<Begin Segment 19>

MU: Mitzi, now, the bomb was dropped in August of '45. And when you visited, when was that?

MM: It was the following year. I didn't think about the danger.

MU: Okay, that's fine now. Now, all that time, Masami was in Japan and you must have been concerned about him and he must have been concerned about you. How did you know that he was okay?

MM: Well, let's see, I guess, oh, I guess Tak located him. 'Cause I followed fifteen months later, you see, so in the meantime, Tak and my brother...

MU: To go to Japan?

MM: Yeah, for me to go to Japan with my little one, that was fifteen months later, so when we docked in Yokohama, my brother was there. I could hardly recognize him.

MU: Why?

MM: He looked like a skeleton. He had lost so much weight, you know how athletic he was? Things were hanging on him, I felt so sorry for him and of course all I had was some candy, you know, off the ship. That morning we had hard boiled eggs, so I saved that for my niece that came, his only daughter, Kiyo, (who) was real happy. But we couldn't take them to the army mess, so to speak, so they left to go back.

MU: About when was that, in '46 or so?

MM: I guess it was '47, more like '47. I made a mistake there 'cause Tak came in '46, I think.

MU: And that was the first time you saw Mas and he brought this little girl?

MM: Yeah, little girl...

MU: What was your feeling?

MM: Well, I thought, "Oh, my goodness," you know. I was really shocked 'cause I've never seen my brother that way. He was so athletic, as you know.

MU: But you must have felt a feeling of happiness to see him alive.

MM: Oh, yeah. It was quite emotional.

MU: How did he survive all that?

MM: Huh?

MU: How did he survive?

MM: Well, as I say, he was bombed out here and there, but he managed somehow.

MU: How did he eke out a living?

MM: Oh, that's very interesting. My uncle, who was a retired doctor, he did very well. And I think in Manchuria, I've forgotten, but I think it was Manchuria, he had a hospital, he had a car and all that. When he had his major operation down in Kyushu, we were, happened to be there, my father went down to see him. That's the time he had retired, so it was, I would say 1939, he retired. And he had plenty of money, see, so he made sure that my brother was taken care of. Of course, eventually, the folks repaid them, but otherwise he would have had a hard time. Of course, when my brother -- the last letter that came to me, and of course the folks got letters from him, too, was, "I think something's gonna happen around here. If you're going to send money, send it right now." So I was working then, so I sent what I could spare. But beyond that, my uncle had to take care of him, which we really appreciated.

MU: So does that mean that Masami was living in...

MM: Tokyo, and he sent his family up north someplace.

MU: Out of harm's way.

MM: Yeah. His wife and daughter.

<End Segment 19> - Copyright © 1997 Densho. All Rights Reserved.