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JD: So when you came back to U.S., then did you begin American high school?

RM: Yes. Anyway, that's prestigious school, I thought I won't be able to get in. But I got in and surprise to me, made me the president of the class. And it so happened that now, come to think of it, maybe had my grandfather, people knew that he was instructor for Lord Asano, and his grandson, so maybe I got in there. I don't know, just my guess in there. But anyway, I came back to States, and what I did was I had an uncle that was born in Hawaii. Later on I found out his birth certificate was Kauai, not Oahu where Honolulu is. But I think they were in Kauai island, sugar plantation. Then he was in Los Angeles, and so he was nice to me, too.

JD: What high school did you go to in Los Angeles?

RM: No, I'm gonna come to here. What happened is I came back to his place and then my great uncle was already back in the States, and also came to pick me up at San Pedro harbor, Los Angeles harbor there. But at the time, it was early 1930s and Depression time. So my uncle was the gardener, landscape gardener and lived in a boarding house, so I cannot stay there. Then told me to stay with my great uncle, he's the one took me to Japan. And at the time, I hate him because, fool me, but since my great uncle, he had a farm in Long Beach, so I had to go with them. But they're farmers, all poor, and for instance, crates of cabbage or lettuce cost only fifteen cents, and the crates itself would cost ten cents, so we couldn't make a living if we have to pay for the picker, so you lose money picking it. So my mother told me to keep, continue education, so I want to go to school. So I applied for high school and they accepted me, so I was attending high school, then graduated from Long Beach Polytechnic High School.

JD: How did you feel having to come back to the U.S.? At that time, would you rather have stayed in Japan?

RM: Well, at the time, I was going to stay and I thought I'm going to marry a girlfriend there, but well, I didn't of being popular, I'm concentrating on education, they know, so I enjoyed go fishing. Go out there and I had a good time there. But then my grandmother told me to cut off association with this girl. So what happened was she had a cousin, and the cousin told my grandmother that I'm going with her. So therefore she didn't like me doing that. Says the reason was that she's a tomboy. But anyway, my mother says, "Keep peace in the family," so she said, she liked, my mother liked her too, but anyway, she said, "Go back to education and be sure to finish high school." So that was one reason I finished. But she said, "Since you're going back America and you're American, be loyal to United States." So that's why I came back, even though Depression time, I finished high school.

<End Segment 3> - Copyright © 2008 Densho. All Rights Reserved.