<Begin Segment 12>

TI: So while your... okay, so while this is going on, you're still sending letters.

MF: Uh-huh, every day.

TI: Every day. But you decided to step it up even a little bit more because you felt that the letters were good, but you actually sent her...

MF: An engagement ring? [Laughs]

TI: Yeah, so tell that story.

MF: Well, I wanted to send her an engagement ring, diamond ring, stuff like that. So I had gone out and I'd bought this thing, and I don't remember what the jewelry store was. But I got this diamond ring, and I inquired about how to send it, and they says, "Well, if you send it, you have to pay the duty on it." And what was the duty? Well, it was a hundred percent. So I said, "Oh, I can't do that." I figured what I would do is I would go ahead and send her some cosmetics, and I put the diamond ring in the cosmetics. So I what I did is I went and bought a bunch of cosmetics and stuff like that, and I took the face powder, I guess it's face powder, whatever it was, and I put the ring in the middle and filled it back and stuff like that, packed it up and sent it to her. And I wrote her and told her about this, that it was coming. And so it got there, and I guess when it went through customs, I put in some cold cream, and I guess it broke, because she told me it was a mess inside.

TI: So the jar broke or something.

MF: The jar broke and stuff, so they just closed it back up and sent it on, so she got the ring that way. So I'm a smuggler. Of course, the statute of limitations is passed.

TI: Yeah, we can take this out if you're worried about this. Okay, so you make it back to Japan, and tell me about the reunification.

MF: Oh, yeah. What happened is I got back again to Japan. This time I also went by air, another three days and stuff, but it was on, they contracted Flying Tiger with the Super Connies and stuff like that. Lot nicer than the first trip. And went in, got to Tachikawa and I remember I went down, we had a layover to go down to Okinawa. And I asked the sergeant, I said, "Can we go off base?" And he told me, "I don't care where you go." So I went and got a hop and went to Fukuoka. [Laughs] And then basically went out to see her.

TI: And was she expecting you at this point?

MF: Well, she knew I was back in Japan, but she didn't expect me there. Because I told her I was coming back. And so I was walking up this... there was, she had this house, it was just a farmhouse, and there was a long trail going up and there was a stream on the side. And I'm walking up to the thing and she was up in a tree. So she saw me coming from a long distance.

TI: Now, why was she up in a tree?

MF: She was always up in the tree, she was trimming. Yeah, she liked these... in fact, there may be a picture in the book with her up in the tree, she used to climb trees. Finally, when she hit sixty or so, I convinced her she couldn't climb any more trees. But she'd always be up in trees, trimming trees and stuff.

TI: And tell me a little bit about the... I mean, you almost became a, what's the right word? A legend may be not the right word, but people noticed that you were sending a lot of letters.

MF: Oh, yeah, yeah. Because every day... and sometimes what happened, you get thing, and I remember she told me that the postmaster, when a letter wouldn't come, he'd say, "Well, no letter today, you'll have two tomorrow." Because letters from overseas every day, and of course you got the same postmaster. And so people in the village, of course, he knew and then everybody in the village knew and stuff that she was getting all these letters from America.

TI: And so when you showed up, people were...

MF: Oh, yeah. And I'm in uniform.

TI: And it wasn't just her, it was probably, other people were pretty happy to see her.

MF: Well, I don't know, but I'm sure they knew I was there, because I was in uniform.

<End Segment 12> - Copyright © 2016 Densho. All Rights Reserved.