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KL: And you said that your father immigrated to the U.S. first. Do you know what motivated him, why he came to the United States?
MN: Well, it's a long story. [Laughs]
KL: That's okay.
MN: When my father was fourteen years old, in school, in those days teachers, they're good to educated, but they look down on poor kids. They were, he was really, the teacher was really mean to poor kids. So my father, he was a really nice man. He's always on the poor people's side and he, ever since he was little he was like that. So he got mad at the teacher and he said, "You're always good to rich kids, but never kind to poor kids," and things like that. My father pushed him in a fish pond, teacher got soaking wet, so he got expelled from school when he was fourteen. So then my grandfather sent him to work in a, they dyed materials, they, D-Y-E, dye. So he learned, he thought he'd learned enough. My father was a smart man, so he said, "I learned enough about business, so I want to start my business." So he came back to his town and started his own business when he was about fourteen, fifteen. Then, he didn't know much about it, how to save money or anything, so he went broke. So that's why he came to America.
KL: Did he have friends in this country? Or how did he know --
MN: No. That time, everybody was just coming to work, mainly work in the railroad. So he just came. He was eighteen, I guess, and he made up his mind, "I'm going to work thirty years, and when I become forty-eight I'm going to be successful and save enough money and go back to Japan." That's why he, exactly what he did. He was forty-eight years old, he made enough money and retired in Japan.
KL: He had a lot of vision. He was a planner.
MN: Yeah.
KL: Did he ever tell you what his first impression of the United States was like?
MN: Well, yeah, he used to tell me all kinds of stories when he first came to America.
KL: What stories stand out?
MN: He had been working in the railroad, so they go early in the morning and work all day until it gets dark, but they don't have enough food to go around, so when it gets dark he couldn't see because his eyes, their eyes... they called it bird's eye. I don't know, birds, when it gets dark they can't see, so they called bird's eye. So everybody held hands and walked home from the railroad. When he was, I don't know, about nineteen, twenty, I guess, he said he didn't want to be a railroad worker all his life, so he started, he started saving money and he started a little restaurant. But he didn't know anything about the restaurant business because he was a little over twenty, I guess, and that restaurant never made him any money. So he sold coffee to customers, but he didn't have money to buy sugar to go with the coffee, so he asked his friend can he borrow five dollars or ten dollars to buy sugar, and his friend said no. So my father thought he can't depend on other people. He'd have to do, work hard and make himself money. I guess that's when he made up his mind to, I don't know what kind of work he did, but he owned a restaurant.
KL: Where was the restaurant?
MN: Where? Seattle. That's where I was born. My two sisters and I was born in Seattle.
KL: Where was he working on the railroad?
MN: What?
KL: Where was he working on the railroad?
MN: Down in Seattle.
KL: And how did he connect with your mother?
MN: Pardon me?
KL: How did your father and your mother meet?
MN: They never met. She was a "picture bride." She, he sent his picture and she sent her picture and they agreed to get married. So my father just, when she arrived on the harbor, on the boat, my father takes picture and looks for a girl that looks like the picture.
KL: Did he find her?
MN: I guess. [Laughs] So they were married until he passed away.
KL: Did she tell you what that trip was like? What her, what she had, what she anticipated or what she hoped she would find?
MN: Well, my mother and I were never close because I didn't know her until I was almost fourteen years old. But my father was, he was the kindest, warmest man. He told us all the story, but my mother never said anything about how she got here. My father, my mother was very cold toward us because she never raised us. So that day, I remember the day they came back from Seattle to Japan. We went to get them at the station, train station, and my father's first words, said, "Oh, you kids have grown up so much." He had tears in his eyes and, "Thank you for coming to meet us." But my mother just stand still and didn't say anything, and she only, only thing she said, first thing she said was, "Don't tell me you came here to meet us to not to go to school. You didn't go to school today." And I said, "Today was a Sunday." She said, "Oh." My mother's first words was, "How come you're here on a school day to meet us?" My father was different.
KL: When were you born?
MN: Where?
KL: When. What year were you born?
MN: I was born in Seattle.
KL: What year?
MN: 1917.
KL: And you said you have two sisters?
MN: Yes.
KL: What year were they born?
MN: One was born in 1911, one in 1914, middle one in 1914. And I'm 1917. There was a three year difference.
KL: What are your sisters' names?
MN: My sisters' names, Yukie is the oldest one. Yukie, and the second, she spells it Futami, F-U-T-A-M-I.
KL: I see. So what are some of your earliest memories?
MN: I had a good memory. My grandparents were so good to us. My grandparents raised the three of us, and my cousin's parents died of a sickness, so my cousin was raised by my grandparents too. Actually, my grandparents raised five grandkids. My cousin, another cousin...
KL: Were these your father's parents, Ensuke and Shige?
MN: Ensuke and Shige, uh-huh.
KL: I'm sorry I keep saying that really poorly.
MN: That's okay.
KL: Ensuke.
MN: Ensuke.
KL: Ensuke.
MN: And Shige.
KL: Shige. So they raised you and your sisters.
MN: Yes, from three years old to almost fourteen.
<End Segment 3> - Copyright © 2014 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.