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TI: In the notes I saw that your oldest brother, Frank, and your older sister went to Japan?

KT: Yeah, yeah.

TI: So tell me about that. Why did the two of them go to Japan?

KT: I don't know when this was, but it must've been around '20, before I was born I think. They made a trip back to Japan and it was decided that they would leave my sister and my oldest brother in Japan, then Tak, Takeshi and Satoshi they brought back here. And I don't know, maybe they wanted him to get a Japanese education or something. I don't know.

TI: Or as the oldest son, maybe in terms of just, like an heir to the family property.

KT: Yeah, yeah.

TI: And so when you were born, was Frank and your sister in Japan?

KT: Yeah, they were in Japan.

TI: Okay. So you, in some ways, didn't even know you had another brother and sister.

KT: No, no. I think I was in second grade when Frank came to the States. And I must've been, I must've been a senior in high school when my sister came, 'cause she, she graduated and she was at, she went to, like a normal school, and she was a teacher and she taught at different places. And she was, they said she should come to the States and learn tailoring, how to take patterns and so forth, so that's what she did. She came here to learn that and then she, she intended to go back, but the war started so she couldn't go back.

TI: Interesting. Now, how was it for her adapting to the United States? I mean, here's your sister, but she essentially was raised in Japan 'til she was in her early twenties, then all of a sudden Japan -- how was that for her?

KT: I really don't know because I... you know, it wasn't too long after that the war started. We sent her, there was a lady teaching sewing and how to take patterns and everything in Auburn, and she was living off of her, so I never... maybe it's because of the language, I don't know. I never did really sit down and talk with her much, until we got to Utah.

TI: Yeah, we'll come back to that later, but yeah, I'm gonna do that 'cause I know you stayed with her.

KT: Now, she got married in Tule Lake.

TI: Right.

<End Segment 5> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.