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MR: I have some questions about your brothers and your sister. During the internment, where was your sister?

RN: My sister, as soon as the camp opened that they could leave eastward, not west, she did potato picking in camp now. The farmers came and asked for, during the war, there are shortage of help, so they came to ask for help or Japanese helpers, so the director allowed it. So my sister never picked potato in her life, but she went out and she did that, and she saved the money, so that's how she got to Chicago. And my brother George did the same thing. He said the Idaho potatoes are very mealy, very good, and well known. And he said, "I don't know how they did that because I never did anything like that." But they pile the potatoes up. And the farmer who grew the potatoes were so surprised to have such efficient workers, hard workers, so he came back and said, "Please send us some more," and I think that's how my sister got there, but that's what she did.

What she did in camp, I don't know what she did. She had a free, you know, she didn't have the responsibilities like I did. And she went to Chicago, many of them did. And she found a job as a checker in a large hotel and restaurants, big restaurant, and she earned her money that way since the very early part, so people I think helped each other out. And she lived there. She found a... well, she's not like me. I'm very conservative. She's freer. So she went into a nightclub, and she saw a person in a band. He's a saxophonist, and he's half Japanese with a Scandinavian mother. Well, she thought he was very attractive. They found each other attractive, and that's how she married him. They had a son. But in his twenty-first year, he drove his motorcycle, came in an accident, and he killed himself after that motorcycle accident. After that, well, her husband died. She was left alone. She didn't come back to Portland at all because she said, "I'm not coming back to Portland where they kicked me out. I'm not returning." That's why she went that way. My mother didn't feel that way. She left everything she had to me in the will, so I have to go over there and try to sell her house and straighten out her affairs. Her clothing and things are all neat. She's very clean. She's like my father. But before I went there, her home had been broken into, so I didn't know what she had or what she missed because I didn't know. But I had a Japanese lawyer call me. He helped me through all this, and he has Caucasian female lawyers helping. I think he had about three partners. It was very difficult to sell her house. It was like Ladd Addition. Chicago can hardly see trees, but they had elm trees, and the garage was in the back like, and they have alley just like Ladd Addition. So I tried to sell her house. It was difficult because the black people wanted to come into the area. It's nice. So I read stories about them. I never believed it. But one woman did sell her house, and then they all started coming in to make it very difficult, so the people that want to buy would come and see little black children playing, they won't buy it. And I always thought that Chicago being bigger would be more tolerant. They're not. Portland is more tolerant than they are.

And I finally had Caucasian realtors, and one of them told me to renovate the house to make it better in order to sell. I had black people in there before. They didn't do the job at all. They missed things because I'm not there you see. They didn't paint inside the closet and things like that. But the person I had was Mr. Cross who's a German, and he did a beautiful job, very solid job. The house was sold to a black woman student counselor of one of the colleges there. She liked the house. It has brand new carpet. She brought her two little grandchildren. She liked it so much, she spent her, the whole night with two little grandchildren, slept there the night, too, on the carpet. And I said, "Well, if she liked it that much, I'm glad that she will be the owner because she will take care of the house," and I felt very relieved, and I have a black realtor because I have to deal with black people now. And he was a very wonderful nice person to work with, very nice, and I liked him very much. Finally, I got the house sold, so my responsibility was over. While I was there, the neighbor across the street Mr. Olstelo was very helpful. He told me, "Why don't you move here? The house is empty. Why don't you move here and be our neighbor?" And he's a Chicagoan, so I didn't tell him I couldn't stand the cold that they undergo there, so I didn't tell him that. But he was very helpful. That's how I got the house sold. But it took quite some time to sell it, but I'm glad I was rid of the problem.

MR: What was your sister's name?

RN: Her name is Kiyo, Kiyoko, but we call her Kiyo Marie because her sister, her name is Mary. Her sister's name is Mary, so they have to differentiate it. So my sister called herself Marie because she like Marie better than Mary. And so I call her Kiyo Marie, Kiyoko Marie, but I say Kiyo Marie.

MR: And then you mentioned earlier that you had two brothers. One of them was George --

RN: Uh-huh. He's the oldest one.

MR: What's your other brother's name?

RN: Kay. It's really K-E-I, but we're kids, so we call him K-A-Y. It's really K-E-I, but it's K-A-Y. He's been going through that.

<End Segment 8> - Copyright © 2004 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.