<Begin Segment 7>

SG: So when you went back to Fukuoka to be with your family, did they talk about their experiences in the bombing in Fukuoka, what happened?

AU: Yes. Because... well, it was at night, and of course by then, no matter where you were, every night, there was to be, you'd hear the siren, air raid siren. So I guess at that night, too, about, excuse me, 8 o'clock or so, I guess, that the siren rang, and I guess they all ran into the air raid shelter. The next thing they knew our house was bombed and the flame just came up.

SG: So your family lost everything?

AU: Yes.

SG: And where did you go after that?

AU: Oh, they went to, see, my father's hometown was, is in Fukuoka but it is near, it's near the Kokura where there was this headquarters for the army, some army headquarters, so they didn't want to go there, you know. It was, so my mother's friends lived in a different area, where, in the country, Kaho. And where there is, it's just farmers, farmland and so, because they knew them well and they said, "Well, why don't you come over?" And I think, the couple I think at one time had been in Hawaii or somewhere, a long time ago. So that's where we went, I mean, they were there. And in the meantime, my brother-in-law was drafted into the military, the Japanese military too, so he was gone. So my father, my mother and my sister.

SG: You mind if I ask what kind, what did your, what kind of work did your parents do in Fukuoka?

AU: They did not work at all. They retired very early. [Laughs] Well, see, when my, when my parents, when we were all in Hawaii and what I think a lot of, even the Isseis over here used to do, I guess, I think all the, they would save money, and then they would send it over to Japan and have them, have it put in the bank over there in Japan. And because my uncles were in Japan that, they were in Fukuoka City. And now and then, they would find a property or whatever, and they would, they would tell my father. He says, "Why don't you invest into this property?" and then I think he ill-yield also. They had, they had houses and properties that they were renting out. So when we went back to Japan, and they had income from all these properties coming in, and I guess they were able to make a living out of that because I remember I had to go around get, collect money right from all these houses, people that were renting these houses, you know.

SG: So they lost, did they lose all their property in the process?

AU: No, not, not the property, just the house that we were living in because that was a part away from, you know, our properties. And the properties that we had, one was in the, where the, I don't know if you know Japan, but where Hakata train depot is in that they had property over there too in that area. So after, later on, they sold all the property.

SG: After the war, they sold all their property?

AU: Yes.

SG: Do you know when they first, when they first decided, the reason why they decided to leave Kyushu in the first place and go to Hawaii?

AU: Well, my father, see, my father first went to Hawaii when he was still single. And he was, he said that because, by the time they had the draft system in Japan too, and he didn't quite make it. And so he decided well, because he was not the first son, not the oldest son. And in Japan, if you're the oldest son, you take after the family. But if you're a second or third, then, you know, you don't get all that family asset. So he decided, well, he was going to immigrate, I guess. Then he went to Hawaii. And then after, in the later years, after he got there, he befriended my uncle, my mother's older brother, which was, who was in Hawaii at that time, so they became friends. And at that time that they could have their brothers and sisters, especially for the brothers, no, for their parents, but they could not get their brothers and sisters over there. So what my uncle did was he called his mother which is my grandmother over to Hawaii, and then she came, went to Hawaii, and she turned around and then called her two children which is my mother and then her younger brother which is another uncle that was in Honolulu, and that's how they got there. And then my grandmother, after, then my mother, then my father married my mother in Hawaii because my uncle, which is the older one, knew my father. They were friends. So then when his sister came, and then my father said, you know, he said, well, he wanted to get married to her, so they got married. And then because my grandmother had some other children back in Japan, that she decided to go back to Japan to take care of the other kids because by then her husband had passed away, and he, so she didn't want to leave the other kids there, so she went back to Japan.

SG: It's very interesting.

<End Segment 7> - Copyright © 2003 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.