<Begin Segment 3>

RP: And when did your, when did your family move into this area, Tom?

TI: Oh, that's when my grandfather decided to retire, my brothers and I and my grandparents went to Japan. And my brother's, they decided to keep my brothers in Japan to go to school there. But I didn't like it there, so I came back to Sawtelle here, when my dad moved from Claremont to Sawtelle and became a gardener. Because he understood that there was a lot of money to be made. They were making roughly a hundred dollars a month.

RP: A hundred dollars?

TI: Which was, at that time, was a lot of money. So that was in 1923, and I've been here ever since.

RP: So you were how old when you actually went to Japan? About five or six?

TI: Six.

RP: Six years old?

TI: Yeah.

RP: And your grandfather retired in Japan?

TI: Oh, he retired here.

RP: Retired here but then went back there?

TI: Yeah, he went back after, well, he was getting kind of, some illness had gotten a hold of him, so he couldn't work, really. So he went back to Japan so he could draw his unemployment.

RP: So all your other brothers stayed in Japan?

TI: Yeah. No, except for John. One of the, one of the twins. But he came back here in 1937. So he stayed with us, with my folks.

RP: And your dad also went to Japan on this trip, too?

TI: No, he didn't.

RP: He stayed here?

TI: He stayed here.

RP: So you ended up coming back by yourself?

TI: With my mother.

RP: Your mother?

TI: Yeah.

<End Segment 3> - Copyright © 2008 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.