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MN: And then I was curious, sometimes in our conversations off or on camera, you had mentioned some trips to Japan. So I was wondering...

KM: My trip?

MN: Well, family, members of your family. I was wondering how frequently had the Miho family had contacts with friends and relatives in Japan prior to the war?

KM: When I was five or six years old, I think my grandfather was very sick. Why, he was laid down because of, I think he was paralyzed from a heart attack or something like that. So he was bedridden for some time, and so I recall, I have pictures of my trip to Japan when I was five or six years old, and that was when I first met my eldest brother and sisters, sister in Hiroshima,  both of whom never came to Hawaii. My brother died around the age when he was supposed to go to the university in Hiroshima. My sister lived until after the war, my eldest sister lived until after the war, but she, unfortunately, never made it to Hawaii. But she was one of those who, after the Manchurian Incident, settled in Manchukuo. She and her husband, her husband was an elementary school principal, and they raised four children... well, actually five, but one passed away very early. But she had four girls in Manchukuo in the war, 1941, the war broke down, and lived throughout the war. I don't know where in Manchuria, it would have been one of these recent repatriates from Japan, from China, years after. But in their case, she was very fortunate. The last boat leaving Dairen, I think it was, back to Japan. We didn't know that she was on, the family had given up hope as to located him there because everything was so hectic. But no information where she was and how she was doing during the war. She lost her husband, my brother-in-law, who was a member of the Japanese Kwantung Army. In Japan, all men had to serve a mandatory draft. And so he was a lieutenant and part of the Japanese Imperial Army who were force marched by the Russians, and thousands of them died on the way, on the road, and he was one of the, he lost his life on the road as a Russian prisoner of war. But my sister was able to come back. How they did it, I don't know, but she came back with four daughters. The last ship that left with the so-called survivors of World War II at that time, from Manchuria. The so-called Japanese immigrants.

MN: Your, other than your trip when you were five years old, were there others?

KM: My parents went back to Japan every so often, I don't know how frequently, but I do know they had taken various trips to Japan.

MN: And right before the war, your father also was part of the Island contingent.

KM: Contingent, the 2600th anniversary of Japan, Nisen Roppyaku Nen, they called it.

WN: Of your brothers and sisters, Katsuro, Katsuaki, Paul, Fumiye, Tsukie and yourself, who expatriated and who didn't?

KM: I don't know if Paul, Katsuso, did, because he, being a minister, until the end of the war, he was in Chicago. At that point, he had graduated from Yale Divinity and he had been... I know he was, some religious activities out in Chicago. During the war, I understand, he came back to Hawaii and got married to my sister-in-law, Ruth, at that point, and came back to Hawaii.

WN: And Katsuro?

KM: I'm sure Katsuro was one of the leaders of the expatriation movement, and Fumiye, I'm sure, did, and Katsuaki. But Tsukie was in Japan already, and Paul may not have had to do, if anything, because he was not part of this so-called movement in Hawaii druing all of this row.

WN: So as far as you may know, you were the only one, maybe?

KM: In my family record, I'm the only one that's on record. Everybody else is out.

WN: Did they ever tell you anything like you're stupid?

KM: Who?

WN: Did your siblings ever say something to you about that?

KM: Oh, no. After 1941, Fumiye was in Japan. Even before that, Tsukie was in Japan, too. We had very little discussion. Even Paul, Paul was away. The only discussion was between Katsuaki and I, and the big discussion we had was whether we'd volunteer or not, at that point in 1942.

<End Segment 12> - Copyright © 2021 Densho. All Rights Reserved.