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TK: So from then on, up to about 1980s, what kind of work did you do in Seattle?

MT: So I came back, like I said, I was in officer's uniform and by... so that was December. My separation was for March, March 18, 1946. So it's give me a full five years and so I came back to Seattle. I went back to Utah a couple times and came and, came back to Seattle. And then I met a relative that was running a hotel in Seattle here and they're from Long Beach, Washington. And so I went to visit them and they said well, "Min, we're having difficulty," because they, they owned a lot of oyster ground, acres and acres of oyster ground and had oysters on there, they had the boats and their processing plant and everything and they left it to the hakujin and went to camp. And sono mama was all the oyster seeds and everything like that. But when I got back and I visited them, they said, "Min, we have a problem because we tried to go back there and he said there was people in Long Beach in Nahcotta" -- they call it N-A-H-C-O-T-T-A -- "Washington, lined up with shotguns, and they said, 'If you guys come back we're gonna shoot you and kill you.'" So, so they came on back and they, I guess they tried it another time and the same thing and couldn't so I guess they leased this hotel and started to, right above North Coast Importing company there. And so, they said, "Min, would you help us out?" So, so I came back and there was no place to stay except the Renton Highlands. They had those camp-like homes over there and so Cherrie and I registered and we got in there. And so we stayed in Renton Highlands with the three of us there.

And then, so from there I went down to Long Beach, Washington, there and, of course, I was in uniform and I don't know that the time between the shotgun incidents, two, three time shotgun incident to the time I went, but I was in full uniform and so I went there and I was naive enough to go. I didn't think nothin' of it. I went back there and there was nobody there. I saw some people there and they didn't say nothing. I went to the plant, the oyster plant, and it was on the dock there and I met the guy who was running the plant. And (before) that time I think he, they had lots of seeds oysters on there but they all matured in the two or three years and he sold them all and I guess they never got any money for it, and the boats were there and the plant was there but the oyster grounds were depleted of all the oyster seeds. And, but I went there and I met the guy that was running it and shook hands with him and told him that, "These people want their oyster ground back, and that that's what we're back here for." And so he agreed and so we used a Seattle attorney to help us to get that property back and to get the title and everything back. But that was one incident, that was the first incident I had when I came back, that they didn't want no Japs back there. So...

<End Segment 41> - Copyright © 2003 Densho. All Rights Reserved.