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RM: But on the other hand, my grandfather was very nice to me. He noticed that, so he always take me to fishing. And since, as I mentioned before, the family was half fish, half farmer, so my grandfather take me to fishing. And that's where I learned fishing and I enjoy it. Still, until this time, it's my hobby, fishing. But anyway, every time I play with my younger brother and he cried, then my mother says, "Go to Kimuras." That is my mother's mother, my maternal grandmother is living there about a mile and a half away, so I'd be sent there. I don't mind going there. This lady was very nice to me, my maternal grandmother, and this thing happened so often, but every time I'd be sent there, I have to attend school. I have to come from my grandmother's, maternal grandmother's place to school is about a mile and a half away. Summertime it's all right, but wintertime with the snow and sleet, have to walk, had a hard time. But whereas my paternal grandmother's place is a half block from the school. I could hear the bell and go to school. So sometime I had a good time, sometime I had a hard time.

And meantime, I attended school. And when I first got there, I didn't speak good Japanese, so sometimes I didn't understand what they're talking about. So kids or classmates called me, "You dumb immigrant kid, don't know anything." So that upset me. But fortunately, I have a second cousin, she was born in United States, but father had an accident and passed away, so her mother sent her to Japan, the same village, and she was a baby and she grew up in Japan. So she would speak good Japanese, and she happened to like me, and she taught me how to speak Japanese and also helped me in the class, homework and things like that. So it became a good friend. And I was about eight or nine years old at the time. So then I grew up and I started high school with them.

And meantime, what happened was, the reason I stayed in Japan was, see, summer vacation's just about over, and I have to come back to the States, my mother and father and also my siblings there, too. And classmates, I miss them, so I got to come. At the time, my great uncle, the one took me Japan, that came to my place and he said, "Sayonara, Hiroshi." Means, "Goodbye, Hiroshi." So I said, "What do you mean, goodbye? Am I not going back to the States?" He said, "No. You stay with your grandfather and grandmother." So I'm left there. But later on I found out they already knew that they're gonna give me a Japanese education. But since I was a young kid, they never told me. I didn't know. Just been with my grandfather, so I was so happy seeing him. But I was so sad, I miss everybody. In the meantime, my grandmother, paternal grandmother, give me a hard time. I don't know, somehow she didn't hate me, but dislike, I don't know the reason, but she's partial to my brother. He was welcome. Me, always tell me to go to Kimuras'. So happened that Kimura is the name of my maternal grandfather's, and my maternal grandfather was a famous kendo, that's fencing, instructor for Lord Asano of Hiroshima. Unfortunately, when I arrived, he was already passed away, so I never had the privilege of seeing my maternal grandfather. He was a nice man. But my maternal grandmother was living there, and she was very nice to me. So I had a good maternal grandmother and paternal grandfather.

Anyway, I... just start high school, my father and mother came back to, I mean, went to Japan. They came to me because I was in Japan at the time, so came back to Japan, then what happened was my grandfather was a farmer, but my father was never a farmer because he was left in Japan and he didn't have any experience farming. So what he did is when he came back to United States, he came to United States, he went to town as a schoolboy and learned English. Then went back, then he took a correspondence, international correspondence school, and so he self-made, he didn't attend the school. But he became self-built, self-educated. And what happened was that he didn't go to farm. He did was, at the time, they didn't have a truck. They had a team of horses, so he put the produce on the market and went to Los Angeles to Seventh or Ninth Street Market. Then come back. Anyway, meantime, what it did was, when Grandfather, he know how to farm. And most of the Japanese that came to United States, they never farm in the United States, so they don't know what to plant and when to plant. But the seed men came down to farmers, and tell 'em, "This is the seed you plant this time." So everybody followed the same instruction and planted the same. And so my grandfather would delay three or four weeks and don't plant it. So then when the produce, they said, everybody saying it, so market be flooded. So the price is very cheap. But my father, my grandfather waited, so when the markets, produce was almost the end of it, then the price goes up because it's scarce. So at the time, my grandfather's produce would grow, so higher prices, he made money. In other words, supply and demand. So therefore, other people didn't make too money because too much competition and too much, market was flooded. So when my grandfather went to Japan, my grandfather taught my mother how to do the same thing. So my mother is, that's a samurai family, she doesn't know any farming. But my grandfather taught her how to do, so it made my mother a manager, to manage and hire at the time, Mexican laborer she hired, and also Japanese people came from Japan who worked for my mother and she was the foreman and pay for them, and also take care of the family, too. But what my father did was as soon as Grandfather went to Japan, he went to San Diego and became... his hobby was photography, so he went to San Diego and became a professional photographer. Then came back and worked for Toyo Miyatake Studio, still exists in Los Angeles. Then my mother made little money again, so like Grandfather did, so had our money, took the money and decided to go back to Japan. Then my father went there, too. And since my grandfather was from Hiroshima, the countryside, but my father went to city of Hiroshima and opened the photo studio, and happened to be the center of Hiroshima city. And later on, when the war broke out and the United States dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, the epicenter was only two blocks away from the studio.

But meantime, that's later on this happened, but meantime, I started to go to high school. Then summertime, I go to my grandfather's place, go fishing and help him, and what happened was I was in the fourth year of high school, I went to Hiroshima and go, went out fishing with my grandfather. Then the nighttime, I went to see my girlfriend, the one that helped me to learn Japanese, and happened to be second cousin. So I was very close. And family was close, too, because their mother and my father was cousin. Then my grandmother found out that I was associating with my second cousin, and she didn't like that, and she told my mother that I was associating with this girl and she doesn't want me to do that. So the reason was that she was a tomboy and she wouldn't like, wasn't good fit for me. And I was a high school kid, and she was attending the girl's high school, and they thought I was gonna get married. So she didn't approve that and told my mother, then my mother told me, "To keep peace in the family, think you better go back to United States and keep education, and maybe later on, maybe something would turn out good." That's one reason I came back to the States alone.

JD: Did you finish high school in Japan?

RM: In Japan? No, I didn't. Fourth grade. So in Japan is five years. But since I studied hard and made good, so I'm an honor student. So high school what it did was, it's a prestigious school, and school happened to be, used to be Asano clan, Lord Asano's institute school. And they made a private high school later on. But normally --

<End Segment 2> - Copyright © 2008 Densho. All Rights Reserved.