Densho Digital Archive - Fred Oda Interview (denshovh-ofred

<Begin Segment 27>

TI: So when you think about kind of the experience, the war years, having things taken away, coming back and establishing, do you think it was most hard on the Isseis, when you think of the hard work that you did and everything?

FO: Oh, yeah, naturally, yeah. When I was in camp, there was a family living in our block. They were just, well, I would say lot of 'em were just getting on their feet and ready to expand, and some already expanded, and they got all that taken away. So he just signed double "no-no," and then he went back to Japan, yeah. Just gave up.

TI: But for the Isseis who stayed in the United States, like your mom and dad, how do you think this experience affected them or changed them? When you kind of saw them -- especially you had the opportunity to work closely --

FO: Well, my dad, he became an American citizen, yeah, after they... but my mother, after she lost her mother in that Hiroshima bomb, she just couldn't become a citizen, yeah.

TI: Did she ever share with you kind of her, her thoughts and feelings about losing her mother with the bomb and all the things taken away, and the hard life?

FO: Yeah, well, that's the reason she didn't want to become a citizen. She says she took too much.

TI: And what were some of the things that she talked about or said to you?

FO: Well, that's it. I haven't talked to my parents too much, anything about Japan and this and that.

TI: But just about their lives. I mean, the hardships they had, did you kind of talk to --

FO: No, I didn't talk to, anything about that. That's why when my mother reached a hundred, the consulate in San Francisco wanted me to give the name and address of the relatives in Japan. I couldn't give it to him because I had no contact with nobody, you know. (My mother had already passed away). Like some families, they used to telephone each other and write letter back and forth. But we weren't like that.

TI: And so you your mother didn't keep any -- well, she lost her family, most of her family in the bomb.

FO: No, just her mother.

TI: Just her mother. But she didn't keep some contact?

FO: Yeah, I guess they wrote letter once in a while, yeah. But not much.

TI: Now, was she ever able to visit Japan?

FO: Yeah, she went, she and my sister visited Japan.

TI: And do you know how that was for her? Did you ever talk to her about going back and what she saw and what it meant to her?

FO: Yeah. Especially when you saw that Hiroshima whatchamacallit, that bomb deal, and the man plastered right against the wall, stuff like that. Then another thing, too, is we went to the mother's place, and she thought she had her place pretty well okay, you know. Mother said she couldn't stand that outhouse, I mean, a toilet, Japanese toilet. [Laughs] And they got heck because you got to wear separate slipper when you go to the bathroom.

TI: Well, so when your mother lived over a hundred years, do you think she felt that she lived a good life?

FO: Huh?

TI: That your mother lived a good life? When she lived that long and she saw so much, did she ever reflect back on her life?

FO: Yeah, she said the best thing of a human is when they're suffering, and when the hardship, you know. Then you appreciate things more. Some guys, they got it made and they don't know it, and they're still bitching, you know. And she used to feel sorry for us, because she said, "You guys grew up Depression time, and you guys couldn't get lot of things." But we were all in the same boat, us kids, so we didn't realize some guy got more this and that. When I look at my grandkids, oh, criminy. [Laughs] Yeah, I got to tell them this story one of these days, show 'em that really...

TI: Well, I think they'll get a flavor by just watching this interview, your life and many of the hardships, not only that you lived, but your parents. I mean, I think about -- and I think the Isseis in particular had to work really hard to establish families, and then to make it better for the Niseis, and then the Niseis, I think, made it better for the Sanseis. And then, you're right, the grandkids have it really easy.