<Begin Segment 3>

KL: What do you think drove your father to come here?

AO: Well, he was one of those who... he was the oldest son, and so he wanted to try to recap some of the family fortune. The usual dream of foreigners, the streets of California are paved in gold.

KL: Can we do kind of the same thing with his family? What do you know about his family, what do you know about that he grew up in?

AO: He has two sisters and a brother. I never met... I just met them, my mother's side of the family. I didn't meet... but my younger sister, Atsuko, A-T-S-U-K-O, went to Japan early on, I forget what year it was, and my aunt, both aunts, my father's younger brother went to Manchuria and he died there. So we never met him.

KL: What was his reason for going to Manchuria?

AO: I guess there was a job there for him. So he and his family were there, and then went, they had, all the Japanese had to leave Manchuria and come back to Japan, that's when he came back. And he went to his wife's family's, and so we never met him. We did meet because his son, he came and met us in Tokyo that first time we went, but we haven't heard from him, there's been no contact since.

KL: Who were your father's parents?

AO: His mother was Naru, N-A-R-U, and I can't remember his father's name, I should have looked that up.

KL: That's all right.

AO: And his sister, older sister, was Misao, M-I-S-A-O, and the younger sister was Setsu, S-E-T-S-U-K-O.

KL: What was that family's work, what was your grandfather or your grandmother's...

AO: I don't remember, but it was one of those stories of a samurai family whose wherewithal there was no more. And what my father's father had been doing, I really don't know, but he was a younger son, and so there was no inheritance there. And so that's why the two boys, I think...

KL: They got lucky.

AO: Yeah. My father had a university, he went to Imperial University.

KL: Did he have a course of study or a specialty?

AO: I think it must have been in econ. or something like that, that was not... didn't lead to much. And it certainly didn't prepare him for life here in America, because he became a farmer. When he first came as a single, he took on any job he could get. Then he made some friends.

KL: Where did he come into the United States first?

AO: I'm not sure. I tried to... I had his passport and tried to figure out where, but couldn't. Whether it was San Francisco or some other port, I don't know. And he traveled back and forth to Mexico on occasion, because when we moved to Cienega he was growing lettuce for seed. And then he would, every year, after the lettuce was, the seeds were harvested, he would travel to San Diego, in that area, to sell the seed. And they probably went to Calexico, too, 'cause I saw Calexico on his passport.

KL: Is there an entry stamp in the passport?

AO: Oh, that I did not... I don't have the passport now, I gave it to my sister so I couldn't refer to it.

KL: Did he mention any places that he was when he first came?

AO: No, he didn't talk too much about what he did when he was down in that area. There was one family that he knew there, so he would go and visit with them.

KL: Down in San Diego or Calexico?

AO: Somewhere in Southern California.

KL: How did that samurai background affect him as a person, do you think? Was it a presence in his life?

AO: Well, he was well trained in the martial arts, he was good at judo, kendo, and he was good at calligraphy. And to a certain extent, I guess he must have been artistic, but he never had a chance to do anything with it other than when we went to camp, he carved birds, and those showed his talent.

KL: How did you know he was good at calligraphy?

AO: Because in Gilroy, annually they would show a movie, a Japanese film, and everybody came and made donations at the time. And my father was the one, they would put up banners with your name on it if you made a donation, and he was the one that did all the calligraphy.

KL: Did he do it at home?

AO: Uh-huh. Well, there at the movie, when the people came in with it, he would do it. But at home, my mother had him doing the diplomas and things like that.

KL: Did he let you kind of watch, or did you learn any of that?

AO: No, because he just did it. It was beautiful watching him, he was very controlled.

KL: What did he use to make it?

AO: The regular fude, the brushes, and the sumi ink, and so we always had, in fact, I still somewhere have a bottle of sumi that was from him.

KL: Where did he get those supplies?

AO: They'd come from Japan.

KL: Did he order them?

AO: I guess, yeah. I have a number of his brushes.

<End Segment 3> - Copyright © 2013 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.