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BN: Yes, what I was going to ask you about that I forgot was about Japanese language school. Did you and your brother attend Japanese school?

SM: Well, that's kind of an interesting and embarrassing part of my life. My father, being an expert in Japanese language, tried very hard to get me to go to Japanese language school. For some reason, at that age, age nine, I was not interested. I had no desire to learn Japanese, at least the reading and the writing portion. And I can remember my father kept urging me and my mother kept urging me, and my mother kept urging me, but I refused. I wanted to go to American school, learn English, and be with my friends. So that was kind of a part of my life I'm really not proud of, but at least my father tried.

BN: I did the same thing. Given that your family was relatively well-off, did they ever go back on trips to Japan?

SM: I don't remember his taking trips to Japan. One thing that was always interesting, we have a family photo of our family at Yellowstone park in Wyoming in 1936, before the war, before we went to Heart Mountain. And looking in hindsight, I would think, my god, Father's able to afford taking a family on a vacation to Wyoming from San Francisco, he must be doing pretty well. And he bought a new house, and so I guess that's a measure of success, to be able to do things like that. So I have a photograph of our family at the geyser at Yellowstone park.

BN: Interesting. Are there a lot of family photos or studio photos and so on?

SM: Well, there were a number. Unfortunately -- and I remember this clearly -- after December the 7th, my father had a, some premonition that the government would come after him. And so what he did, he burned almost everything. I remember that fireplace was blazing day and night, he was burning everything: books, photo albums, camera films. And so a lot of our photographic records were, went up in flames. Maybe it was paranoia on his part, but the point is, at least he was smart trying to make sure he doesn't get caught with evidence that he was a spy. But I remember that very clearly.

BN: Well, as a newspaper editor, community leader, he had good reason to be fearful.

SM: Precisely. And I remember the FBI coming to the house examining him and looking through all of our equipment, oh yeah, very clear.

BN: And this may seem like an odd question, but do you remember the family car?

SM: A family...

BN: A family car.

SM: A car? Oh. We did not have a car before the war. I guess traffic, I mean, public transportation was adequate. But no, we did not have a car until after camp. And I was the driver and my brother was a driver.

BN: Okay.

<End Segment 4> - Copyright © 2022 Densho. All Rights Reserved.