<Begin Segment 11>

TI: Now I want to move back to something you mentioned earlier. When your father in 1940 visited Japan and then he came back and you mentioned that the FBI, he was on some list with the FBI. Did, did your dad, did you ever hear your dad talking about the tensions between Japan and the U.S. and possibly, the possibility of war or anything like that?

RT: No. I know he used to, after the men finished their day's work, usually around eight, nine o'clock, after dark, a few of the men would gather at our house and my father and Mr. Yonemoto and Mr. Ikeda, they would be talking and talking until midnight or later, and what they talked about, I don't know.

TI: But, so eventually, though, your father decided to go back to Japan with the family. Do you remember that decision and how you felt about it?

RT: No, not really. I was just told that we were gonna go back to Japan and I know my grandfather was very lonesome because he lost his, my grandmother died in 1939, I believe it was, and he wanted to go back to Japan and die there.

TI: And so do you think, so if you were to guess the main reason why your family returned to Japan, was it because your grandfather wanted to go back, would you say?

RT: And, that and because, I think because my father, it wasn't very comfortable, being on the FBI list, is what I gather. He didn't, and after going back to Japan he didn't, we were always watched by the Japanese police because we had returned, we had settled in Tsushima a week before the war started, and so they were constantly watching my parents.

TI: Because when you went over it was just right before the war had started? But going back to the farm, it sounds like your father was thinking he might come back, though. He, when he had Kazuo take over with all the equipment and everything, the sense was that maybe he was just going to do that temporarily or on an interim basis and then eventually come back.

RT: Because he didn't sell any of his farm equipment or anything.

TI: So did he ever talk, did you hear him talk to you or others about someday coming back to the farm? Did he mention that?

RT: Well, after the war, yes, he wanted to, but Mr. Yonemoto that he went to China with, to Japan with, he tried to return right after the war ended because the Yonemoto family had a carnation nursery in Sunnyvale and they, so Mr. Yonemoto wanted to return to his carnation nursery, but he, on his application for passport, he didn't put down that he was involved in the Heieki Gimusha Kai and so he was denied entry into the United States after the war ended.

TI: Because the authorities thought that he was trying to hide that or something? Or why...

RT: I don't know, because of his, I guess because he was on that blacklist, Heimusha-kai was on the list of, what do you call it, organizations.

TI: Now, Mr. Yonemoto, did he go back to Japan the same time that you went back?

RT: Yes.

TI: So it was --

RT: It happened that they were on the same boat. And he had, I think he had lost his wife a year or two before, and so that probably was another reason he wanted to go back, and he did go back and marry his wife's younger sister. But after the war, my father was very honest when he went to the consulate to get his passport, or visa. He told them that in those days he was denied becoming a naturalized citizen and so he did help the Japanese in their war effort against the Chinese, but he said, he had told the consular officer, he said, "Well, if you were in my situation, isn't that what you would do, is support your own country?" And the consular officer said, "That's true."

TI: And that's,so that's after the war when he was able to come back?

RT: Yes. Yeah, that was when I was in Utah.

TI: We're gonna talk more about that, 'cause I, it's a great story, but at this point let's take a short break.

<End Segment 11> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.