<Begin Segment 5>

TL: How was it explained to you about living apart from your mother? Did anybody ever talk about that with you?

AT: No, I don't think so. From this particular village, there weren't too many others, but we did hear so and so's family or so, have parents in America. Since I was sent to Japan so young that I didn't question those things. I was just growing up with all the children in the neighborhood. I didn't think differently.

TL: I didn't ask how big the village was. Do you remember the relative size? Was it considered a small village or a medium-sized village?

AT: This particular village where my great grandmother was, there were only about eight farmhouses, very small. But --

TL: So everyone would know each other pretty well.

AT: Yes, very well. Yes. No one ever locked a door. Yes. And from the village where my mother's family... see, my grandmother came to America and then left this village in Okayama; but the father, her father, was from this other village and that's where the family cemetery is, of Iwasa family. And there must be dozen homes there, farmhouses. Yes. It's a little bigger. So the Iwasa family cemetery is there with my grandfather's families, Iwasa families. My grandmother, great-grandmother's family name was Yokota. I think everybody, just about every family in the village was, had a last name Yokota.

TL: How would you describe your relationship with your aunt Masano?

AT: Sometimes I felt, I wish I was with my mother. She was quite strict and because... now that I can see why she was. She wanted me to be properly growing up and having lessons and this, because my mother keep sending her money so she had to spend the money wisely, I guess, and help my brother and I grow up properly.

TL: Do you think she was stricter with you than with Takeo?

AT: Probably, yes.

TL: What's an example?

AT: Well, of course, I was taking okoto lessons. I had to do it whether I like it or not, 'cause she was paying for it. Nothing more than that. I just... other girls were playing outside after school, and then I had to stay home and practice, practice.

<End Segment 5> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.