<Begin Segment 28>

TI: So tell me a little bit about Hiroshima. Because you were there just a year after the atomic bomb had fallen on Hiroshima. What did Hiroshima look like in 1946?

NM: When I went there, everything was flat, and the building was all wooden building, like the main street, Hondori, they called it, that was the main street. That was, I heard about it, Hondori, and there was some Fresno family called Ariye, had a fountain pen store on the main street. And there's another Fresno people named Kuwamoto that real close to me. I know the neighbors and all that. I went to, saw them, and there's two family that I knew right on that Hondori. And that was all blasted out. And then, but today, that Kuwamoto had a big women's clothing store, and he was doing real good, but I heard he passed away. All the Kuwamoto that went from Fresno, they moved to Hiroshima, they passed away now. Obachan, then the son. So I don't... but their son is living. And I know him now. So when I go there, I could talk to him yet.

TI: Now, when you talked with your uncle, what kind of discussions? Did you tell him about America and Fresno?

NM: You know, he's a real Japanese. He likes drinking. And then first thing he offered me was drink, but I told him I don't drink. "Dame da yo." [Laughs] You know how they are. You go there, someplace, and you get -- I think he makes his own sake with the rice. But he was eighty years old and he's farming yet. I don't know how he did it. Not with a horse, but with a cow. Was it a cow? I don't know. Anyway, it wasn't a horse. And then their kitchen, it was dirt. Then they got hanging little things, little fire, they cook something and this and that. And then the floor was dirt. But the other places, you got a nice home, you know, big home. But today, my brother's daughter, she's the only one. She was only about two or three years old when I first went there, and she used to run away from me, so I couldn't even talk to her. But today, she comes and goes. She can't, in fact, just three days ago, she called me. She calls me all the time.

TI: But I just realized, I just thought about this. So if you had married your brother's, your brother's widow, all that land would have become yours, right? I mean, you would have been...

NM: Yeah, yeah, yeah. If I married, it would have been mine. [Laughs] In fact, my father's place was another place, and then, you know, we told 'em we don't want it. "Nobody's going to be coming back there, so you keep it yourself." So she got it all. And he got another property here, he got five apartments built, and they're getting rental in, got his own house, he got a big one, and another house right there, but he don't get nothing him. 'Cause during the war, he just went in there. I don't know the rule. I told him, "Chase 'em out now." But they can't chase him out, he's been there so long, so you got to just let 'em stay there. And that's the mountain, it's right next door. And they're making a fortune there, carpenter.

TI: So that would have all been yours, so did you think about maybe staying and having all that land? So did you want that?

NM: Yeah, you can't chase 'em out.

TI: No, but did you think about maybe staying in Japan and taking over the family property?

NM: Yeah. Oh, god. It's a lot of property. They don't know themselves, achi naru, kochi no maru ite. But they're doing good. That daughter, she got three boys and then one girl. Three of 'em married now, then one more boy got to marry.

TI: So after you were done with the military, you decided to stay in Japan. Why did you want to stay in Japan and not come back?

NM: Who, me?

TI: You, yeah. Why did you want to stay in Japan?

NM: I don't want to go back to Japan.

TI: No, but when you were in Japan, you finished the army.

NM: Yeah.

TI: Why didn't you come back to the United States?

NM: I wanted to. I don't want to live in Japan.

TI: But why did you stay? You stayed there for, what, seven years?

NM: Well, I have a civil service job, that's why I stayed there.

TI: You had a what? A job?

NM: Civil service.

TI: Okay.

NM: I stayed there, and then I came back.

TI: Okay, so it was a job. You had a government, U.S. government job, civil service.

NM: Yeah. I want to come back. Because you can't drive a car in Japan. I don't want to drive in Japan. Boy, they're rough. I never thought of living in Japan.

TI: So what made you leave Japan? Why did you leave Japan?

NM: Well, I wanted to come back and settle in Fresno. I like Fresno. But I stayed single.

TI: Okay, so let's come back to Fresno. When you came back to Fresno, what did you do next?

JS: Tell Tom about your job, the civil service job.

NM: My job?

JS: Yeah, you managed a lot of people, right? You had an important job.

NM: What did I do in Fresno?

TI: No, no, before.

JS: No, in Japan.

TI: Your civil service job, what was your job, your civil service job in Japan?

NM: Oh, in Japan?

TI: Yeah, civil service, what was your job?

NM: What do you call that now? Post office. No. I think the exchange took it over. So I was still on the government deal, so I was getting paid by the APO-500 office.

<End Segment 28> - Copyright © 2010 Densho and Preserving California's Japantowns. All Rights Reserved.