<Begin Segment 23>

TI: But then at some point, even though you had this interest in Tats, you decided to go back to the United States?

RT: Uh-huh, yes. My father, around that time, by that time the work with the U.S. occupations had kind of dried up for my father, 'cause he didn't have any formal English education, so then he wanted to go back, but we didn't have any money, any, I think at that time you had to be sponsored by somebody in the States so that they wouldn't become a welfare charge. And in 1953, in February, my grandfather passed away, and so a few months later my aunt who had left for camp had settled in Utah, near Ogden, Utah, said, wrote, wrote to us -- we didn't have, she didn't have telephones. We didn't have telephones either, so she wrote and said that she could scrape up three hundred and fifty dollars for one person to come back to the States, and she said that it would probably be logical for me to come and work for a few years and save money so I can send for my father and brother. And so I was engaged, but Tats wasn't established in his job or anything and he had to support his family, too, because they had lost everything in the war, so I came to Utah to live with my aunt.

TI: And so you're at this point about twenty-two?

RT: Three.

TI: Twenty-three, okay.

RT: Twenty-three.

TI: And how did you feel about coming back to the United States?

RT: A lot of apprehension, because I didn't know what I was gonna be doing. Aunt was raising her children by doing housework in Utah for a dollar an hour, and so I came to the States and my first job was picking cherries, but I wasn't very good at that. And then I started working in the summer in the canneries for seventy-five cents an hour. Then after that I, my cousins was, my cousin was a year older than me and she was a registered nurse and she was working at Ogden Airfield. And so she told me that there was a, I could take some tests for a clerk typist or, another one was keypunch operator, and I didn't pass the clerk typist, but I passed the test for the keypunch operator because I didn't have experience, but I had the aptitude for a keypunch operator 'cause I was used to numbers, being a telephone operator. So they, I got my experience at Hill Air Force Base.

TI: So this is like a civil service job?

RT: Uh-huh, civil service job. So I then, I went back, after I got my father and brother to Sunnyvale, then I went back to Japan and I got married and, but it wasn't a legal marriage because I was entered, I was, I only had a U.S. citizenship at that time, and so I was entered into my husband's family register, but I didn't have any Japanese citizenship and I, right away, I worked for the occupation forces in Nagoya as a civilian, so I had to abide by the military rules.

TI: But, so weren't you, when you first went to Japan, I thought they registered you...

RT: But then I renounced my citizenship --

TI: Japanese?

RT: -- Japanese citizenship just before I returned to the States.

TI: I see, okay. Okay, so --

RT: That was because I was working for the Japanese telephone and telegraph office, which was at that time a semi government and I couldn't work there as a regular employee anymore. So I...

SF: So you were, if you were married to Japanese citizen but you were a foreigner, then you can't be registered on the family register? There's not, there's just nothing there, just blank, is that right?

RT: Yeah, my name was entered into my husband's family register saying that Tatsuhiko married this Asako Ito, but I was not a Japanese citizen.

SF: So that, was that a legal, like a legal marriage or not a legal marriage in Japanese eyes?

RT: I think as far as the Japanese was it was alright, but the U.S., since I was working for the U.S. occupation forces they didn't consider it legal, so I was still going by my maiden name, Ito.

<End Segment 23> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.