My father received words—through letter—that his father was gravely ill, and that he was not expected to live much longer. And that he desperately wanted to see his children as well as the only grandkids they had, that was my brother and myself. My father packed us all up very early in 1940, probably around January. So, my brother Kenny, myself, my father and my mother, who at that time was eight months pregnant. That's a pretty difficult situation to be traveling in those days, at that late stage in pregnancy. We have a photo of us on the ship. Although she was hiding her bump, tummy, she was definitely pregnant and she was determined not to have the baby until she arrived in Japan and reached the destination where she was born, in Furue. On February 20 of 1940, my younger brother, Albert Kenji, was born. That takes us in[to] February. Then we stayed in Japan until June of that year. There were parties and lots of reunion[s].

Miraculously my father—my grandfather I meant—his health greatly improved during this period. Basically he was suffering from probably what they classify nowadays as depression. He took to drinking too much sake probably. His health was declining, but when we got there he started to behave himself and his health improved, until he found out that we were all returning to United States. That was in June. By that time the money has run out. My parents still had [a] home in Los Angeles, which they had to take care of. When my grandfather's health started declining, they decided to take care of their business in [the] United States and then return to Japan to take care of my grandfather. Well, to show good faith that they were planning to return, they left my older brother Kenny and myself in their care. That was June of 1940. However, the war started and my parents and the whole family were interned in Poston, Arizona along with all the other Japanese American in the neighborhood. And they were there for the duration of the war.