<Begin Segment 15>

TR: So meanwhile, Tom is in Europe.

AN: Uh-huh.

TR: Do you remember VE Day and when the war in Europe was declared officially over?

AN: Well, I knew he was coming home. And he, he was so happy he'd gotten through the war, so he, every day, he'd take one of those green army underwear and throw it out the window, the port hole, every day one went in the ocean. That was his act of celebration.

TR: How did you first find out he was coming home?

AN: Oh, I don't remember. I don't remember anything. Well, just the fact that war was over that, over there, not in Japan.

TR: Do you remember how long it took him to get back to the States?

AN: No. It took quite a while over there, took some time over there before they came over. I think it was quite a long wait for --

TR: So do you remember the circumstances where you first saw him again after the long absence?

AN: Uh-huh. Yes, I do. He came by train to Nyssa, and I went to meet the train so that was a nice time.

TR: How long had he been gone?

AN: Had he been gone? Oh, I would say several years I guess, not too long, long enough.

TR: So you said you got married. Then you went to New York and visited and to Washington, D.C. and then --

AN: Came home.

TR: Came home.

AN: Uh-huh.

TR: And what did you do while Tom was gone?

AN: Oh, I don't know, stayed home.

TR: Where did you live?

AN: With my parents in Nyssa.

TR: And they still had the farm?

AN: Uh-huh.

TR: You called it a ranch.

AN: Yeah, ranch, farm, whatever.

TR: Okay. So there's no difference in the words?

AN: I don't think so.

TR: And so do you remember, did your father ever talk about the war, the attack on Pearl Harbor, how he felt about his native country declaring war on his adopted country? Did he ever talk about --

AN: No. But his, I remember he had written a letter and, to my brother, and he said, "Japan and United States will be good friends someday." And he said, "Japan, the war has made Japan into a newborn nation." I always remember that because it was prophetic what he said.

TR: Do you remember what your father's, after Pearl, soon after Pearl Harbor was attacked --

AN: Uh-huh.

TR: Did your father say anything about the situation between the United States and Japan or how he felt about that?

AN: Well, his loyalty was to the United States because we all lived here, and we loved the United States, so he felt the same way too.

TR: Did any of your brothers go into the military during the war?

AN: No. They raised the crops.

TR: Worked on the farm?

AN: Uh-huh. I know my brother Ray, he was an economist in Washington, D.C., and they sent him to Japan. He was among the first who got in, and he had a lot, charge of distributing food in Japan. And he, as I say, we didn't speak very much Japanese. And so in order for him to get it, he had to have a uniform, army uniform on. And so he'd have this man come in, this Caucasian man would come in with him when he'd talk to the people in Japan about the food, the distribution and so on. And so they start talking to my brother Ray thinking that he was a Japanese interpreter. Well, he didn't know what they were saying. So he said, this American, this Caucasian man was the interpreter, so he said, "Oh, okay. You take over."

TR: Must have been very confusing to the Japanese nation.

AN: Oh, yes, it was.

<End Segment 15> - Copyright © 2004 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.