<Begin Segment 3>

RP: So you're, you're born and you grew up in America now you find yourself in Japan.

MN: Yeah, yeah.

RP: And how did, did you eventually adjust to the school?

MN: Yeah, eventually. Yeah, right.

RP: And did the kids pick on you?

MN: Yeah. Well, after that they get, you get picked on but it's gets kind of old so they kind of leave us alone, see. But I, there's one thing, most people think you make, the aunt make bento for you. And they put all the goodies in, rice, and you know, so you take that and there's a box that's heated so you put all your bento in there while you're in class. Lunchtime comes, you try to go get your lunch, bento bako, it's not there. Some kids got it and ate it. So we were out of, or I was out of lunch a lot of times. So later on I think they put a lock on it so that only the teacher could open it up.

RP: He's stealing your lunch.

MN: Yeah, oh yeah. Yeah. They know we're like, we're foreigners. So they like to pick on you.

RP: So what did your aunt's husband do in Japan?

MN: My aunt and uncle, they had what you call a junkyard. All the Japanese people, they go collecting metals, even hairs and things. Then they bring, bring that to my uncle's place and sell it. These cans, you know, metal... so my uncle used to weigh it and pay them so much. Just like a recycling outfit. So, and they, after enough to make a big ball and tie it so they used to, he used to send it out, ship it out. So, it's a regular junkyard, recycling.

RP: So did you get exposed to other elements of Japanese culture while you were there?

MN: No, not really.

RP: Did you, were you involved in any judo or kendo while you were going to school?

MN: No, I was, I was too young at the time, yeah.

RP: How about the holidays, did, did your aunt and uncle celebrate Japanese holidays?

MN: Yeah, like, let's see, they call it Tanibata, Tanibata means a farm festival. You know, Tanibata, I think. That's one of the... then New Year's, naturally New Year's. Things like that. I don't remember other, other things.

RP: Did you get to, did your aunt and uncle travel with you at all in Japan while you were there?

MN: No.

RP: No?

MN: No. No we, we stayed, I stayed mostly in right there. Never had a chance to travel. And my uncle and my aunt never, they don't travel.

RP: So the area that you, you lived in, was it primarily urban or a rural area, farming area?

MN: It's, it's urban. You know, a little village town. Yeah.

RP: And how did you personally, as a child did you have any feelings about being sent over there? Did you feel like your parents had abandoned you?

MN: Well...

RP: Being apart for three years.

MN: One thing I understood, they explained it that since the economy was, after depression, so they didn't have a regular established job or anything in one place where we could stay and go to school. So only way, they had to go out and migrate, farm workers. So they had to leave us some place so she figured the dollar, U.S. dollar is so many more into yen. And that way we could afford, you know. So I think my mother used to send something like ten or fifteen dollars per each of us to take care of, well help with the food and the clothing, uniform. I think that's, that's the reason why we were sent over there.

RP: Okay.

MN: Actually, well, when you're young yet, young like that but you at the moment you don't understand so you just go with it. So you take a long boat ride from San Pedro and you take to Japan. Takes about eleven or twelve days.

RP: And what was that like, the boat ride?

MN: I get seasick. At first two days is okay. But once you get out in the open, and your boat, it feels like this. And then... and that's what makes us real bad.

RP: And did you go on a, was it a Japanese vessel that you went back on?

MN: Yeah. Asahi Maru.

RP: Asahi Maru.

MN: Yeah, things like that.

RP: And did you go with other people? Were there other people...

MN: Japanese people?

RP: Japanese people...

MN: Yeah.

RP: Were there, were there other Niseis, young Niseis...

MN: Yeah, young kids about our age? Yeah. Yeah.

RP: Were there any in your neighborhood that, that you, that you lived in in Japan? Did you meet other Nisei kids while you were there?

MN: No, no.

RP: No?

MN: No. No.

RP: But you remember some on the boat going over.

MN: Yeah. In fact we played on the boat all that time.

RP: Wow, that's quite an experience for a young kid.

MN: Yeah, it was. But at that time, after you come back and you start grow teenager, after that you get into adulthood, but still, all that thing you went through, it sticks with you. It just don't go away.

RP: Right. Right.

<End Segment 3> - Copyright &copy; 2011 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.