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BN: And then you mentioned that after a while, your mother in particular really wanted to go back. So you were there for how long?

SM: Three years.

BN: And then you mentioned you were able to go back to the home?

SM: Yes.

BN: What did your father then do for a living once he returned?

SM: Well, my father, I have to give him a lot of credit. He used the skills that he had remaining short of being able to see. And what he did was he continued writing, he wrote many books. Finished the textbooks, finished the dictionary, started his travelogue and so forth. But he also knew that that wasn't enough income. So what he did was he created a school in our home. We had a big house in the back that was a very large room, almost like an auditorium size. And he converted that to a school, and what he did was he taught English for Japanese people who wanted to learn English. And one thing he did create was a school for war brides who had married occupation forces after the war and brought the wives back. And he found out these wives wanted two things: they wanted to learn English, and they wanted to get citizenship, they wanted to become a citizen of the U.S. So he created a special class for war brides to teach them the proper use of English. And also, he taught them how to pass an examination to become naturalized to be a U.S. citizen. And he wrote a book, How to Become an American Citizen in Japanese language. So that's how we made a living. He was always thinking about how to get income to help our family survive.

BN: It's actually pretty ingenious.

SM: Yes, you have to admit, he was always thinking about how to make a living and support the family with his handicap.

BN: Yes, when you think about it, that's a really... yeah, that's a really ready market that was necessary.

SM: He had a very unusual skill in that regard.

BN: Because of his English ability, too.

SM: Right.

BN: Wow.

SM: He was also, it turns out, he also realized the cost of living and the demand for places to stay. So he converted our house into a, he became a slumlord. He packed people in our house, all kinds of people. Our main living quarters on the second floor, for example, he converted the living room at the front into a dental office. And the dentist and his wife lived in the next room next to the living room, and that became the office and the living quarters for the dentist. And then I was on the third floor living with my grandparents, my father's side, and an aunt moved in, and then my parents were on the third floor. And on the first floor, he rented out to another family. We had a house packed with people, and I didn't realize at that time, but obviously he had a mortgage to serve and he wanted to make sure he did it right.

BN: Well, then also, housing was in really short supply.

SM: Housing was in short supply.

BN: Was this something that you only did after you moved back or even before you moved back?

SM: Oh, no, this happened after. Because before the war, you had the income, the means to be able to afford all that.

BN: I mean in the period when you were in Salt Lake City.

SM: Oh, in Salt Lake City.

BN: Was the house being used in that way?

SM: No, no, the house was our home, it was just four of us in a house.

BN: No, no, I mean when you were in Salt Lake City and your friends were looking after the house.

SM: Oh, back in San Francisco?

BN: Yes, was it being rented in that way?

SM: Oh, I don't know. I don't think so.

BN: So that only took place after you moved back to San Francisco?

SM: Yes, right.

BN: I was just wondering because housing was in such short supply right after the war, so there would have been a great demand for a big house like that. Again, that's an ingenious adaptation that your father came up with because there was such a demand for that.

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