<Begin Segment 2>

KL: Where did they return when they came back to the U.S.?

SS: Where?

KL: Where did they go back in...

SS: To Seattle, Washington. He had a hotel. He bought a hotel. A lot of the Isseis, the first generation, they started businesses. They bought hotels, they started restaurants, laundry business.

KL: Do you know the hotel's name?

SS: It's called Europe. It was called the Europe Hotel.

KL: Did he, do you know any --

SS: He did everything himself.

KL: Did he hire people to work there, or he and your mom...

SS: Yeah, my mother did the maid service, whatever you call it, making the beds. And he did the plumbing and everything.

KL: How long did they offer it, the hotel?

SS: I can't remember exactly how long. Then my mother's sister was ill in Japan, so the (...) family went back to Japan. And my mother... and I was about seven at that time, stayed almost a year, and then we came back, before the year was up, we came back. (Narr. note: My mother and the children went to Japan -- my father stayed in Seattle.)

KL: Do you have memories of that visit?

SS: Of Japan? Yes.

KL: What struck you about it? What do you remember from your time there?

SS: Well, I remember the big red gate in the ocean, and we used to go out there, or walk out there when the tide was low and go clam, digging for clams.

KL: You would climb the gate?

SS: No, clamming.

KL: Oh, clamming. Who did you stay with?

SS: My aunts. The whole family stayed there. And we went to school there, too. We didn't learn much, but we went to school.

KL: Did you speak Japanese pretty well at seven?

SS: No.

KL: [Laughs] Did you speak it at all?

SS: What little our parents spoke. But when you're a child, you pick it up pretty quick.

KL: Were you able to make friends in school?

SS: I don't remember that. Some of the memory is gone.

<End Segment 2> - Copyright © 2012 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.