<Begin Segment 12>

TI: What did your family, your parents think about you going to Japan for a year like this?

FS: Well, they were okay with it. Because at that time, the exchange rate was three hundred and sixty yen to the dollar, it was artificially maintained. So the dollar was really strong there, and as it turned out, it was cheaper for me to go there a year and live in a Japanese dorm than it would to stay in Davis and live in an American dorm. And once the financial side of it, my dad had no problems with it, because it turned out to be...

TI: Study abroad's cheaper?

FS: It was cheaper. But the unintended consequence was -- and this happened a long time later, after my grandfather died, because he died in 1983, and he was three says short of being a hundred years old, is that my dad told me that the only time that he had ever saw his father, Itaro, cry, was when I went back to Japan. So I often... see, because he never went back to Japan, so that was a big thing for him.

TI: Oh, and he was the one who left the clue, too, or we talked about his first son who died and he put the address on the tombstone.

FS: Right. And I think he would have wanted to go back to Japan, but when you go back to Japan, those guys want to go back looking good and being successful. And 1940 he was doing pretty good with the eight hundred dollars a month, but he got totally wiped out. Then you reach that age where you don't have time to bounce back.

TI: But then now his grandson returns to Japan as a college student, later on, you go back to Japan, you meet the prime minister.

FS: See, that was them. That was it, is that he knew I was going to go back and visit my grandmother's sister, so I was going right back to his area. Because when I met my grandmother's sister and her husband, my grandmother used to send food and clothes and sugar and coffee and stuff like that back to Japan right after World War II. Because they were really destitute then, I mean, everybody in Japan was like that. So when I showed up, my grandmother's sister... well, my grandmother, she was a real bubbly person and everything, but her husband came up to me and he grabbed my hand like this and he said, he gave me this real big exaggerated shake, and it was like, what's going on here? Because you're not expecting that. And then I thought, well, maybe he doesn't know how you're supposed to shake hands right. But he said, "I always wanted to thank your grandfather, Itaro Shimomura, when he returned, for everything he did for us." And so I was the representative now. I kind of think that's what my grandfather had in mind.

TI: As I listen to this story, it must have felt like such an honor for you to do that, it's almost like completing a circle.

FS: Yeah. But at the time, I didn't have that feeling. But afterwards, when I got a little older and I understood how my grandfather felt about it, you know, when you get a little older, you get more perspective on it, because I'm a grandfather myself now.

TI: No, as you tell the story, I'm in my sixties, and I could feel... I could see how that would feel for your grandfather. I think my grandfather would feel the same way if one of his grandsons were back.

FS: Yeah, because that was a funny thing, because that reminds me of when I was there, my grandmother's sister said, "Hey, Floyd, let's go for a walk, sanpo shimasho, you know." Okay. So she went around and visited, saw one of her neighbors, and they said, "Oh, this is Floyd from California," and so I got invited in. And the daughter came out and served us tea and everything and sat down and had a little chat, that was fine. And then walked a little bit more, and then exactly the same thing happened. Then the daughter comes out, and they're all so awkward, I mean, they couldn't speak English or anything, and got the feeling like they didn't really want to be there. But I was real thick. It wasn't until I got to the third one that suddenly the first two, okay, but when it happened three times in a row, even I started thinking, hey, there's a pattern here. Of course, my grandmother's sister saved the, takes me to the biggest house, they have a swimming pool and everything, that's the third and last stop. So she saves the biggest fish for last, right? But by then I'm suspicious, so I'm really awkward sitting down now. So that was...

TI: And just, maybe more explicitly, what was your grandmother's sister doing?

FS: Yeah, I guess she thought that I was being sent back to Japan to find a wife or something, and, because I guess that was how they used to do it. But the thing is that they would always introduce me as, "Oh, you remember old Itaro went to California? Well, this is his grandson who just came back, and look, he's a university student, goes to the University of California and speaks good English." Which, at that time, was kind of a rare, prestigious thing. And they always go, hmm, like, "Old Itaro must have did pretty well over there." So I kind of think that that was part of this thing that, even my grandfather must have anticipated that I would get taken around the old neighborhood.

TI: That's a good story.

FS: Anyway, that was... but it was one of these things that, at the time, I had one experience with it. But then with time and knowledge, you have a totally different perspective on it, so it's experience and memory that kind of grows with time. What you did doesn't change, but your awareness of what it was changes.

TI: Especially, as you said, you are now a grandfather, right?

FS: Yeah. And so that was... another thing that, her husband had a son that, we went to the beach, and this was my grandmother's sister's son, beautiful beach, and they said, well, after the war, the Americans came and they landed all these military equipment on the beach, and they had soldiers there. And the soldiers would drive, ride on jeeps and everything, and they would give us candy and throw us candy bars and everything. And he says, so I was so happy I got this candy bar, and I brought it home and showed it to my mother, and she said my mother was so embarrassed and told me never to do that again. So I asked my mom, "Why?" And she said she was afraid that a photographer would take a picture from the army, and then it would be in the newspaper in the United States and her sister would see it, "and it looked like you were begging for candy."

TI: Wow, such a proud woman.

FS: Yeah. But the possibilities of that happening seems like it's pretty rare, but hey, that was her mindset.

<End Segment 12> - Copyright © 2019 Densho. All Rights Reserved.