<Begin Segment 18>

TI: So, going back to that year then, the year that Japanese Baptist Church returned to Seattle, and that year when it wasn't reopened, what, what did your father do during that year?

EBA: Well, I'm sure he had his battles with the Seattle Council of Churches. And I'm sure he just continued to work in the community, and as best he could, in ministry to the families and so forth, the visitation and so forth. At that time, I think his support came from the Northern Baptist Mission, Missionary Society. And he was, at that time -- 'cause he didn't have a congregation that could support him and so his, his pay and his salary came from the Mission Board itself until that time, until which time Japanese Baptist could, could support him.

TI: And so did the family live back in the house in Seattle?

EBA: Yes, back, back, we're back to our original house, the house into which I was born into and grew up in. My oldest sister and her husband, who at that time, while we were gone, occupied the house, they had found their own house and moved out and established their own residence.

TI: Now, I'm curious. Before the, before the Japanese went to Puyallup, you talked about how the gymnasium was used as a storage place for belongings.

EBA: Yes.

TI: After the war when you were looking back, were those belongings still there? Were they preserved?

EBA: Most of it was still there. And probably it was a good, good thing the church maybe wasn't opened right away because we had to disseminate, people had to come back and get their belongings and so forth. And I'm sure part of that time, that year, was my dad helping them reestablish themselves. He helped with the truck farmers down in Kent valley and so forth to get their produce to the markets.

TI: Let's talk about that.

EBA: Okay.

TI: So explain...

EBA: When the, when the Japanese moved back to the Seattle area in, especially the farmers and so forth, by then Dave Beck was the union boss in this area. And --

TI: So he was head of the teamsters.

EBA: Teamsters union, yeah, right, exactly. Teamsters up until that time would, had taken the produce from the farms and brought it to the markets and Pike Place Market and other areas for sale. But after the war was over, there was a lot of prejudice among the teamsters and they refused to haul the produce from the Japanese farms into Seattle and so my dad spent a lot of time doing that himself, taking the, I'm not sure if it was in the Blue Box or if he had some other, maybe a farmer's truck that he used, but he trucked the produce in himself to the markets so the Japanese could sell them in the markets in Seattle or to the grocery stores or wherever they were. So it was, he was a man that wore a lot of hats.

TI: I would think of the activities your dad did, this one would be one that perhaps, I'm not sure if "dangerous" is the right word, but there would be some, some strong opposition --

EBA: Right.

TI: -- to sort of go against the teamsters and Dave Beck during this period. Do you know anything about that?

EBA: I really don't know anything about that. But I would imagine that there would be some opposition. Especially from the teamsters, 'cause they didn't want to do it.

<End Segment 18> - Copyright © 2004 Densho. All Rights Reserved.