Densho Digital Archive - Rose Tanaka Interview (denshovh-trose

<Begin Segment 5>

AL: So speaking of having babies, could you tell us the names of your brother and sister and their years of birth, or approximately when they were born?

RT: Well, my oldest brother was born, I think -- the oldest living brother -- was born in I think 1914. He's now ninety-seven and he still is alive. He lives in Los Angeles. Tom was born in 1919, and Henry must have been born about 1920... oh, got me there. My sister Machi was born 1923, so he must have been born in 1922 or so. And then I came along in 1926. Does that figure out all right, work out? [Laughs]

AL: That's a long span, twelve years. I mean, compared to some other families. You said that they had lost a child. Do you know where he fell or she fell in that?

RT: Well, yes. My father decided in reverse... in order to preserve the family traditions in the nation's history, knowledge of the country they came from, sent the two oldest boys back to Chiba-ken to be raised for a while with their grandparents in Chiba. And the oldest child, I think they called him Jimmy, I don't know. But anyhow, Katsuma and Jimmy, don't ask me how he got that name, but that was probably, for just ease of saying his name, were both sent to Japan to be raised by the grandmother. And I think they were on the farm, and there was a storm or something, and there was an accident and a tree fell on him, and so he died in an accident there, which was very tragic. But that left Katsuma as the remaining child in Japan. And he came to the United States when he was sixteen, and, of course, it was, like my father, he had no knowledge of English but he had an education in Japan and he had to go to elementary school at the age of sixteen and work through and try to gain his language skills.

AL: Going to elementary school in the States?

RT: Yes.

AL: Do you know... just to step back for a second, about how old Jimmy was when he was killed?

RT: Oh, he was only... I would say he was under five or so, five or six. He was quite young. But it was just one of these bad accidents.

AL: So Katsuma, for most of the time he was there, would have been alone?

RT: Uh-huh, yes, from then on he was the only child.

AL: So he would have come back when you were about four years old?

RT: I guess that figures.

AL: Approximately. Do you remember him coming back, yourself?

RT: Not too well. I do remember he was, my earliest memories are that he was, seemed like more of an uncle than a brother. And, of course, he spoke so much Japanese, he just had a different upbringing than I had. So it was like having an adult uncle in the family. My father also had a partner that came and helped work with him, who later went back to Japan to marry. He was a single man, and he worked with my father on the farm, and his name was Kagawa. And I didn't know his first name, but we called him Ojisan, which is "uncle."

AL: Ojisan, which is O-J-I-S-A-N?

RT: Yeah. Now, if you say ojiisan, that's "grandfather." But if you say ojisan, that's uncle.

AL: I always get those confused.

RT: It's like obaasan is "grandmother." Obasan is "aunt." So it's just a female name or a male name. And so we called people that we would meet who were young, or women, outside the family, called them obasan. But if we said obaasan, it either meant "old lady" like me, or grandmother. Or baachan. I'm your baachan.

AL: Do you know why they didn't send Tom, is it Tom and Henry, your younger brothers?

RT: No, they just needed one representative, or two in this case, two representatives of the family to Japan to get basic Japanese education and bring back the culture, to preserve the culture, I think.

AL: Okay, so it was not a...

RT: And sometimes it would be a woman if there were no older boys, that they wanted at least one person who went to Japan and brought back the culture.

AL: Do you think Katsuma was happy about being back?

RT: Well, it was just what he expected to do. He was reunited with his family, his natural family, so it was fine with him. We were all very willing to, we were raised to accept whatever came along, and we were all pretty obedient back in those days. [Laughs]

AL: Did your parents ever go back to Japan like before the war, did they go back and visit?

RT: Yes, they did go back and visit occasionally.

AL: Did you ever go?

RT: Not with them. I did not go until I was an adult. After the war happened, I said I don't want to have anything to do with that country. [Laughs] But I did, I became more forgiving and did go back later.