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AI: So today is July 4, 2004, we're here at Oregon Institute of Technology in Klamath Falls, Oregon. I'm Alice Ito from Densho, on videography is Steve Colgrove, and we're here with Wesley Watanabe for an interview. And Mr. Watanabe, thanks so much for taking this time.

WW: Welcome, quite welcome.

AI: And as I mentioned in our earlier conversation, we're just gonna begin at the beginning, so can you tell me when and where you were born?

WW: I was born May 20, 1935, in Tacoma, Washington.

AI: And tell me, how did your parents come to be in Tacoma?

WW: My dad came as a young man, he was about sixteen, from Japan, and worked there to make money to send home, apparently. I think, like a lot of other, I think, Japanese families did. And he had various jobs, I remember him telling us he worked in the sawmill, and worked up in the cannery, salmon canneries up in Alaska, actually. And then as a young person, he also worked in a photographic studio, processing films and tinting pictures and this kind of thing. So he had a, did a, had a varied background doing different things.

AI: Do you happen to know what ken he came from in Japan?

WW: Shimane-ken.

AI: And do you know much about his family back there, or their background, or what, what they were involved in?

WW: My father, 'course his, had a father and mother. His mother came to this country -- as well as his father, and his mother died at a fairly young age. And other than that... he has, he had, I should say, siblings in Japan as well.

AI: So your father not only came over at the age of sixteen from Japan, but his, his father also had come?

WW: His father came first, actually, and then sent for my father to help. And that's when he came.

AI: So then, do you happen to know if your father was able to go to school in the U.S. at all?

WW: My father, when he came here, he did attend, I guess it was high school or equivalent of high school, while learning the English language.

<End Segment 1> - Copyright © 2004 Densho. All Rights Reserved.