Densho Digital Archive - Yasashi Ichikawa Interview I (denshovh-iyasashi-01-0018)

<Begin Segment 18>

[Translated from Japanese]

TY: So you arrived in Seattle. Wasn't it very different from Fresno or San Francisco?

YI: Yes. Seattle was a little colder and had a lot of rain. At first I was surprised how often it rained. When I said, "It's raining again," Reverend Ichikawa said, "This city has mostly rain. So don't think about it." I still remember that.

TY: It was very different from Fresno, wasn't it? Fresno is hot and dry.

YI: Fresno may be big but mostly countryside. Seattle is a big town. Now we have Betsuin. It was located more toward downtown. More down the street. Although still on Main Street. One or two blocks down the street. When small houses were built as a project on Yesler Way, the temple had to move. It was leased. From a Caucasian. The building was destroyed and small houses were built instead. So we have now a new temple.

TY: America and Japan. Your children were born in Fresno, Kobe and Seattle. Were there any differences in birthing practices?

YI: Let me think. In Fresno there was a birthing clinic. A Japanese midwife worked there. I gave birth there. When we came to Seattle, there was this lady, Mrs. Beppu, who came to our home. My children were born at home.

TY: In Fresno, did you have your three children all at such a birthing clinic?

YI: Most Caucasians gave births at a hospital. And nowadays it is customary to give a birth at a hospital. But we Japanese who were the first generation gave births at a birthing clinic run by a Japanese. There were two such clinics. But when we came to Fresno, we were told most people had babies at home. So I asked Mrs. Beppu to come to my home, too. That's how I had babies.

TY: You mean in Seattle.

Shinya: Seattle. In Seattle.

TY: How about in Kobe?

YI: There were two houses behind the church. We lived in one of them.

TY: In Kobe?

YI: No, in Seattle. Now those houses are gone. They were demolished. It became that... where you sometimes work.

TY: Oh, yes. The building on Jackson.

YI: Reverend Ichikawa created a preschool there. But, probably the business got tough. There are many preschools. That is why it is now rented, I think.