<Begin Segment 10>

RP: This is tape two of a continuing interview with Lois Asahara Yuki. And, Lois, we were talking about your transition to living in Japan. Did any of your brothers and sisters who are a little older than you, did they, did they work the occupational government in Japan doing any interpretive work or work with the army or any, any of that that you know of?

LY: Not in Japan.

RP: Not in Japan. Another question, you mentioned about the devastation that you came into when you went back to Japan. Was that evident as you grew up? Were there still areas of the country that were...

LY: Can you repeat that again?

RP: What did the, what did Japan... were the scars of the war in Japan still evident to you as you grew up? Did you see areas that were still bombed out?

LY: Oh, no. It's completely... it's very, very, what do you call? I mean, it's like black and white. The place was all, what do you call, rebuilt, especially the Hiroshima and Nagasaki. And then technology and you know these things... the history, fifty, well, over sixty-five years now, really taking place and it, such a nice place to visit. And so clean. You don't even see piece of paper on the street even in the city. And then... I'm very fascinated how they keep up the place.

RP: Was, was getting enough food a problem for the family when they came back to Japan? You mentioned that one of your, your youngest brother passed away as a result of malnutrition or...

LY: Oh, that's in Japan.

RP: In Japan.

LY: Yeah. When they went back, they didn't have, what do you call, basic needs. So, they struggled. They had money, but no food. So they had to, you know, grow your own. Everybody's growing their own food. And they very sufficient in their own family but I guess they didn't really have other things to really share with other people at that time, after the war. So it was very, very difficult. And then well... my, oh was it? Oh yeah, neighbor is the one told us my father side relative... no, no, my grandma side, of my father side, relative in place called Sudenji, had a, what do you call it, rice and then not ash, but charcoals to use when he arrived in Japan. You know, we need these items so they had rice and charcoal given to us. But, it was with my father's older sister's place and her family. So when they came back... neighbor, oh yeah, neighbors too gave them something to, for our family. But they never saw it. So I guess one of the neighbors said, "You don't even say thank you." But they didn't know. It was, they, relatives ate the rice, used the charcoal. And maybe other things too.

RP: So these were items that were supposed to go to them when they got back to Japan?

LY: I mean, to, you know, our parents and my family.

RP: Oh, that's how difficult things were.

LY: They were trying to, you know, help. Which was a cousin's family. My father's cousin did that. So, and he, at the time they went back, I mean, the food was not, you know, not enough to eat and then my mother said reason I survive is that I was able to say, "I'm hungry." And my little brother, when he left the Tule Lake, he was only two month old. And that's why he, because of malnutrition. And my mother said everybody was so sick. So, that's how it was. You know, economy was bad and whole situation was, after the war. So they said like school, they had a statue of very famous person and they even took that down and made a bullet.

RP: Made a what out of it?

LY: Bullets. You know...

RP: Oh, oh.

LY: Anyway, that's what I've been told. So they re-made. It was a man named what was it, Noguchi is the last name. Was it Hideo Noguchi, famous, I guess, physician. And then they took that down and made the bullets.

RP: Did you say that your father built an American style home?

LY: Yes. My father built the American style home in Japan, two stories. And then, this is where he learned how to build the house. When he was in Tule Lake, he changed from ground cleaning to construction. So he was able to learn how to build the buildings or the houses. So he, not only not he built his, our own house, but he also helped my mom's cousin's husband in Hiroshima. So he was able to build the apartments. And he made six total. And when I went back in 2000, his wife, who was about eighty, she said, "I want to thank you for your father," for showing her husband how to build the apartments and the house. So that's why he, she said, "That's why we were able to make some more units and then here we are living in the city." And now his son has the property 'cause his father passed away. And then he said, Oh, this is about six times they have rebuilt in the last sixty-five years. So, it was very interesting. And the same place, so I'm very happy that he was able to do that and...

RP: Your father...

LY: This is my grandma Hisa Kuwabara Seno's younger sister's family I'm talking about.

RP: So your father would have built these six apartments in Hiroshima just after, during the redevelopment of the, of the city?

LY: He didn't, I think he probably helped just one, to show him how to do it.

RP: Show him how to do it.

LY: Right.

RP: That would have been just, you know, in the time after the dropping of the bomb and the rebuilding of the city.

LY: Uh-huh, right. I think it was in '60s, if I remember right.

RP: Oh, in the '60s.

LY: Uh-huh.

RP: Okay.

<End Segment 10> - Copyright © 2009 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.