Densho Digital Archive - Jiro Sugidono Interview (denshovh-sjiro-01-0030)

<Begin Segment 30>

TI: Well, that's, that's the end of my questions. I mean, is there anything else that I, that I didn't ask you about that you'd like to talk about?

JS: Oh (yes). About my mother, she being an Issei, but in 1950, I don't know what year it was, anyway, I don't know, I didn't tell her anything, but she wanted to become an American citizen. And at that time, to become an American citizen, you got to learn that in English. And so being that she knows a little broken English, so the English she's supposed to know, she put kana, Japanese kana on it. And if said, fi, she put a Japanese "fi shi," something like that, see. And that's how, she passed her citizenship.

TI: And so how did that make you feel when you saw your mother...

JS: Oh, you know, nobody told her to do it, she did it. 'Cause a lot of guys who stay here, and she didn't want to go back to Japan anyway, 'cause she went couple times to Japan, what she saw, I guess, she'd rather stay here. 'Cause she lived in the country, and still they had the old things. So she said, oh, she's not going to go back. Maybe visit, but not to live there.

TI: And so when she got her citizenship, did the family have a party for her or anything like that?

JS: See, that I don't know. I don't know. In fact, she had everything in a box someplace, she had everything written up, 'cause she told that to my wife, but we can't find it. Of course, at that time, my brother, the old house, he moved to another house, so I don't know what happened. He lost it or he threw it away.

TI: Well, that's great that she, she did...

JS: She had a lot of history about, from Japan, you know. She's the one who told my wife about her coming to the United States. But later on, she regretted. [Laughs]

TI: Oh, because it was too hard to --

JS: Lot of those Issei, you saw the tape, they complain that they come over and they found that her husband is an old man or something. [Laughs]

TI: Yeah, that's good. Well, Jiro, thank you so much for the interview. This was, this was excellent in terms of what I learned today.

JS: I hope it's, that was all right.