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TI: Okay, so let's talk about your brothers and sisters. So starting from the oldest, I know even... oldest to the youngest, why don't you talk about your...

MO: Misao was my oldest, older than me. And Norman, Nozomu is younger than me, then there's Megumi, and there's Ai, and there's Harumi. And then this Ellen was born after the war, (1946).

TI: So age-wise, so Misao was like a year older than you, Nozomu was a year younger.

MO: Year younger. And Megumi was a couple of years younger than Norm, so she's three years younger than me.

TI: Okay. And then Ai, how much younger was she?

MO: Ai was... gee, I was born in, let's see... she was born in, I don't know, I haven't got that here.

TI: But just about how much younger was she?

MO: She must have been about five years younger than me.

TI: Okay, and then Harumi?

MO: Harumi was born in 1934.

TI: Okay, 1934. So Ellen was born a lot later.

MO: Yeah, ('46).

TI: Okay. So she's like, yeah, she's twenty years younger than you are.

MO: Oh, yeah.

TI: So you could almost be her father.

MO: Well, I don't actually know her that well.

TI: Yeah, because of the age difference.

BY: Can you talk about Misao? She has an interesting story.

MO: She was, after she was born, she was adopted by that family, my aunt Miyamoto.

BY: Is that because they didn't have any children?

MO: Yeah.

TI: And when you think about that, was that fairly common? Did you know of any other families that another family member adopted?

MO: Maybe that's... I don't know at those days.

TI: Okay, but it just happened in your family. So earlier you mentioned how you went to Japan with, I think, your father and Norm when you were quite young. Tell me why, again, why you guys went to Japan.

MO: They had problems with my brother's ear operation, so they took him to Japan, I think. And he left him there and he grew up in Japan, actually. He never came back to Canada until after the war. So I didn't spend any... during that time, so he was a stranger to me when I saw him when he came back.

TI: Do you have any memories of going to Japan with...

MO: I don't.

TI: So people just told you that that's what happened?

MO: Yeah. That's a picture.

TI: Yeah, it's good that you have these photographs to bring on memories. And you mentioned that your brother had some ear problems. So why would you go to Japan?

MO: I don't know whether they couldn't do anything in Canada or not at that time.

TI: So it sounds like your father may have thought that the medical practices was better in Japan for this?

MO: I guess so, yeah.

TI: So he wanted to do that. And then did you ever hear why he stayed in Japan? Was it because of his ear problem?

MO: Well, my dad has to come back, whether he has to come back to fishing, or actually, Norm got stuck with my grandparents and stayed there.

TI: Okay, so it's kind of interesting that your older sibling, and the one underneath you, were essentially gone. So you're kind of the oldest brother?

MO: Yeah, I was the oldest in the family.

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