<Begin Segment 2>

TI: And then you said, you were talking, so he got sick, and then after USC he got sick, and then decided to go into business, you said?

FD: Yes.

TI: So pick up the story there, what happened?

FD: Oh, he decided that he would publish a little magazine that translated English articles into Japanese, so he did that for a few years.

TI: So he was fluent enough in English that he could read these articles and translate them into Japanese. And then, I guess, his audience would be the other Japanese, just...

FD: Yes, the immigrants.

TI: So an early publisher, I guess.

FD: Yes. But he said it was just a small magazine.

TI: And this was in Southern California, Los Angeles?

FD: Yes.

TI: And then what did he do?

FD: Well, and then about 1920, he went to Japan for the first time since he had come over here, and he went to a Sunday school. Oh, he was involved in religion somehow, the Christian religion, because he went to Tokyo to attend a Sunday school convention, and that was about 1920. And then while he was in Japan he decided to go from Tokyo down to Kyushu to visit his relatives there. And things happened, and, well, he stayed there for about... let's see, I think it was three or four months. I'm so old that I've forgotten a lot of little details, but I've written it all down.

TI: Well, and I've read some of your writing, so during this time period, one of the things that you wrote was that it sounded like he met a woman during this time?

FD: Yes. Wait a minute... well, I wrote a story about his visit to Japan where he met a woman, and they apparently had an affair.

TI: Right, and unbeknownst to him, had a son.

FD: Yeah. But then he never knew that he had a son until years later when the son was already grown. And so I think I wrote the story.

TI: You did, yeah, and I read that, it was a really touching story about how this woman, in the story her name was Sumi, never contacted him.

FD: Yes, for some strange reason. And I thought it was because of what they called enryo, that is polite self-restraint, she didn't want to bother him with this news, good or bad.

TI: But eventually she remarried, had other children, and at that point contacted when, you're right, their son had grown up. Just, I guess just to let him know in some ways, but with no expectation, I think, but just to let him know that he had a son.

FD: Uh-huh, I think so. I've forgotten the details. Anyway, I wrote about it.

TI: Yeah, that was a really touching story of how your father felt, in some ways, when he found out, guilty and sad, but recognized it was too late, because by then he had already married someone else, your mother, and started a family, and essentially expressed his regrets. It was a beautiful story.

<End Segment 2> - Copyright © 2016 Densho. All Rights Reserved.