Densho Digital Archive - Yoneko Dozono Interview (denshovh-dyoneko-01-0010)

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MR: How long did you stay in Japan after the war?

YD: Well, all together, I was in Japan for twenty years, so I came back in '53.

MR: And what was the reason that you chose to return?

YD: Well, actually at that time, after my stint in military government, the military government in Okayama had dispersed, and they had gone, the office had been moved down to Kure which is in Hiroshima. And they had just started the ABCC study which is the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission, and they were looking for interpreters there, and they got wind of me because of the disbanding of the military government, and I was offered a job in Hiroshima. And while I was working there -- and I worked there for three years before I came back here -- and during that time, Keiko was thirteen, and there always have been a different... I call them rules and regulations but directives in the American government, and the children born in foreign countries had to be in America for five years until they were eighteen, and they had to change their citizenship in either being in the foreign country or American. And so with Keiko being thirteen, I felt it was her privilege to be able to either become an American or just stay in Japan. And so Keiko was not very happy about it because she was a very good student as the other two were too, but I felt that it was her privilege to decide whether she wanted to be an American or not. So I brought her back here when she was thirteen and intended to have her stay with my sister until she was eighteen, then she could decide. And then during that time, my husband was reinstated, and he got a very prestigious position as a principal of a very good boys' high school in Japan. But he was disillusioned because during the four or five years that he was out of office, his peer group had gone up, and he was still starting down from scratch. And at that time -- he never mentioned this to me until later years -- that he wanted to start a new life, and he felt that he wanted to come to America. And one of the reasons why I think he was disillusioned was he was up to become the superintendent of the Okayama prefecture of the schools, and there was rivalry between the Tokyo and the Hiroshima group, and he did not get that job. And so I think that was one of the reasons why he wanted to start a new life. And we began writing letters, and I told him specifically that I didn't want him to come because of me because if anything should happen and he was disillusioned, then he might blame me. So I had written a letter telling him about my life here, and I wanted him to talk to his mother. His father had passed away, but talk to his mother. And if she said she wanted him to stay in Japan, then I was happy to go back to Japan because that was my first thought anyway just to leave Keiko here. And he went back to Kyushu and talked to his mother, and his mother was very broad-minded, and she said she felt that the family should stay together, and she was willing for him to come to America, and so he did.

And we were very fortunate in that just before he came, I had been trying to find a job here. And one thing that is very interesting is when I was looking a job, not knowing who Sam Naito was, I had gone to his office to apply for a job. And when I met him, he said, "Well, what can you do?" And I said, "I don't know." He says, "What do you do and what can you do, willing to do?" I said, "I'm willing to do anything, but I don't know anything because I just come from Japan." And when I was in Hiroshima, of course, I was one of the top interpreter/translators, and I did all of my work, you know, typing everything, but I was never good at typing. So when I came back here, I had gone to the Western Business School to hone up my typing. And so I told Sam, I said, well, I said, "I could do whatever is necessary," and he looked at me. He says, "Well, Mrs. Dozono," he says, "you better get some more skill in what you do and then come back for a job." In later years, I told him about that. He says, yeah, he says, "I remember you." But it was so funny that I didn't even know who he was, but we got a big laugh out of that because actually I didn't know anything. And then I was going to apply for a job at the consular's office, and they said that they would hire right away. But at that time, I had told them about my husband, and my husband had very good credentials, and he had graduated from the Tokyo Imperial University. And at that time was, the Consul Imajo said that, "We'll hire him right away," because they needed someone of his caliber. And so he got the, my husband got the position in my name, and they just waited for him to come. So when he was hired, he was what they called a technical adviser, and he took care of all the visas. And I think many times, he wrote the speeches for the consul. Of course at that time, it was not, still wasn't the consul general, was still a consul. And so during the festivities that we had here, we were more of a family, and we did all of our Christmas festivities or any of the things here together as a family. And now of course, it's much bigger, and there is more than one consul. There's several consuls and vice consuls. But at that time, there was just one consul, one vice consul, and a clerk. And then there is Tom Sono who was the Nisei adviser and Mae Iwashita who was Mac Iwashita's sister and my husband.

MR: How long did he work for the consul?

YD: He worked there for twenty years. He worked until he was seventy-two.

MR: And then retired?

YD: Yes.

MR: And where did you work after you came back?

YD: After I came back here, I worked for, I started out with the West Coast Lumber. And I was there just for a few months, and then I got a job at the Daido Company with the general steamship. And from there on, I worked for the school district for twenty years.