Monday Is for Mothers: Alta in Japan

In about 1954 Alta joined her husband Pete Norville in Zushi (about an hour south of Tokyo) where he had been transferred by the U.S. Navy. They lived there for three years.

[Alta, second from left. Courtesy of Olive Slater-Kennedy]

Here's what she had to say* about her stay in Zushi:

"I loved that. We lived in a Japanese house with all Japanese neighbors. Pete sent me to school to learn Japanese. There wasn't any place I couldn't go. I had more Japanese friends than American friends so I saw a different side of Japan. I was the only wife among the Admiral's staff who could speak Japanese," Alta said.

Fortunately some pictures of her house made it to the Slater family photo collection which Aunt Olive has shared with us.

[Alta's house exterior and garden.]

[Alta's Japanese house interior - shoji]

[Alta's Japanese house interior - shoji]

[Alta's Japanese house - kitchen]

[Alta's Japanese house - ofuro, traditional soaking tub]

[Alta's Japanese house - garden]

*Quoted from her 1983 interview in the Casa Grande Dispatch transcribed here.

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