<Begin Segment 4>

RP: I wanted to go back to your father in Japan. Was he from a large family? Did he have brothers and sisters?

MS: He had a sister, one sister, but he had step...

RP: Did they own land in Japan?

MS: Oh yeah, they were quite well to do, and he, he lived up, Fukuoka, that's the tip, way tip end of Japan, and it was unusual for him to go to Tokyo to go to university, but they were bankers, I believe, in that land, 'cause I went back to visit and I met his nephew and he had land, but... he inherited it, but he said that he wasn't going back so he gave it to his nephew, so when we went back on a visit, he treated us real well, took us around in chauffeured car, because he inherited that land. And that home where he was born is still there and the railroad goes, goes right through the property.

RP: The home where your father was born?

MS: In Fukuoka. Fukuoka.

RP: And so you said that he was kind of a diplomat after he graduated?

MS: I think so, from what I -- that's why he was goin' around the world. For some reason, I was small and we'd talk a little, but it didn't seem important, so I wish I had...

RP: But he had been to China, though.

MS: Yeah, he, during the war that China, when they, they fought over Manchuria or something, something, wasn't it?

RP: Might've been an early war.

MS: And he knew, spoke Chinese, so they sent him over there.

RP: Did he know other languages as well?

MS: Well, he spoke some English, at, that's why he came. He was in the service, so... 'cause he always, I know he used to go to the library and read all the time about different things. He was quite a reader.

RP: How about your mother? What can you tell us about...

MS: My brother, he was a, he graduated, he was an engineer and he started a, what do you call, some sort of engineering company. He made parts for the aircraft business, and his son still runs it in L.A. I think there's some intricate things for planes that they have to do by hand. I don't know just what it us, but he had his own business, engineering company. And his son runs it now.

RP: Did your, did your father go back to Japan?

MS: He never went back. He didn't care to, 'cause he said that he lost his father and mother and there were half... I guess he, I know he had one sister, real sister, but he, he didn't care to go back.

RP: How about your mother? How did she get...

MS: Well, he was supposed to, they were engaged when he came here, and when he went back to Japan he was, they were supposed to get married, but he didn't go back so she came over here later. They got married in 1906 or something. She came over here. So she, she never went back either. Well, they couldn't afford it. And she finally went back when she was seventy-five, I believe. For the first time.

RP: Did you go with her?

MS: No, she went, but I, I've been to Japan about, let's see, how many times? Four times? Every four, five years we'd go. After we got married, I went before I was married once, but we'd take a trip 'cause we looked up some cousins on my mother's side. They're all, first cousins are gone, but the second cousins, now they're... so lately I still kind of correspond with them, but it's getting so I can't write very often, so...

RP: Do you know what bank your father worked for?

MS: I don't know. It was, I remember we used to go down to Little Tokyo and I hated it because there were saloons back on every corner in those days, just like the movies. I actually saw somebody being thrown out like they show it in the movies. That's why I remember as a child I hated drinking, so I never have, I was always, hated anybody that drinks. I remember those things, that every corner there was a -- I remember vaguely, like the olden days, you could hear 'em as you walked by. One day I did actually remember somebody being thrown out, like they have it in the movies. That really happens. I remember that.

RP: So your father's bank was located in Little Tokyo?

MS: Yeah, Little Tokyo, but I don't know the name or what, what it was. But I know he had a friend that had come here, 'cause I think Japanese Town started, what year? It's been, late 1800, huh? I think late, several people were here and they had hotels and I think they had a hospital, too. Hospital and doctors. There were few here at the time when I was growing up, I know. I think they came in early 1900, late 1800, I think they started coming into this area. I don't really remember too much 'cause I was still young then.

<End Segment 4> - Copyright © 2009 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.