<Begin Segment 8>

RP: So they go to, they went to Tule Lake?

LY: That's right, they moved to Tule Lake in February, 1944.

RP: Do you, did they share any stories about that camp with you? You were born there and obviously don't have...

LY: I was born, but you know we really didn't say too much. Well, we're too young. Well, not really there to ask question. So my parents really didn't say much about the camp. And only through what I found out from my aunt, youngest aunt, and then reading and talking to other families who are still here. And that's how I found out.

RP: When did you, when did you sail for Japan?

LY: Our family left December 26, 1945. Around nineteen... yeah. Date might be a little off but I think but I think it was twenty-six. It's Gordon, SS Gordon.

RP: USS General Gordon? Uh-huh. You were...

LY: And then we arrived in Uraga, let's see, 1946, January I think sixteenth.

RP: And you went where?

LY: From there they went to, you know, we all went to Yamaguchi-ken, Natajima. Then my mother said, "Oh it was so unfortunate." You know, after the bomb was dropped so she saw many beggars and...

RP: You said the bomb was dropped, you're talking about the atomic bomb or just...

LY: Yeah, atomic, atomic bomb was dropped, dropped in August, 1946? Oh, no, no, not '46. Before that, '45?

RP: '45.

LY: Uh-huh.

RP: So Yamaguchi, Yamaguchi-ken...

LY: Is that one more prefecture south of it.

RP: From Hiroshima?

LY: And we're the very last prefecture of Honshu, is the biggest island. And then right below that is Kyushu. And then my grandparents came from Hiroshima and then I just recently, when we went to, my daughter and I went to Japan spring, March, April this year, 2009, then I saw a cousin, a second cousin, two of 'em. And the one the cousin's grandma and the grandfather passed away. And then his uncle and his wife and a baby, so which would be cousin, his cousin. And then the second cousin is already seventy-five years old. And he said he was not affected 'cause they're out in the country. And I said, "Did you have any kind of warning?" And he said so they were practicing, you know, if the bomb is dropped. That's what he told us. And then...

RP: So you lived, you lived with your father's, your grandfather's, at your grandfather's house? Where, where...

LY: Oh, when we went back to Japan?

RP: When you went back to Japan?

LY: Yes.

RP: Was that the house that he was building?

LY: That he built?

RP: In 1931?

LY: Uh-huh. But they had to rebuild. So my father built the house by the time he went back. So, anyway, my grandfather -- going back to my (grandma) -- when he went back to Japan in (1930), November, as so 1930... oh, excuse me, that's 1930 start the ground break so 1931, November, May, excuse me, they moved into a new house. It's a two-story house. And then he had a special roof. And had a glass on it. So when he takes a picture he gets a lot of lights. So when he went back he was still continued to take photos. And then my (neighbor) who is seventy-nine years old today, he remember a lot. And his family must have talked to him many things too about our grandfather, Tomojiro. So I have a picture of him when we visited him 2000. He said, "Here is a picture of Grandfather," which he took. And here is a glass, what do you call, negatives, those days. And then this is not his copy but because they had a flood they lost the real picture. But he said he made a picture with a negative, glass negative. And he showed it. And he said he was only one year old. And then there's another picture we took when we visited, my daughters and my niece and nephew and myself, in 2000. He show us what Grandfather was making beside taking photos. He made a rice container with a handle and then a wood put together and then tied with the bamboo. Somehow they curled the bamboo around and he said this container, rice container been, never been used. He said he was selling so he bought it for him. And he said never been used, brand new. And if it was smaller I said I wanted to bring back. And at that time he show us his little leather like a suitcase like or carry, carry case or whatever. It's rectangle. And he had a little negative clip holder or whatever. And then he showed us wrench. He said when he came back, Japan did not have a wrench. And then he had a hammer and then he has a canvas and on that little carrying whatever it's, to put things in there, maybe camera or whatever, and he always had a T.A., Tomojjiro Asahara. And then we have a what, big trunk, he has a T.A. So I have that one now. And then had also sew, you know, hand sew, T.A.

<End Segment 8> - Copyright © 2009 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.