<Begin Segment 29>

[Translated from Japanese]

TY: You studied English before you came to the States?

AT: I studied a little, but it didn't help. [Laughs] I couldn't pronounce too well, right? So I got fed up with it. I said, "Oh, I can't do it, I can't do it!" When I need English, I take young people with me. I have them translate for me. That, my children do it for me, so I am not worried at all.

TY: Who was teaching English?

AT: Well, there was a school called Belliyard [Ed. note: Most likely, Mrs. Terao meant Bailey Gatzert Elementary School.], and they had a night school there. The night school teacher was teaching it.

TY: In Seattle?

AT: In Seattle. Well, on the Main Street, the school was on the Main Street. It is not there any more. About twenty people went there. But, we couldn't memorize, it didn't work. During the daytime, Terao said that it was not worth going to night school. He told me to go to school. Over there, at Broadway High School, what was the place called? In the private class, there was someone who taught English. I went there for a while. But, that too, I quit again after half a year or so. During the time, I was told that there was a job and was asked if I wanted to take it. It was at a place where they made necklaces. Then, my friend told me that they wanted Japanese. My friend and I said that we should go. When we went there, they said that they would hire us. At that time, 20, 22 yen, 2 yen, 25 sen, I think. How much was it, they hired us. For the first time I was going to earn money. I was happy when I received the payment.

DG: You didn't have your children yet?

AT: No, I had one child already, but she was going to school. There was a Safeway on the way home, if I walked home. The work was where I could walk in about 15 minutes. It worked just fine because I just went home straight, stopped by at Safeway, bought groceries for dinner, came straight, and by the time I got home, the oldest daughter had already cooked rice, as I had asked her to do in the morning. We worked till four o'clock, right? We worked til four thirty. After I came home, I cooked, I mean, my oldest daughter did everything so that I just needed to make dinner. So we did. So I worked, and I received the first payment that I worked for, went to the bank, and I had never been so happy. Because I worked by myself without any help. Then, I came not to want to spend the money. [Laughs] My children, they were doing pretty well. They were fine, and they didn't get sick, so it was good.

DG: Oh, yeah, you were making necklaces. You were saying, saying something about the boss.

AT: Oh, necklaces. There was an arrangement at the place where they made necklaces, so I went there. What, what was her name? I forgot her name, um... That person could speak some English, too. Something like, she was doing things like a manager. She said that if she hired hakujin, she would rather hire Japanese. She stopped by my house on the way from work. She said, "Mrs. Terao, for such and such reason, won't you work where they make necklaces?" I said, "Well, necklace is that thing you hang here, right?" "That's right," she said. "Oh, I don't mind going," I answered. She said, "Then, I will stop by tomorrow morning, let's go together." And then, I asked, "Please tell me what I need to do," and there was a board of this size, and it was cut like this. The board. I pulled out beads there, they came from Shizuoka in Japan, those beads. When I looked at it, it said Shizuoka. Those, I pulled them out, and I took them out if they had scratches. Sometimes, if the small ones were blended in the big ones, I took those out again, and in the order, here I put a big bead, and I placed smaller ones in the order. I made it 15 inches and a half. With half an inch of a kurasupo [Ed. note: Mrs. Terao said "clasp" with a Japanese accent.], it became 16 inches. I measured it to be such and made them. I worked there for the first time, let's see, how much did I receive then? I received a salary. I was happy. I earned salary for the first time I worked in the U.S., and I received salary that I earned and went to the bank to cash the check. I had never been so happy. That was, we only made, 10...15 or 17 yen, but I said with friends, "Wow, the first time. This is the money we earned by ourselves." I remember that I was happy receiving it.

DG: There, the bonus, you received the Christmas bonus...

AT: That's right. That's right. The boss secretly gave more to Japanese. He said that Japanese worked harder and did more work. When we bought necklaces, he gave us a discount.

<End Segment 29> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.