Densho Digital Archive
Densho Visual History Collection
Title: Ben Uyeno Interview
Narrator: Ben Uyeno
Interviewer: Dee Goto
Location: Seattle, Washington
Date: June 1, 1998
Densho ID: denshovh-uben-01-0006

<Begin Segment 6>

DG: Then, so then you lived in Yakima eight years.

BU: Yeah.

DG: And so you started school there.

BU: I started school in Yakima. By the time, by the time that Grandma wanted us to come over to see her, I was already, already in the fifth grade.

DG: So how much of a community was there in Yakima?

BU: Oh, there were about thirty or forty.

DG: Families?

BU: Yeah.

DG: Did you all get together or did you have your own ken things there, too?

BU: They all got together, just to, getting together.

DG: Like picnics?

BU: Picnic or whatever you want to call it, but most of all I remember is noodles, soba.

DG: That everybody came to your father's house.

BU: Came to father house and we all had soba, which was nice.

DG: And talked.

BU: Yeah. And then we'd always once a year have a picnic in the summer. We go up to one of the, one of the medium size mountain, and we have a picnic on top.

DG: So were there other Japanese businesses there?

BU: There was a couple of hotels.

DG: Then the rest were farmers.

BU: Yeah, the rest were farmers. Farmers... there's a little town called Wapato. It's just about ten miles away from Yakima. They had more Japanese because they had more farmers, and they did very well. Most of them are still my friends.

DG: So does the thirty families include Wapato? That's just Yakima?

BU: Yeah, well, I think, I think you'd have to increase the number if you include Wapato.

DG: Was there a church there at that time?

BU: Huh?

DG: Was there a church there at that time?

BU: I don't know. I can't remember.

DG: A Japanese church?

BU: I can't remember.

DG: But at least your father started the language school.

BU: Yeah, yeah. It might be that the church was there, that's why you can start the school. Anyway, his laundry when it wasn't running in business is a lot of room.

DG: Well, so was it mostly hakujin clientele?

BU: I think so. You see, all the railroad, railroad laundry came there.

DG: Okay.

BU: So he did very well. He made a lot of money. At least that's what I figured.

<End Segment 6> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.