<Begin Segment 2>

SG: I'm going to ask more about your parents. Where did they come from?

JO: My parents, they both come from the Kumamoto-ken, Kyushu, the way southern part of Japan. And like I said, they got married through picture, and I have visited them, first trip was back in 1982. I saw my older sister first time in, first time in fifty-eight years.

SG: So your sister went back to Japan when she was young?

JO: Yeah. I was hoping that she'd come to United States back, but she just, she just won't come back. And it would have been better that way, but we went over there.

SG: How old was she when she went to Japan?

JO: She is now, I think she was around eleven year old. So not seeing her for fifty-eight years, you know, it is quite a big years apart. And then ten year later again, '80, 1988, I went back and saw her again. She still over there. So maybe I'm hoping that maybe I get over there again.

SG: Why did she, why did she end up going back to Japan?

JO: Well, she didn't go back. She was, brother, my oldest brother and older sister, my grandpa, I remember my grandpa took them over to Japan to learn schooling over there for seven year, and that was a promise they would come back. My brother, George, did come back. My sister didn't come back. And then meantime, my grandpa passed away in Japan, so sister kind of refused to come back leaving grandma there alone in Japan. So she stayed in Japan and raised, got married over there, raised seven children. So they're there, and so she just won't come back. And so that's why we have, I have a sister and my young brothers to the date now, you know.

SG: And your father was still alive when your brother and sister went back to Japan?

JO: Yes. My father was alive. And in fact, when my father was alive when my oldest brother came back after seven years, and he passed away soon after when brother come back from Japan, you know.

SG: Do you know what kind of work your grandparents did in Japan?

JO: They had farming over there and raised rice and stuff. I've been back there. And my oldest sister still had the place, and that's where they still live there now, yeah.

<End Segment 2> - Copyright © 2003 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.