<Begin Segment 6>

MK: Your father came over to the States, and your mother followed. You are the only one out of the four siblings who came over here, right? Your three younger sisters...

CE: No, they did not come.

MK: All the way to the U.S. Why did you want to come?

CE: My father asked me if I would be interested in coming over, and that's why I came over with my older brother. [Laughs]

MK: You were fifteen.

CE: Right. I was giving such a hard time to my brother. [Laughs] I was telling him that I should never have come to the States. We had electricity and a record player back in Japan like everybody else. We did not even have electricity when we came over to the U.S. and settled in a town called Gladstone. We moved to Milwaukie, and we finally got electricity in the first year we moved in the area. That is why I was thinking, "Oh my goodness. I should not have come over here." [Laughs]

MK: You were working in the fields in Japan. You came over to the U.S. and started to work in the fields again. Which was harder?

CE: I did not work in Japan. [Laughs] Our family was running a pretty large silkworm business and had several workers spinning silk for us. We also had babysitters and cooks. I never had to work. [Laughs]

MK: Were you just hanging around then?

CE: Not just hanging around. I went to school.

MK: So you all of a sudden found yourself in a situation where you needed to work when you came over.

CE: Yes. [Laughs]

MK: Were you happy to see your father and mother?

CE: Yes, I was happy. I went to school for six months.

MK: Did you go to school here?

CE: In Gladstone.

MK: What grade were you in?

CE: I was not in a particular grade. I was learning simple words.

MK: Were you learning English words?

CE: English words. [Laughs] But I didn't have to speak English after that. We were speaking Japanese at home. I forgot all of it. We came back after the war was over, and I applied for American citizenship. I took Japanese classes for the test by Mr. Matsuda and Mr. Yasui with the Nikkei Association. Then I was told that I would need to take the test in English because I was a bit too young to be qualified for the test in Japanese. Mr. Matsui had another class in English for the English test. I took classes twice, in Japanese and in English. [Laughs]

<End Segment 6> - Copyright © 2003 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.