<Begin Segment 17>

TI: Now when you were in Japan, were you able to visit your relatives?

YK: I got there, it seemed like it was in December or January, and in about... oh, about November or so, I think I got a furlough where they let me go to Toyama for one week, and so I took a train out there. And I don't know how the pass thing works or anything, but I remember I was able to go up to Toyama. I knew how to get there because I could read enough of the map and things to figure out what train schedule and so forth I'd have to take. In fact, it seemed like it took two days to get there. I went... let's see. I went to, yeah, that's right. So I started from Sasebo, which is down in the southern island of Kyushu, went through Kokura, and then got on to Honshu and went through Hiroshima. I remember going through Hiroshima because it was totally dark. There was no electricity, nothing. Couldn't even see anything out there.

TI: This was November 1946 or '47?

YK: '46. Let's see... '45, '46, '47.

TI: Because you went, you got to Japan December 1946, and this would be November of 1947.

YK: Yeah. And then '47, that's right. And then I spent a week there, and I saw all the relatives that I saw when I was a kid. And most of 'em weren't doing very well.

TI: Were not doing well?

YK: In fact, some of 'em got bombed out. Back in those days, you know, these buses for transportation, they were stoking charcoal to get 'em running. That's how desperate it was. It's pretty sad when you see them making fuel out of charcoal to make the bus run. But most of the people that I saw then were the ones that I saw back in, before the war. Oh, the other thing was I had an aunt and uncle that went to Manchuria, and they came back while I was still in Kyushu. They came back, and they happened to live about fifty miles from where I was stationed, so they came to see me, and they were pretty skinny. And then they... I saw 'em, must have been about two, three weeks after they repatriated from Manchuria, and then from there they went to Toyama, and somehow they couldn't get along with the ones that were there, so they went to Yokohama and that's when I met 'em. That was thirty years ago, after. But, let's see... we went up to, I went up to Toyama and saw the condition they were in. And so when I went back to Kyushu, I put in a request to the army that I'd re-up for another eighteen months. See, I was in for eighteen month at the beginning, and all my friends went elsewhere. Most of 'em went to Tokyo area, but I was down in Kyushu. And so I told 'em I was willing to re-up for eighteen month more if they transferred me, so they did. That surprised me that it was so easy.

TI: And where were you transferred? Where did you go?

YK: I went to Toyama.

TI: Oh, okay.

YK: I went to where my relatives were.

TI: And did you go because you wanted to help them?

YK: Yeah. But then the army doesn't know that. They saw that I wanted to go to Toyama and re-up, they said sure. That was easy for them, they got another body for eighteen more month, and they didn't know my motives.

TI: And so what kind of things were you able to do to help your family?

YK: Well, for one thing, I gave them money wherever I could, because it was 360 yen to a dollar, and a dollar went a long ways. Being in the military government, I was, you know, back, way out the sticks like that. In the Toyama Prefecture, in the city itself, the main city for the prefecture, they wield a lot of power. And we're the government, military government team advised the government, and so what we talked to them about carried a lot of weight. Then being out in the country, and it's not like being in Kyoto, Tokyo where higher-ups questioned what you do, but they didn't here. I did a lot of things. I got in as a, took care of the enlisted men's bar, because I could speak Japanese, and I could, and my legal government officer would give me a permit to go to the taxation office without the taxation office... and get, buy beer and sake without tax. I think the tax must have been about ninety percent of the cost of the bill rather, and I used to get that. I did it several times. One day I got a bright idea to go to the legal government office and get permit for ten cases of beer, and went down to the taxation office, got the permit for the beer, and went down to the brewery and have 'em deliver it to the entrance to our building and I sold it. I made a lot of money off of that one. That's all black market money. Black market, way up in the sticks like that, pretty prevalent. People have extra shirt or clothing, and they would sell it, and people would be buying it.

TI: And then with that extra money that you would make from the black market, would you then use that to help your family?

YK: Yeah, I'd give 'em proportion. I don't remember what it was now, but it probably, maybe cost... my cost was pretty negligible because minus the taxation, I didn't have to pay very much. So I got, seemed like I got a pretty good sum from the brewer or the distributor, that's what it was.

TI: Because you would get it from the brewery and sell to the distributor?

YK: No, I go to the taxation office and get the permit, and I get the permit and go to the distributor. And distributor would give me the goods at the cost, minus the tax. And they would deliver it.

TI: I see. And then who were your customers? Who would you sell...

YK: I didn't sell that. Oh, I sold it to a guy that worked in the military government. It was a Japanese guy that was a fence, he'd buy stolen goods or anything, and I would sell it to him, and he took care of everything. That was pretty neat. [Laughs]

TI: And you would do this like how frequently?

YK: Oh, I only did it twice.

TI: Okay.

YK: Didn't want to get caught. Besides, my legal government, lieutenant, he gets suspicious.

TI: If it happened too frequently.

YK: Yeah. Ten cases is a lot of beer.

<End Segment 17> - Copyright © 2013 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.