PAINFUL LESSONS
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PAGE 8
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Sea sickness defined the ten-day February voyage that ended in Uraga, near Tokyo. On the train ride south to Unomachi, on the island of Shikoku, destruction defined the landscape. Unfortunately, Bob was too busy battling a case of dysentery to notice much. They were sent to Unomachi because the Japanese government required all repatriated families to return to the father’s birthplace where relative could help them to begin new lives. Needless to say, many Japanese who had lived through years of deprivation were not eager to meet needy American strangers to whom Japan was totally foreign.
Despite the devastation, Isamu, Masuko and Bob made the best of their new lives. Bob learned to live on sweet potatoes, the main staple, and how to trap eels in the local river. He lost many before being shown how a pumpkin plant leaf could be use to hold onto their slimy skin.
For the next decade Bob fantasized about return to his home country while attending school as, at best, a foreign curiosity, and often as an outcast. He was an American trapped in a foreign land, now twice removed from home.
Eventually, he got a job as a translator for the American occupational government and met a young American woman named Carol. By 1959, despite the poverty in Japan, Bob had saved up enough money to return to the U.S. where he and Carol were married.
After living in Japan for 13 years, the return to America felt like returning to from a dream. After establishing residency, Bob enrolled in the University of Washington, graduating in 1963 with honors. Taking time off to begin a novel between teaching jobs at various colleges, he and Carol also made time to have two sons. Bob then found a job in Eugene teaching at the University of Oregon. Rather than continuing to move between universities in search of tenure, Bob decided to provide his family with what he lacked as a child, a secure home, and settled in Eugene in 1974.
In 1979 he was able to help bring his parents back from Japan and they lived out their final years in the Eugene. His sons, now 39 and 37, still live in the West, one in Salt Lake City, the other in Portland. Bob has written several novels addressing the internment. Today, he speaks publicly, as well as works with the Eugene Japanese American Art Memorial Committee, a group dedicated to creating a memorial in Eugene that remembers the sacrifices of the 110,000 internees.
Despite the devastation, Isamu, Masuko and Bob made the best of their new lives. Bob learned to live on sweet potatoes, the main staple, and how to trap eels in the local river. He lost many before being shown how a pumpkin plant leaf could be use to hold onto their slimy skin.
For the next decade Bob fantasized about return to his home country while attending school as, at best, a foreign curiosity, and often as an outcast. He was an American trapped in a foreign land, now twice removed from home.
Eventually, he got a job as a translator for the American occupational government and met a young American woman named Carol. By 1959, despite the poverty in Japan, Bob had saved up enough money to return to the U.S. where he and Carol were married.
After living in Japan for 13 years, the return to America felt like returning to from a dream. After establishing residency, Bob enrolled in the University of Washington, graduating in 1963 with honors. Taking time off to begin a novel between teaching jobs at various colleges, he and Carol also made time to have two sons. Bob then found a job in Eugene teaching at the University of Oregon. Rather than continuing to move between universities in search of tenure, Bob decided to provide his family with what he lacked as a child, a secure home, and settled in Eugene in 1974.
In 1979 he was able to help bring his parents back from Japan and they lived out their final years in the Eugene. His sons, now 39 and 37, still live in the West, one in Salt Lake City, the other in Portland. Bob has written several novels addressing the internment. Today, he speaks publicly, as well as works with the Eugene Japanese American Art Memorial Committee, a group dedicated to creating a memorial in Eugene that remembers the sacrifices of the 110,000 internees.