I was born in Tokyo Japan. My father was Italian and my mother was Japanese. Since I'm a half breed, my grandfather refused to accept me into his family. So instead of bring disgrace to his family, I was formally reported to have died at child birth. But no one would allow my real death to occur so it was a paperwork thing only. I was placed on an adoption list and was adopted by a sailor and his wife. Dale and Esther (my new parents) were very excited and were present at the hospital the day I was born. They took me home from the hospital as soon as the hospital staff would allow it. At the age of 6 months, I got to fly on my first airplane to San Francisco, California.