Densho Digital Archive - George Kikuta Interview (denshovh-kgeorge

<Begin Segment 8>

RP: Let's talk a little bit about your return to the United States. You said that your mom was very strong about you coming back to get an American education as well.

GK: Right.

RP: Did you, how did you feel about the situation? Did you feel like you wanted to stay in Japan and just remain being a Japanese?

GK: No, I --

RP: Did you want to come back as well?

GK: I think I was one that really wanted to come here, even though I didn't put in the effort to try to learn English. So I was disappointed, initially I was able to come here to attend American high school, and instead, my older brother was picked to come here in place of myself. So I was kind of disappointed, and became a little violent. [Laughs] But other than that, I was very happy that my mother pushed this issue of coming back here for our education. Went through high school and college here in the United States.

RP: Was there a thought that you would return back to Japan, or that you were free to stay here as long as you wanted?

GK: Our intention was to live here for good, because our entire family moved over here. And I had no intention of moving back to Japan myself.

RP: And what were the arrangements that had to be made for you to return here? Was it principally just to get a visa? Because you were a citizen...

GK: Yes. I understand one of the reasons that made my mother try to bring the entire family back here was here in the United States, my parents' citizenship was, I guess, initially it was renounced. And now it was given back to them, and so that made, many families in Japan started coming back. And my mother heard about that possibility, so that --

RP: That helped her.

GK: Right.

RP: Right, and to restore your citizenship.

GK: And our uncle, my father's younger brother, were encouraging us to come back, and they said they'll support us.

RP: You had a sponsor.

GK: A sponsor.

RP: So your parents had probably renounced their citizenship at Tule Lake, that's were a lot of people did.

GK: I assume so, yes.

RP: And your younger brother had done the same thing, too?

GK: Yeah, I think so.

RP: Or your father's younger brother.

GK: Yes, my uncle.

RP: That was a long, lengthy process for some people.

GK: Uh-huh.

RP: And so you sailed to Japan on a ship which took probably two weeks or longer.

GK: Right.

RP: And you, what, did you fly back to...

GK: No. we, I think two reasons. One is, since we have entire family moving back, and we have lots of stuff, it was, back then, Japan allowed only, I think, fifty dollar per person to carry, U.S. dollars. And so we... and Japan Airlines and, I think, PanAm had a flight via Hawaii, but very expensive for entire family. So we took a ship, and took us a little, I think, over seventeen days to hit Sacramento, San Francisco, and Los Angeles harbor.