Densho Digital Archive - Mas Hashimoto Interview (denshovh-hmas-01-0006)

<Begin Segment 6>

TI: So let's go back and pick up kind of, a little bit about Wataru and the oldest brother, Hiroshi. So Wataru you said was in, in Japan already.

MH: He was given to an uncle who had no children. And Hiroshi was given -- you know, grandparents were supposed to take care of him, but the grandparents died and we didn't know this, so he was basically on his own. And he struggled through middle school and high school and such. He was going to get drafted into the Japanese army, and he didn't want that, so he remembered enough about the United States, so he wanted to get back here with the rest of the family. And so he borrowed money and got back here. He got back here after I was born. What was kind of interesting was that Tsuyoshi, number three, he thought he was the oldest in the family until number one came back.

TI: So your parents never talked about the two oldest sons, then?

MH: Far as I know, they didn't say a whole lot, at least to Tsuyoshi.

TI: Because they were both born in Watsonville, so they're both U.S. citizens.

MH: Right.

TI: And so Hiroshi made it back, and then you're saying Wataru was...

MH: He was convinced that he was a Japanese, he had dual citizenship. I found out some of my other brothers were registered, so they had dual citizenship. I did not.

TI: You were pretty young, do you recall this trip at all, to Japan?

MH: No, only stories, and there were some photographs. But I don't, I don't remember. Just what my mother told me, that she was treated badly. And so when the war comes along, my mother's going to be pro-America.

TI: Okay.