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DG: So do you think their intention was constantly to go back to Japan?

GF: Always go back to Japan. As soon as the children grew older.

DG: How many brothers and sisters?

GF: I have three brothers, see... yeah, myself included. Three boys, and one girl. And she says, I remember that she said, "Now, we're all going back to Japan." My grandfather died, but she went back to Japan. We, took us all there and says, "Now, you three, four kids, you have to have Japanese education because you're Japanese." And I said, "I don't want to go to Japan. Why should I go to Japan? I have to speak English, it's better off than speaking -- nobody speaks Japanese out here." But she says, "No, you have to go back." So we went back, and Mother and Father left us there.

DG: What years?

GF: That was 1925.

DG: 1925 and you were born in 1915, so you were ten years old.

GF: I was ten years old. I just, I was in grammar school, I just finished grammar school, I think, about that age. So then we went back there and I remember my mother going to the graveyard, says, "Father, I came back, as I promised you I'd come back, and I brought my husband with me." And I thought, "Gee, that's kind of nice." But I was small and I didn't know too much about these things. But I remember we got to the graveyard site and she says, "Sit down there. This is where grandfather is buried."

<End Segment 8> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.