Densho Digital Archive - Mas Okabe Interview (denshovh-omas

<Begin Segment 18>

KL: You said you remember the trip to Japan, though?

MO: Going back? Yeah. We went on the Matsonia, and we left from Seattle, I think it was December the 7th of '45. And my mother was sick all the way, seasick. And my friends and I, we would get together on the ship and play. And I remember this one kid, he was an employee of the ship, he's a black kid, young guy. And we got to know him, and we told him what was happening, why we're going back to Japan and stuff like that, and why we were put in camp and things like... and he cried for us. I remember that distinctly, he cried for us. He was sad.

KL: Do you remember his name?

MO: No, I don't.

KL: Do you know where he was from?

MO: No, I don't. He was real nice to us. Young, maybe he was in his twenties, had a job on the ship.

KL: How long was the voyage?

MO: Two weeks. My poor mom.

KL: That's a long time to be seasick.

MO: Oh, yeah. She went down and never came back up.

KL: How did she feel about returning to Japan?

MO: I don't think she wanted to come back, to return to Japan.

KL: Why do you think that?

MO: I don't know.

KL: Did she give you signals from conversation?

MO: I just had a feeling she didn't want to come back. Because she lost two kids there, and maybe that sort of brings back memories, so maybe she didn't want to come back.

KL: Do you think she believed the news? What do you think she thought about the truth of Japan losing the war, surrendering?

MO: What did she think of that? She never said anything. My mother never talked about anything too much, very quiet. My dad, too, he was quiet. He never expressed himself.

KL: Where did you land in Japan?

MO: Uraga, U-R-A-G-A. It's near Yokohama, and it was cold in mid-December, freezing. And there was, you know, you look towards the city, there was nothing, it was just flat, destroyed. They put us in this place where we assembled after we got off the ship, and we spent the night there. It was cold. [Laughs]

KL: What kind of place was it?

MO: It was just a big building, and everybody just slept on the floor. And then we got on the train.

KL: What was your dad's response to seeing the flat...

MO: He was sad. He was really disappointed. Like he didn't express it, but I'm sure he felt we shouldn't have come. And then we had to make arrangement to go over to our village, my father's village. We got tickets, and the train, you wouldn't believe the train ride. It was so packed, people getting on, people coming back from the war, you know, and this and that. I mean, it was just jammed, there's no place to stand. You know the luggage rack, people were laying down on the luggage rack. And you had to fight your way to get in the train, crawl in through the window. And you know, the conductor, there's no way for him to check tickets, because he couldn't get through.

KL: Or enter the car.

MO: No. I don't see how people got off where they wanted to get off. I've never seen a train like that before.

KL: Were most of the people Japanese people?

MO: Oh, yes. Lot of them were in uniform, just coming back.

KL: What was their interaction with each other or with you?

MO: I don't know, we didn't say anything. We didn't know how we would be taken, so we just kept quiet.

KL: Were you able to stay together physically, the six of you?

MO: Yeah, more or less within shouting distance.