<Begin Segment 8>

MN: Okay, now in 1938 when you were eleven years old, your father sent Masao to Japan. Now, why was he sent to Japan?

YY: Because he said he's so intelligent he should get a Japanese education.

MN: So now you have three brothers in Japan. How did your mother feel about this?

YY: Well, you can imagine, but she's not vocal about it. But I know it must have been sad because he was the closest to her. Because he learned things from her. Like they'd make little bookmarks (...) and helped with the dishes, very close to her. So when he was sent, it must have broke her heart.

MN: How did you feel?

YY: Well, I miss him, but I'm not like my mom, you know, because gosh, I only already had two brothers here. I wasn't as sad as my mother, but I didn't like to see him go, but he had no choice, that's the problem. He was fifteen.

MN: So what your father said went.

YY: Yeah. But when he wanted to take me, I said, "Absolutely no. I'm not going."

MN: So Masao, who did he live with?

YY: He lived with the relative, probably aunt and uncle. [Interruption] So I think he saved up enough money to fly to Hawaii, just take off. Then he went to high school there and he joined the army.

MN: This is right before the war that he ended up in Hawaii. And then he lived with another family.

YY: Tango or something. He was ready to take that name, he said, because they were so good to him. He earned his money in a bowling alley, set those pins up, you know. It was kind of sad, we all scattered, I think.

MN: So he didn't want to come back to the family.

YY: Well, he had a family there, actually, and then he was going to school. So I guess what can he come back to? Let's see, was it just me and my brother and my father? I don't know, I can't remember.

MN: Oh, by then, 'cause your mother had passed away.

YY: Uh-huh.

MN: And then I guess you mentioned that during, when World War II started, Masao was teaching at the MIS Camp Savage.

YY: Right, uh-huh. He's good at Chinese, too.

MN: So your oldest brother, Takeo, he's still living in United States. What plans did your father have for Takeo?

YY: He wanted him to be an insurance man, but he wasn't too interested. He also took him to the golf course, wanted him to be able to golf. He loved golfing, my brother was good at golfing, but he wanted him to be an insurance man, but wasn't interested.

MN: I want to ask a little bit about your father a little bit more. He wrote some books.

YY: Yes, he did.

MN: What kind of books did he write?

YY: He wrote Naked America, Hadaka no Amerika. He detested Roosevelt, he really said what he thought, and he said, "Well, I can't publish it here, so I'm going to go to Japan and publish it." And about Hollywood, everything he wanted to ask me about, certain things. He also wrote a health book. He was very health conscious.

MN: And these were all in Nihongo?

YY: Yeah.

MN: Have you translated them?

YY: Well, J.K. started, but it's such a big, so much of it. I don't think he finished it. I think he still has it, but I don't know when he'll get to it.

MN: And J.K. is your son.

YY: Yes.

<End Segment 8> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.