<Begin Segment 11>

[Translated from Japanese]

TF: Mike wrote to me every day.

NM: From the States?

TF: Yes. My mother was looking over my shoulder and was wondering how I was able to decipher letters looking like broken nails. [Laughs]

NM: You received a letter every single day?

TF: Almost.

NM: He told you he was coming back?

TF: "I will come back for sure. Don't worry."

NM: He asked you to wait for him. What were people around you saying?

TF: They didn't say anything.

NM: Did anyone tell you he was not going to come back?

TF: No, no one did. They thought it was no use telling me.

NM: How about other couples? I'm assuming some people were together in Japan but got separated after American soldiers went back to their country.

TF: There were people like that in the city, but not in my village. I was the only one who went out with an American soldier.

NM: I see.

TF: No one else in the area.

NM: You were receiving a letter every day.

TF: Almost every day. It sometimes skipped. He didn't have any stamps and had to wait until next payday to buy more. [Laughs] I wasn't sure if it was going to work out. [Laughs]

NM: Did you write back to him?

TF: I didn't at the beginning. I didn't entirely trust him or count on him to come back. I was ready to give up on it. I was trying to see how long it would go on. I am always a quiet observer. I was trying to figure out if I could trust him and didn't ask too many questions. I didn't want to receive a lot of information to analyze. I decided to quietly and patiently wait to see if it was going to continue.

NM: You were calmly waiting.

TF: That's how I am. I remember my teacher. He was an art teacher and agreed to be a guarantor for our marriage. I was not in his class, but he was always encouraging me. He visited my mother and asked her to send me to higher educational institute. He said it was going to help me. He was visiting my mother when I was a student. I heard it from my elder sister. My mother told him she had no intentions of sending her daughters to school. We lived in a rural area, and I didn't have access to any information about scholarships or other opportunities. I would have taken off if I had had more information.

NM: I believe you probably would have.

TF: I didn't have any information and just had to put up with it. My elder sisters came home for holidays like Bon and the new year. They were always exhausted. Their life must have been stressful. They slept day and night, and I was wondering what they came back for. My mother was busy cooking for them. I saw her making a lot of food. I thought it was ridiculous. They were married to wealthy men, and that was what they were doing.

NM: They life must have been full of stress.

TF: I decided I was not going to get married.

NM: You did not want to do what your sisters did.

TF: I did not.

NM: Did you want to get out of there?

TF: I think I did, but I didn't have courage. I didn't know how. I would have taken off if I had had any knowledge about scholarships.

NM: You don't think you would have gotten married.

TF: I would have taken off, but I didn't have any information. I thought my life was practically over. I wrote it in my diary, and I gave up on it. It was in the middle of the second year at middle school. My father passed away, and I gave up hope. I was always frustrated.

NM: Michael came into your life and offered something new.

TF: It is a strange fate.

NM: It was good timing, too.

TF: I was willing to marry a penniless private from a poor family.

NM: You were.

TF: You never know how it works.

[Interruption]

<End Segment 11> - Copyright © 2016 Densho. All Rights Reserved.