<Begin Segment 19>

TI: There's just one story I want to end with before we close this tape. And that was, you helped Roy also import something from Japan.

MT: Uh-huh.

[Interruption]

TI: So why don't you tell me that story about how... because it's a pretty interesting story.

MT: Well, what happened is, after about two years, or close to three years working with Roy, we became very, very close and he was almost like a brother, I mean, whenever I could I'd stop in the store. But Roy would tell me how, when he was kid going to school, his dad made him raise rabbits and chickens and the dad would take it, take it to the store, the prepared rabbits and the chicken and sell them. And he saved that money for them to go to school on. And, but when they graduated high school, father Ben Andre said, "Roy, you and" -- his brother -- "I put you through high school, now, so you're out on your own." As much money as he had, the land he had, he told the two boys, "You're now on your own." And they went to the Merchant Marine, and they went, both of 'em went to Merchant Marine. They worked on the vessels and tried to save as much money as they can. But in the meantime, the father was smart because he wanted them to get a taste of life like the Japanese had, immigrants had. He had to, wanted them to go out and regardless of how much money he had or possessions he had, he wanted them to suffer and know what life was about.

And so, about two years or three years after that, the father Ben told the boys, "Are you... how you doing?" And they said, "Well, we're not getting anyplace. We're saving a little money but we're not getting anyplace." And so, he said that Roy said, "We'd like to come back." And so Roy said -- Ben said, "Well, fine, here's what I'm gonna do," this was after the second year or third year. He took that whole block of Andre's Market store, he made it into twelve shares and he gave Roy one share and his brother -- I can't think of his name -- one share. And all the money that they had, the father took it away for that one share and they had this, and then they gradually took over the store and whatever they made, they paid the father off. And pretty well, by the time that I was friend with Roy Andre, he'd pretty well paid the store off. Both the brothers did.

But Roy said, "Min, being an outside salesman like this, and you told me about you never made the, going to University of Washington." He says, "What would you really want to do if you, that I could be of some help?" So I said, "Well, if I went to university, probably I'll want to study law or foreign trade," and, but which I never got to. So he says, "Well, are you really interested in foreign trade?" And I said, yeah, interesting because Mr. Saito, when he ended his packing house career, started slowly into foreign trade and traded with Japan. And he was telling me the stories about his relationship to, with Japan on foreign trade. In fact, he still had, kept buying the Lincoln Zephyrs and when he'd go to Japan he'd drive the Lincoln Zephyrs in Japan and I guess it made quite an impression wherever he went. But anyway, Roy said, "Well, Min, I want to help you because whatever you want to do, let me help you and I think I got the finances, I got the connections, and I wanna help you." So, when I said foreign trade he said, "Well, Min, what, what product are you thinking about?" And I said, "Well, come to think of it," I said, "Roy, I saw these bamboo rakes being sold at Sears Roebuck on the First Avenue down there." And I said, "There's an item that the people will use to rake their garden or things like that, but it's so cheap that they throw it away and they have to keep buying rakes every year. And so that's what I'd like to bring in." And Roy said, "Well, that's fine, it's a good idea." So he said, "Well, what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna open a credit with the" -- I think it was one of the Japanese bank, I think it was (Yokohama Specie) Bank at that time, way before the war -- "and give you the opening credit for ten thousand dollars." So, he says, "You go ahead and order your bamboo rakes." Well, I never been to Japan and I didn't know nothing about it. But my mother's older brother was Yamatani and Yamatani had, he owned a ferry system between Hiroshima and the island that he lived on. So Mother wrote to him and we drew a picture of what kind of a bamboo rakes we wanted and so he said, "Well, fine, I'll look around Japan and manufacturers," and so he, he took on the project for me. And then, the next thing we knew, Yamatani-san told Mother that he found these bamboo rakes that he was gonna ship it over. And so, being naive and he's naive, mother's naive, we didn't question him or anything and so the next thing we knew we had ten thousand dollars of bamboo rakes pulled into Seattle and...

TI: So, a lot of, ten thousand units of rakes, or ten thousand actual rakes?

