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AT: My mother now came from a very poor family. Her father was an alcoholic, so he was gone very quickly and, but she was very clever. She could do anything with her hands. She did beautiful dolls. She did flower arranging. She became a master flower arranger in Japan and arranged flowers in Hawaii for the big hotels. When they moved back from Japan to Hawaii, she had to bring the children to after, when the war started and Dad was taken away, I'm sure she was, had a very difficult time just getting rid of all of our possessions. They had a car which they had to sell. Mom says that there was a time when people would throw vegetables and a chicken perhaps over the fence for them. I'm sure it was a kindness, but that fed us because there was not much left after Dad was gone. She said that once she looked in the car and hunted high and low for some money, she finally found a dime, one dime, on the floor in this little car that we had, and she said that was such a godsend just to have one dime to use for bread. She gathered us all together after she had sold everything. Dad had told her she had to sell everything, so she did, and I can remember that she said he had said to put everything into silver. Everything was silver coins, and so she carried this bag filled with silver coins, not a lot but enough so that it was quite heavy to Honolulu with the children, with my brother and I. There were just two of us. But we were old enough that we could walk and almost take care of ourselves. But I'm sure it was very lonely and very difficult, and you never knew, we never knew when we would see our father again. We didn't know if we would see him in Honolulu or if we'd see him on the mainland in camps. We just were told what to do, be here, be there, and we did it. My father built, after they, while he was working as a janitor after we came back, they came back from Japan, he built their house. They had a home, and they bought a lot in Saint Louis Heights, and the boys helped Dad to build their home. Then they sold that home and moved to Nuuanu and fixed that up. But Dad was never prouder than to have his children who all graduated from college. He used to tell his workers, his, the people he worked with in Japan, he'd always say, "You know my son, I don't know what he's doing in college. He got this grade. I'm not sure what it is." Do you suppose he's, the fellows would say, "Well now, what was his grades?" He got something like a 3.8. I don't know if that's very good. Of course, we knew that he knew that it was good. It was his way of saying, "Aha. See how well my son has done?" He was very proud. Of course, he didn't do that with my grades ever. [Laughs] But he had two smart sons so that was a good thing.

DF: Did your mom share with you what she was feeling as she's gathering up the belongings or getting rid of the belongings and bringing you to Sand Island? Did she share any of those thoughts?

AT: You know, I don't remember her ever sharing any of that, and we never asked. There's some things you just didn't talk about, and we never asked. We should have. She's gone now. She's been gone for about two years, so we'll never know. My brother probably knows, but I don't know. She was a very obedient wife. My father demanded obedience. He was a very strong man. We didn't have to do anything. He did it all. If we had a job at school, he would do it. If my mother had a job, Dad would do it, so it was, she was just a very obedient Japanese wife.

DF: Do you remember what you were thinking, you know, being separated from your dad and wondering when you would see him?

AT: No. You know, you just, I'm sure it was very lonely for us because our dad was our life. He bathed us. He put us to bed. He did all these things for us when we were growing up. He was the one who bathed us at night. He was the one who put us to bed. He did everything, and of course then it was left for my mother to do. So he was a very, he was the strong arm of our family, and I'm sure it was very lonely for us all to be without a parent.

DF: Can we talk a little bit postwar, your experiences of going back to Hawaii and maybe seeing the grocery stores, seeing where the barbershop was and what did you come back to?

AT: We didn't ever go back to Maui after we returned. We stayed in Honolulu. We lived with our aunt, with my mother's sister, because my father had already gone to Japan, and we had to stay in Hawaii for about a year before they would ship us to Japan to be my father. So we went to school right in Honolulu, lived in our auntie's home. She had, she was, she had no children. She collected angel fish, and that was her pride and joy, and we'd sleep in the rooms with all the large aquariums. And when they died, she was certain that we were the cause of their death because of the noise that we made and the lights that we turned on. And of course, the food was so wonderful in Hawaii that I could still hear her screaming at me, "Ah, come back here with that," she'd say. I'd grab something out of the kitchen and run away, you see, and she'd be screaming at me. Of course, I knew I had to go back to the house eventually, but that was all right. But we lived with her for almost a year, and that was, we were accepted because we were Japanese. There were all the Japanese people around. There was no problem fitting in again.

<End Segment 13> - Copyright © 2004 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.