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Title: Fumiko Uyeda Groves Interview
Narrator: Fumiko Uyeda Groves
Interviewer: Larry Hashima
Location: Seattle, Washington
Date: June 16, 1998
Densho ID: denshovh-gfumiko-01-0007

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LH: Well, let's go again to Rock Springs and then talk a little bit more about that. How long did your parents live in Rock Springs before they actually came to Seattle?

FG: See, if my mother arrived here in 1922, and arrived in the United States in 1922, Rock Springs, and they came to Seattle in 1930 so must have been about eight years.

LH: And so during this time you mentioned that your father had left the railroad. What did he do for a living while he was in Rock Springs for that duration? Did he always work for the railroad? Or did he...

FG: He always worked for the railroad.

LH: He always worked for the railroad in Rock Springs. And so why did they decide to leave at the time that they did?

FG: I'm not quite sure. It might be for better opportunities. My father had decided that actually it was either a choice between going to Brazil or to the West Coast and the reason why there was a growing community of Japanese in Brazil, probably in Sao Paulo. And the only reason why he came to the West Coast was because my mother had a cousin that was already established in Seattle and so that's why they came to Seattle because my, yeah, her cousin was working here.

LH: So what did he think that he was going to be able to do in Brazil? Did he have any idea or was it just go and see when you got there?

FG: Yes. My father was always a enterprising type of a person. I think he would have done anything that needed to be done. No, if he thought there was a business opportunity, I think he would have. I think he would have gone into business. I'm sure he would have. That was, I mean, it was never to be employed by someone else. That wasn't my father's way of doing things. [Laughs]

LH: So he was getting tired of working for the railroad.

FG: It could be, yeah. It could be, yeah.

<End Segment 7> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.