MT: It was ten thousand dollars worth of rakes.

TI: Ten thousand dollars worth of rakes.

MT: Well, so I imagine it was quite a few rakes. I had him give... so the broker called me and, see, this is what Roy wanted me to do, get the experience of working through a broker, customs, and that's what he was willing to help me out, to get this experience. And so, I remember the broker went down there, and here we opened a crate up, and we looked at it and the, the bamboo rakes, I think, I believe it was twenty-nine cents apiece. And, as I mentioned, Sears Roebuck was retailing them for between fifteen and eighteen cents, and we're talking double that.

TI: So your cost was double what Sears was selling at retail level?

MT: Yeah, laid in Seattle. So I called Roy and said, "Roy, your bamboo rakes are here but I've got a problem." I said, "They're costing us twenty-nine cents, or twenty cents, laid in Seattle and then we gotta get 'em from Seattle through the brokers and transported over to your big warehouse in Fife there," and that's where the palladium was before the war, where people went to dance. But that big store was, it was a well-known store. And so Roy said, "Well no, no problem." He says, "I'll send a truck down and so you meet 'em down there at the dock and get 'em." And so I met him down there and we loaded 'em all up and we took 'em to Fife and he put 'em in the warehouse across the street. We had all that ten thousand dollars of beautiful rakes and -- but the beauty of it was, being naive, and like I said, my cost and Sears Roebucks' retail price. But these, Sears Roebucks' rakes were regular (cheap) bamboo rakes (...) ... But there were little thin wires on 'em and thin wires here and thin wires here and they wouldn't last two or three months and you'd have to throw it. But my uncle, the ones he sent me were beautiful bamboo rakes, wider (bamboo) rakes and they had a metal clamps, clamps. They were copper-bound clamps and they were screw and nuts and bolts on 'em and real strong. And so Roy says, "Well, I can see the difference here," and he was very pleased. So he mentioned, "I want you to order another ten thousand worth." And I said, "What are you gonna do?" And he said, "Well, Min, we'll burn 'em if we have to." And so, he ordered another ten thousand. So, I had Mother write to Uncle Yamatani and we got in another ten thousand. And they came in, beautiful rakes, bamboo rakes, strong. You can use 'em for two, or three, four, five years and never lose 'em. And he picked 'em up and brought 'em in the warehouse.

And so the third time, he says, "Well, Min we want another ten thousand." And at that time I was not aware of it, but we, I went ahead and got... but see, and that was, we were going into the tail end of 1940 into 1941. But see, Roy, brilliant, he knew that the U.S.-Japan relationship had ceased and that trade was gonna break off. So he knew, I guess, see, he never told me, but I don't blame him or anything. But he wanted these bamboo rakes in because there would be no more shipments in from Japan. And that's the way it turned out. He sold 'em, later he told me after I came back from war, but about five dollars, six dollar, seven dollars apiece. And he came out really wonderful --

TI: So he made a nice little profit off of the inventory.

MT: Uh-huh.

TI: So he was...

MT: And I got all the experience of importing, exporting, custom house, brokers, and I learned all that.

TI: Just a final question: did you get paid for all this?

MT: No, I did it on my own. And I didn't ask him for it, and that wasn't the deal. I just, Roy just said, "Min, being an outside salesman you're not gonna get too far. What do you want to do in addition to go to school?" And I said, "Foreign trade."

TI: So, what you got in return was experience?

MT: To me, it was the greatest opportunity; was just to have him put up the money at the Yokohama Specie Bank and have me experience all of this, the ropes of bringing it in and it comes. So, but what was really nice -- so, I didn't expect anything but I thought it was, what a wonderful chance he's giving me as a farm boy, Japanese American, non-educated, that, to get someplace. Besides, I made my own job with Marine Byproducts, but he wanted me to go beyond that. So, so, when, about that time, Roy says, well in the meantime, Min, I, I'm -- my contact, he was well-known in Tacoma because --

<End Segment 19> - Copyright © 2003 Densho. All Rights Reserved.