Densho Digital Archive - George M. Yoshino Interview (denshovh-ygeorge

<Begin Segment 20>

TI: So let's talk about going back to the States. So December '47, this is during, kind of, almost the holiday period? And I think you told me earlier that you actually came back right around Christmas Eve.

GY: Yeah.

TI: So why don't you describe going back?

GY: I don't know, it was something that we looked forward to, but I was lucky. I left Japan on an airplane and I came to Hawaii on an airplane. From there, I came back on an airplane to San Francisco. So I beat some of the guys home, and I was discharged in California. And when we were discharged, they said, "Your destination?" because they paid part of it, you know. So I said, "Bellevue, Washington." Actually, I should have said St. Paul. I made the mistake and I was paid to Seattle. So the time to leave Seattle to come to St. Paul, I didn't have no ticket.

TI: Well, let's go back. You said Bellevue because that's where your hometown was.

GY: Yeah, yeah.

TI: Where were your parents?

GY: St. Paul.

TI: So why were they in St. Paul?

GY: Well, that's where they relocated from Tule Lake. So I was going to come back here. At the same time, a guy that was going to Chicago, he was going to stay in Bellevue, so he gave me his ticket. So it didn't cost me anything, came from Seattle... but I didn't go to St. Paul. I unloaded in Minneapolis. But like a fool, I should have went on to St. Paul, but I knew Minneapolis better than I knew St. Paul, so I took a streetcar to St. Paul, knock on the door, "Mom, I'm home." [Laughs]

TI: So they were surprised, they didn't know that you were coming?

GY: Yeah.

TI: And this was Christmas Eve that you came home.

GY: Yeah.

TI: And about what time did you make it?

GY: I don't know, ten, twelve o'clock, I guess, I don't know what time it was. All I know, I got home.

TI: And so describe that meeting when your mom unexpectedly opens the door and sees you. What was that like?

GY: [Laughs] I don't know. She was glad that I got there, I guess.

TI: And you were probably tired and relieved to finally get home, too, and find them.

GY: Right. My brother was already home, he was living there.

TI: So explain why your parents relocated to St. Paul and not Bellevue.

GY: They came here because my sister came here, government education deal. She was going to be a nurse, and she was enrolled in St. Johns Hospital at Redwing. So she was on there, and my folks were over in St. Paul. So the times I'd go over to St. Paul, to Fort Snelling back and forth, that was it.

TI: Now, did your parents ever return to Bellevue?

GY: No, no. From St. Paul they went to Chicago, that's where they passed away. After I got married, they said they were gonna go to Chicago to live with my sister until they passed away.