<Begin Segment 19>

LT: Well, it's good to hear that you keep in touch with your friends. You also have a wonderful family. Your wife Mabel died in 2011. You have children and grandchildren nearby. How do you spend your time?

GT: You know something, Linda? When Mabel died, at that time, I was still almost ninety years old, and I just thought, I lived my life, I didn't care. If I go now, it'd be fine with me. Not that I'm going to kill myself, but I felt that that's the kind of feeling I had. I had a long life with Mabel. If I went tomorrow, I wouldn't feel a thing. And then I found out that my grandkids, they lost their mother a year ago, they lost their dad to months ago, they lost their grandparents on the mother's side, they were killed in an accident going to see their mother who was in the hospital with cancer. And they both, they got in a wreck and they killed them both at one time. So they lost, everything was practically wiped out at that certain time. So I realize now, I've got to live, I've got to hang around, because they look to me for so much. So I said, "I just got to hang around a few more years." And Lynnell, my oldest of the grandkids, she's the one that teaches school now in... she got her master's so quick, she put all her effort into it, and she got into it. I thought that was amazing how she did it. But she says even with what she teaches over there, it's almost like starvation wages, she says, "We have an awful time making it just with those wages they pay us." But her husband works, too, so between the two of them, they can make a living. But just a teacher alone with a family of any kind, they just don't make enough to make it. So she confers with me quite often about different things, and she's been such a big help to me. She's wise by, way above the age she should be. She's twenty-five now, but she went through so much. So I told those kids, "I'll be around, you guys go ahead." My youngest one is twenty years old now, she says, "Grandpa, I want you to be here 'til, don't go 'til I get married." I said, "Well, yeah, but Tia, if I hang around there, you're going to go and grab some bum off the street, then walk you down the aisle? I don't want it that way. You got to get a good husband." And she reminds me of that, so she's going to Washington State now. I hope she hangs in there. [Laughs]

LT: What do you tell your grandchildren about your life experiences, especially as a Japanese American?

GT: Yeah, I think they're starting to feel all of these things, that they realize they're not white people. I think they are starting to realize that. Oh, yes, I know my oldest granddaughter, Lynnell, she said she stopped by the police or something, for something. She didn't get a ticket, but she was stopped, and the policeman asked her, he said, "Do you speak English?" to my granddaughter who teaches school. She said she was so insulted. [Laughs] She said, "They asked me if I could speak English, this policeman did." And she told him, "Well, I'm a teacher, I should be able to speak English." But she was so insulted by that. So that's just one incident where racial things kind of hit her, that she wasn't all white. But yeah, that was a funny thing, they asked, "Do you speak English?" She was so insulted, yeah. So she's my number one girl, she does everything for me.

LT: So what have you told your family about your life?

GT: You mean the kids? I think... I don't know if I ever told them, they're learning things through this here, but I didn't want to tell her, but she'd always ask me, "How you feeling, Grandpa? You okay today? You don't have any illness, do you?" But I did have something I didn't want to tell them about. I had to have an endoscopy. Before I went in, before I had this doctor at OHSU, he was my doctor, and he'd always call me or tell me when it's time for another endoscopy, about twice a year. Then all of a sudden he got moved up, promoted to Mayo Clinic, well, he was gone. And then there was another doctor come in, Dr. Mumani, I think he's from India. And he could make it, so I had this substitute doctor, he did an endoscopy for me. But these other doctors would always tell me, "Everything turned out okay, we got all the cancer polyps out of your stomach. We got another date set up for you," they always set up a date for me. But this other substitute doctor didn't realize that, and I went a year and a half without a checkup. I do know if they ask it twice a year, there's a reason for it. And I thought, my gosh, I haven't been checked up for over a year and a half, I should have had it. And I think this all happened when my wife died, I just, everything, I just forgot everything. And the substitute doctor didn't realize that that's what they're supposed to do, is give me another date set up. And I had an awful time getting back in OHSU. They just don't hand out free stuff anymore. And being a Medicare patient, there's no money in it for 'em. But I think for me to get back there and get on their schedule, it seemed like it took forever. Before, I would just call, and they'd just say, "All right, come in," certain day, and, "come on in." But this one here, they made me wait and wait and wait to get an appointment. Finally I got one the other day, and the doctor called me just the other day, the doctor that did the procedure on me. It was on a Sunday, calls me up on a Sunday directly, I was in the grocery store shopping. He said, "This is doctor so-and-so," I can't even remember his name, but he says, "Everything turned out okay, George. Everything is fine." I told the girls that and they were so relieved, it was like it was their body. But I told them that, "I'm going to be around, girls. I'm going to be there for you."

LT: I have just a few more questions to ask you. I'm thinking you talked about how you want to be more involved, or even maybe more outspoken about Japanese American issues. And while you've not talked a lot to your grandchildren about your life, what do you want them to know about Japanese Americans, and what they endured, especially during World War II? What would be the takeaway, what would be your message to them?

GT: Golly. You know, my youngest one is teaching, she wants to get into the other part, not teaching but upper, in the upper end, what do you call that?

LT: Higher ed?

GT: Higher ed, or administration. That's where she wants to be, she says, "At least that's where the money is." But I never did question about the money and all that, but all she knows is you've got to make more money to live in this country, because it costs so much money. But she's working to that end. My second girl, who's going to Washington State right now, she don't really know what, she wants to be in administration, too, but she's working for Nordstrom right now. But she said, "With Nordstrom, it's a family affair, and I don't know if I could ever go any farther than I am right now." So she's questioning that. At that funeral the other day there was a girl that, the person that died, his daughter worked for Nordstrom, and she was in the administration part of it, way up there. And she wanted to meet with her but she didn't get to because she was working for Nordstrom and she couldn't get away. But I said, "Well, why don't you talk to her and see what it takes to be up there in administration?" The racial probably has nothing to do with it, because there's one right there, a Japanese girl that made it up into the administration. And just talk with her and see what it takes to get up there." So I always encourage my girls to, at least those two, to get a good education. And there's money out there to be had. Maybe I stress money, but money is a big part of living nowadays, with the cost of living and everything. "You're never going to be happy working for McDonalds or anything like that. I just don't want you guys to do that." I've been knocking that, "I don't want to see you girls pitching hamburgers, I want to see you girls up into where the money is," and I guess maybe I shouldn't be saying that, but I do stress that a lot to them.

<End Segment 19> - Copyright © 2013 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.