Densho Digital Archive - Irene Yamauchi Tatsuta Interview (denshovh-tirene-01-0028)

<Begin Segment 28>

KL: And you said your mom died when you were fourteen?

IT: Yeah, and she was forty-one. So yeah, that was pretty young.

KL: Your dad did marry in Japan, or he just wanted a wife?

IT: No, he, I don't know if he wrote us, anyway, he -- yeah, he must've written to us 'cause he can't use the phone. We don't have that much money. And he asked if he could bring back a wife. It broke my heart, but I said no, because what if she gets sick. We can't even get you under insurance. What are we gonna do? And he understood, but I felt sorry for him because he was so lonesome. And there were people that tried to fix him up right after my mom died. well, that was hard for the kids to take, 'cause we didn't want anybody replacing her, at least not right away like that. So anyway, we didn't know if she was, if she would've been capable of earning her, earning her living and his. It'd be fine, but you never know what's gonna come up.

KL: So he came back...

IT: He came back. He came back after thirty days, and we asked him, "Why didn't stay longer?" 'Cause it was the first time we felt kind of like we were on vacation. But he was very cooperative. Poor guy, though, you know. That stroke just took his life away. But that's the way it goes.

KL: You said he became a U.S. citizen?

IT: Yeah, he became a naturalized citizen. He went to, I think Edison, at night, or... he didn't drive, so I don't know. Anyway, he went to class.

KL: Did he ever communicate to you why he did that, or his thoughts about that?

IT: Well, I think he, you mean to become a citizen? Well, I think he wanted to be because we were all Americans, and I think before he couldn't do that. I don't know about the laws, I can't keep up with it. But when he was able to, and of course it takes him a long time to learn all that stuff because of his stroke and all. And I think, I don't know, but I figured they might go easy on him a little bit because... I don't know. But he got a lot of his speech back, and a lot of it was on his own, his own work or doing. 'Cause they had no therapy in those days. But then, my mom died of a stroke, which was, her stroke, I think she was unconscious, and I think I saw her in the hospital and I, it was different from my dad's stroke. But she knew it all along, and she made me understand why she was doing it, 'cause she didn't want to get welfare.

KL: She sounds like an amazing person. And your dad does, too. Anyways, the closeness and sort of the, I don't know, the, how to describe it. You said earlier that a lot of people liked being around him because he was just a, brought, kind of, cheer to people.

IT: He was. It's cute the way he walks and, "Hi!" [waves, laughs]. And they call him Teddy, "Hi, Teddy!" He used to love to bowl. But this was after his stroke. Before the stroke he'd golf, he was a champion doubles tennis player in his club, which meant he was pretty fast. And he loved to go fishing, just all kinds of sports, golf.