<Begin Segment 8>

MN: Now around 1937, you visited Japan. Can you share with us why you went to Japan?

KK: Oh, my mother was having problems, female trouble, and she was bleeding a lot. And so she wanted to be seen by a doctor in Japan, so I took her. She had treatments at Japan, and she got better. So I brought her back home.

MN: Let me ask you about that trip. Which port did you leave from?

KK: Hmm?

MN: Which port did you leave from?

KK: Oh. That's right, we went on a boat, huh? During that time there wasn't any plane, so we went on a boat. I think it was called the Chichibu Maru, and we landed in Yokohama, I think.

MN: Did the boat stop in Hawaii at all?

KK: No.

MN: Did you get seasick?

KK: Oh, did I get seasick at first. For the first few days I had a hard time walking, getting around, but I got there. [Laughs] I got used to it.

MN: And then you mentioned that you landed in Yokohama?

KK: Uh-huh.

MN: What was your first impression of Japan?

KK: Oh, I thought, gee, it was small and it was... I thought, "Oh, my gosh." I think during that time they didn't have a earthquake yet in Yokohama. It was afterwards they had that big earthquake. So it was nice. I forgot what, it must have been in the summer that we went. Otherwise I'd be, I think it was real hot. And I remember being hot in Japan, too. Very humid hot. And I was just perspiring. But we got to Japan and got on a train. I guess they had shinkansen then. I'm pretty sure they had shinkansen. But everything was old. They had furo in Japan, but I was used to the furo anyway.

MN: While your mother was in the hospital, what did you do in Japan?

KK: I stayed at her home, her brother's home. And there wasn't anything to do, so I just sat and walked around the neighborhood. And there was no way I could talk that well to these people, I had a hard time communicating with them. So I kind of sat around. I should have gone around and looked at everything a little bit more, but I was scared to.

MN: Did the neighbors tease you for being an Amerikajin?

KK: No. The neighbors are, they kind of keep to themselves. They don't come snooping around. [Laughs] Well, they didn't at that time.

MN: And were you able to go visit your mother at the hospital?

KK: Yeah.

MN: How long were you there?

KK: About a week. I think my mother was there for so many days in the hospital, maybe five days, and then she came home. And she couldn't do much after she came home, so we just stayed around, she talked, and I just watched. [Laughs]

MN: Did you understand most of what your mother was saying in Japanese?

KK: Yeah, more or less. I knew just about what they were saying, but I can't understand all the Japanese words, technical words I don't know. So just conversation, okay.

MN: So you said your mother was in the hospital for about five days, then she had to recuperate. So were you there about two weeks in Japan?

KK: Well, she was able to walk around, so as soon as she was able to walk around... so we were there about a week, I think. We weren't there that long. So I didn't get to see much of anything.

MN: What memories do you have of coming back, the boat trip back to America? Did you get seasick again?

KK: It wasn't that bad this time.

MN: When you were going out from Yokohama, did you see Fujisan?

KK: No. You can't see Fujisan all the time. It's cloudy, there's clouds there all the time. Even when I go on the shinkansen, can't see it.

<End Segment 8> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.