was here, I wouldn't be this short, I'd be taller. Yeah, and then I said, and then I'd be educated. I missed them. We weren't going to school, I didn't go high school. That I said, oh... yeah, we didn't talk about, we hardly talk about how Japan was, how we were there. We didn't talk about it.

TI: And so what kind of work did you do in San Jose, now you're back living with your parents?

PF: Oh, I was a strawberry picker. Yeah, doing strawberry, and then I said, wow, I can't get married if my father don't quit strawberry. [Laughs] I didn't want to leave 'em there. But my sister came back from Japan and lived next to my father, so, yeah, that's right. It was good, because I was married already.

<End Segment 15> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.