<Begin Segment 3>

LH: And then from what I understand, your family had sort of an unusual makeup?

MS: Yeah, both my parents were married before. My mother was widowed when she first was over here. She was working in the lumber camps with her husband and he had appendicitis, and at that time they actually just put 'em on the table there and operated and it was very unsanitary and therefore he died of infection. At the time, she was pregnant so she had to go back to Japan 'cause she had no one here to help her. And then my dad, in the meantime, was already here, they didn't know each other. But he was married, had a wife that he had left back in Japan along with Chiyo and her brother. Because he was working he got... he came here first as a young man, he went back, got married, and then he came back working for, I think it's Takahashi Import, and, you know, that kind of work where you go back and forth. So he didn't see any point in bringing his wife over here since his mindset was that he was going to be back in Japan.

LH: Shortly?

MS: Yeah, uh-huh, all the time. Something happened to their marriage and so then they were divorced. And so then, then there was a baishakunin, which is an older woman that arranged marriages, and they arranged a marriage between my mother and my dad 'cause by that time my mother had come back to the United States knowing that a widow with one child doesn't have much chance of getting anywhere. They were very poor and she needed to find some way of making a living and then eventually have her son come over here. Well, they got together, they got married and had the family. In the meantime, her son was being raised by her mother back in Japan and then in the meantime he was starting this family with her here and it was growing and times were hard, yeah.

LH: Your oldest sister is, your oldest sister is a half-sister on your father's side?

MS: Uh-huh.

LH: I see, and then you have an older half-brother on your mother's side?

MS: That's right, that's the one that was being raised by the grandmother. And then when the grandmother got too old, then my mother went back to Japan to bring him back but not to have him live with us. Because, you know, we were very poor, and he had already three of us and then a daughter that he had brought over to take care of us. So the idea was the best opportunities would be provided for him if he lived with an aunt and uncle who were childless and had -- they were quite well-to-do, in Denver.

LH: Oh, in Denver?

MS: Uh-huh. And so he was brought there immediately going from Japan straight to Denver.

LH: How old was he at the time?

MS: He must have been high school, well, maybe older. He was old enough because I have pictures of him. It's hard to tell because they dress him up even if they're younger and he...

LH: Old enough to understand the situation.

MS: Oh yeah, because I heard later that -- you know, they don't share these things with us, we didn't, I didn't know what was going on. I just wondered well, maybe he was supposed to live over there. But I...

LH: Your parents told you about him?

MS: Yeah, that there was a brother. That's because... I guess we... just enough to let us know that there was another brother there. And that's how the story came out about how -- 'cause I had no idea that she was married before -- and had... and then she told me later that, of the lumber camp and everything. I was just amazed because she was brought there and they figured, well, you can't have anyone there that doesn't work, so she became the camp cook. And she never cooked bread, she was just used to Japanese food, and she had to learn how to make bread and Western kinds of food and I guess it was... that's why I marvel at how they were able to adjust to the situations that happened.

LH: Difficult time and she seemed to have adapted pretty well.

MS: Yeah, I think so. I felt that her being widowed by the death of her husband when she was pregnant, I mean, she was a strong woman to have withstood all of that. Then went back to Japan, had the baby, left, and...

LH: So how did the brother in Denver feel about his situation?

MS: Oh, he was so hurt and I didn't know about this until later. He came to visit us at camp because people in Denver did not have to be interned. See, it was the West Coast. And he came to visit us and at that time he was talking to me 'cause I hadn't really met him.

LH: Quite a bit older.

MS: Yeah, and then I was kidding -- you know how young kids would kid -- and say, "Oh, there's my favorite sister." And there was a picture of her and she was very attractive. And he said, "You don't have a picture of me." And I said, "No," because we didn't. And then he got, he got very upset that he was not at all even counted as a part of the family, and I'm sure it wasn't that -- it was just that he didn't live with us. Now, my sister was not actually living with us at that time. She was in camp but not with us. She was with her first husband's family, so she was in camp. So it was still that we were together in sorts, but he never went to camp.

LH: I see, your family was separated in more than one sense.

MS: Yeah.

<End Segment 3> - Copyright © 1997 Densho. All Rights Reserved.