<Begin Segment 9>

SG: Your parents, do you know why your parents decided to leave?

AU: No. My father all of a sudden one day, he says, "I think we're all going to go back to Japan." And he says, well, he says that Atami needs an education. Well, I think maybe this is a good time for her to go and go to school in Japan. And so, you know, I got my high school and my college education there. And after the school, I went back to Fukuoka because I went, by then, my sister was married, and my brother-in-law, because my sister is the older, you know, child in the family and because we had only two girls, in Japan, you just can't let the family name disappear, so she took her husband into our house which means, they call it the muko yoshi. You're kind of adopted into our family. And so he took the name of Yoshida which is my maiden name, and gave up his Takahashi and became a Yoshida. And because, he said that because he came into our family, that he was going to take care of my parents and that he felt that that was his duty. And so he, so then my father said, "All right." He said, "You don't have to do that now," you know, because he said, "I'm still young enough that we can take care of ourselves." But he says, "No. I might as well start now." And so he says, "Okay. And if so, then I will transfer all my assets to you." And my dad did that and turned it over to him. So my mother would say, "Don't do all that." My father did that because he says, "If you're going to take over the family, then this will go to you." So my brother-in-law became... well, he was what they call the, they used to have sort of a government bank called, they called the people's bank, Kokumin Kinkyoku which was established right after the war, I guess, to, in order to, for the, for the Japanese government to help the people set were repatriating from other countries. You know, there were people in Manchuria and Korea and all those places that were coming home to, coming back to Japan, and they, you know, they couldn't get jobs, and they wanted to start their own business. And so this national bank was created to initially finance these people, loan these people money so they can start their business, and then they would eventually return it back, you know, turn it back to the government. And so, he eventually became the president of the branch, you know, the general manager of this branch. And so then he would get a like, I guess, even the banks over here, they don't keep a person in the same spot for year after year after year. So every few years or so, he would transferred to another branch, and he traveled all over, but every time he would take my parents with him. I have elderly parents that I have to take. So the company always, the bank always arranged for my family and for my parents to be with him. So they did not send him to Hokkaido, somewhere where it's extremely cold, you know, because they said the elderly cannot stand that cold, whatever. So he kind of went around to nice places. But then eventually, he retired, and then of course, you know, they built their own house. Of course, my father built the house for him. And then of course, when he died, then my brother, my mother and then, my mother passed away, then my sister got it. But my brother-in-law had passed away since then, so I still have my sister there. And of course, she has her children, so they're all grown and have their own families.

SG: So your sister stayed in Japan?

AU: Yes. Yes. She's in Japan. She had a stroke a few years ago, but she's doing fine. She's, that's why she waits for me to come back and visit her now and then.

<End Segment 9> - Copyright © 2003 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.