<Begin Segment 27>

DG: So, did you associate with other people from Japan...?

SS: Mainly --

DG: From Japan or...?

SS: Mainly, with the renouncees, because most of us really didn't speak that fluently. And Japanese.

DG: And were the other situations similar to yours?

SS: What?

DG: Other renouncees that you associated with, were their situations similar to yours?

SS: Like I said, we never asked each other the reasons. Maybe I didn't because at that time, I felt that I didn't want to discuss my situation with anyone. And I was bitter...

DG: But were you all wanting to go back to America?

SS: Yeah.

DG: Sounded like it.

SS: Yeah. Because I don't think any of us thought Japan was that devastated. If you saw the Japan when we saw... it's like, I was there from '46 until '50. And the first time I went back to Japan was in 1990 when I retired from my work here. And when Ken and I went, I couldn't believe the changes. It's the 19, late '40s Japan and the 1990 Japan, altogether different. In fact, Ken used to stay at the Ajinomoto building, the old Ajinomoto building when he was working as a civil service employee.

DG: So this is back in '46?

SS: Yeah. So when we went in (1990), we went, he couldn't find the building. And then, I used to go to the kabuki. And when I went, there was a river there in front of the kabuki. And I looked and I couldn't see the river and so I asked the Japanese person, "Koko ni kawa ga ata no do..." you know, "doushita no?" That's the freeway now. Can you believe? They drained the river, it's the freeway. So, Japan has changed.

<End Segment 27> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.