Small business

Japanese American businesses, such as groceries, fish shops, laundries, barbershops, public bathhouses, restaurants, drugstores, and dry goods stores, sprang up in communities along the West Coast. Women and children were vitally important to these "mom and pop" enterprises, as their free labor allowed the family to survive and even prosper during lean times.

Industry and employment (481)
Small business (391)

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391 items
Tomio Moriguchi Interview III Segment 1 (ddr-densho-1000-61-1)
vh Tomio Moriguchi Interview III Segment 1 (ddr-densho-1000-61-1)
Where it all began, a look at the current production of satsumaage and a discussion of how it differs from when his father first made it by hand

Filmed on location.

Tomio Moriguchi Interview III Segment 4 (ddr-densho-1000-61-4)
vh Tomio Moriguchi Interview III Segment 4 (ddr-densho-1000-61-4)
Walking through the process of making satsumaage

Filmed on location.

Mii Tai Interview Segment 4 (ddr-densho-1000-186-4)
vh Mii Tai Interview Segment 4 (ddr-densho-1000-186-4)
Living above family's laundry business

This interview was conducted as part of a project to capture stories of the Japanese American community of Spokane, Washington. Densho worked in collaboration with the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture.

Mii Tai Interview Segment 3 (ddr-densho-1000-186-3)
vh Mii Tai Interview Segment 3 (ddr-densho-1000-186-3)
Description of parents' laundry business

This interview was conducted as part of a project to capture stories of the Japanese American community of Spokane, Washington. Densho worked in collaboration with the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture.

Yae Wada Segment 1 (ddr-densho-1000-476-1)
vh Yae Wada Segment 1 (ddr-densho-1000-476-1)
Father's family background: establishing a laundry business
Mary Hirata Segment 9 (ddr-densho-1000-22-9)
vh Mary Hirata Segment 9 (ddr-densho-1000-22-9)
Running a family-owned business in prewar Seattle; memories of things left behind during mass removal
Kay Matsuoka Segment 8 (ddr-densho-1000-48-8)
vh Kay Matsuoka Segment 8 (ddr-densho-1000-48-8)
Choosing a career, "have a trade in your hand"; getting started in dress design, apprenticing and opening own shop
Dale Minami Interview Segment 2 (ddr-densho-1000-141-2)
vh Dale Minami Interview Segment 2 (ddr-densho-1000-141-2)
Father's life in Gardena, California: gardening and running a sporting goods store in Little Tokyo
Yae Wada Segment 2 (ddr-densho-1000-476-2)
vh Yae Wada Segment 2 (ddr-densho-1000-476-2)
Losing mother at an early age and opening a beauty shop
Kay Matsuoka Segment 11 (ddr-densho-1000-48-11)
vh Kay Matsuoka Segment 11 (ddr-densho-1000-48-11)
Getting started in dress design, apprenticing and opening own shop: description of clientele
Kay Matsuoka Segment 10 (ddr-densho-1000-48-10)
vh Kay Matsuoka Segment 10 (ddr-densho-1000-48-10)
Getting started in dress design, apprenticing and opening own shop
Frank S. Fujii Segment 3 (ddr-densho-1000-8-3)
vh Frank S. Fujii Segment 3 (ddr-densho-1000-8-3)
Helping to run the family-owned business, Fujii's Tavern

This interview was conducted over two days due to electrical problems. The majority of the interview was completed on the second day, September 5.

Minoru
vh Minoru "Min" Tsubota Interview Segment 5 (ddr-densho-1000-149-5)
Parents' early businesses, running a small grocery store in Seattle and then a sawmill in Kent, Washington
Kunio Otani Segment 36 (ddr-densho-1000-75-36)
vh Kunio Otani Segment 36 (ddr-densho-1000-75-36)
Early days working at the Columbia Greenhouse: "things were quite primitive"
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