<Begin Segment 22>

RP: During your time in Japan, did you have an opportunity to meet with any of your family, relatives?

HN: I went down to -- my parents, they were from Wakayama, which is south towards Osaka -- I went down there a couple of times. And it's in down south, Wakayama is, the sea coast is really beautiful. 'Cause they had... well, where my parents' house the -- not my parents' house, but their parents' house was more inland. But it was next to, next to a creek, a river where they had... we call them trout, but they're not trout. There's a Japanese... it's like a trout but it's a delicacy, the freshwater fish. And then they had, they were citrus, tangerine farmers, so the tangerine orchards.

RP: It must be relatively mild climate to grow tangerines.

HN: Yeah. But the sea coast, southern part of Wakayama, the sea coast is just really like a resort place. That's why U.S. military had their, a lot of resorts down there where if you want to do...

RP: R and R?

HN: R and R, yeah. Mostly for officers though.

RP: Uh-huh. So you actually met relatives on your mom and dad's side?

HN: Yeah.

RP: And how did they receive you?

HN: Oh, good.

RP: Must have been very interesting to be in Japan, too, back where your father had come from and...

HN: Yeah.

RP: You could have never imagined that you would end up in Japan during the war.

HN: Yeah, but it was, especially when we landed in Yokohama, because it was, it was really flattened out. It was burnt or bombed. And it was pretty sad because you'd see all these kids begging for food. But they... it's just, I was only in Japan for about eighteen months all together. But from the very... when I got there and from when I left, it had changed a lot. It was a very quick recovery, you know. Then when I went back on vacation, it was about ten years after, 'cause I didn't go down to Hiroshima or any place like that, but it was like, like there wasn't a war. Everything was built back up. Of course, Tokyo was not hurt too bad.

RP: They had that large fire bombing.

HN: That was Hiroshima.

RP: Well, in Tokyo, too.

HN: Oh, Tokyo, yeah.

RP: Got hit pretty hard.

HN: Oh yeah, yeah. But there was, the areas that I visited, they were untouched.

RP: Uh-huh.

HN: But the Yokohama area was just... because that was more of a...

RP: Military...

HN: You know, yeah, it was industrial.

RP: Uh-huh.

<End Segment 22> - Copyright © 2009 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.