<Begin Segment 2>

RP: What brought your father to the United States?

AI: I don't know. I don't recall. He never talked about... I never got much of a history out of him, so I don't, I don't recall that much about why he came or anything about that.

RP: Uh-huh. And what was he like as a, as a dad or as a...

AI: Well, he was, when... once we moved, we moved to Reno and he got some of his Japanese friends there, liked to drink. And poor Pop became, unfortunately, became an alcoholic. And I recall we used to have to hide the booze from him and so on. But I think that was the reason why he fell off the roof. He was little bit high and, but he... yeah, I never, we never talked much about their, their past. Even on my on my mother's side. My mother would tell me about, a little bit about what went on. But, I had a, a cousin that's gone now. She was about a hundred and four when she passed away but she told us a lot about, about our, our... on my father's side, how she,she lived with my mother in Japan. And there was, one of my father's brothers was a doctor. And there was another woman that was a, a nurse. They call it kangofu. And she was always watching out for the two sisters and made sure that they married the right, got the right husband, and she manipulated my father for some reason or another and they got together. But, that cousin was her, I think it was her, her mother and my father's... oh, I'm gonna get that mixed up somehow. It's, there's some kind of relationship there that I always get mixed up on how they're related.

RP: Were there any other relatives of your father, members of his family, that came to the United States other than him?

AI: Yeah, there was, there were, there was... oh, now how does this one go? There was, there are my father's brother, his name was Imakire, I-M-A-K-I-R-E. I think it was just a matter of translation when they gave their names coming, coming into the United States. But he spelled his with a "k." And they lived in Palo Alto for a long time. And, and they actually, if you know a place called Hakone in, in California? There's a famous Japanese garden there. They were caretakers of that place for a while, yeah. And it's interestingly enough, my wife's UC classmate, her parents were also caretakers after my, after my aunt and uncle. I remember going there, it was in Saratoga. And I remember going there to this real lush place and they were caretakers there. Yeah.

RP: And what happened to your father's brother? Did, did they eventually return to Japan? Or did they stay here?

AI: My... no he, he died here. He... they had, they had three children, two sons and a daughter. And they still live... oh, one lives in Sacramento. The son, one of the sons lives in Sacramento. And the other, the other two still live in, in the Bay Area. They have a few kids. But the, all my cousins are gone now. My cousins are gone, my aunt and uncle are gone. The one, the one cousin that ended up being a one hundred four years, she's gone. So...

RP: A lot of, a lot of Niseis have gone back to Japan to sort of dig up their, you know, their family roots. Do you have any relatives still left in Kagoshima?

AI: Well, just that one cousin that, the, the super cousin. He lives in... it's in northern Japan. What's the name of it? Morioka. It's, it's almost in the northern tip. I don't know why he moved up there, but he lives, he's up, he lives up there and is a fairly prominent artist. And does, still does artwork. He's ninety-four or something like that, very healthy.

RP: On the bus to Amache yesterday I met a, a family who has roots there as well.

AI: Morioka? Oh yeah. Oh yeah. There's, there's a, the editor of the Nichi Bei Times of, in San Francisco, his name was Asano. And he was, he was very... he was a benefactor for, for the Japanese children after the war and got, provided milk for the children after the war.

RP: Oh, he did?

AI: And he, he also... fact is, he was so famous that they, in the museum, they have a special section on, on his life, honoring him.

RP: Which museum is that? Is that in Japan, or...

AI: It's, the exact... something, something like the, the Museum of Famous People or something like that. It has all the prominent people of, benefactors, of the town of Morioka. And, and they have this huge display of him. And our, his son lives in Sacramento and he says whenever he goes to that town there's a, there's a big band welcoming him and everything. So, it's pretty, pretty famous.

RP: Uh-huh.

AI: Yeah.

RP: How about your mother? Do you know much about her family in Japan?

AI: No. Only after she came to Japan. I, from my cousin I do recall a little bit about how, about she, she was, she went to Christian studies, like a bible school. And she used to have to sneak out because of course, being a Christian wasn't very popular in Japan. But she, she did that and she became a, a Methodist and she finally, well, after my father passed away, she moved to Sacramento. And she was able to live an additional twenty years after he passed away. So that she got, at least, got some relief from... we can't imagine how she was able to take care of him for twenty years. He was an invalid for twenty years. And, but she came after, after he passed away, moved down to (Sacramento), lived in an apartment there and enjoyed the rest of her life. There she attended the Methodist church and she was, she liked it very much there. Yeah.

<End Segment 2> - Copyright © 2008 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.