<Begin Segment 3>

TI: And then, okay, your father, what was his name?

RY: It was Shioji. They called him Tom over here, when he was working, they called him Tom Yamamoto.

TI: Now, do you know why he got the name Tom?

RY: Yeah, well, I guess that's what those Caucasians wanted to call him, so I mean, he, they called him Tom, Tom Yamamoto, Tom.

TI: And do you know where in Japan he was born, where he came from?

RY: I don't really know. I don't remember. They told me, they told me exactly where it was, but I was... oh, where was that Olympics held?

TI: Nagano?

RY: Huh? Nagano, yeah. I think, yeah, he was born in Nagano, Nagano-ken.

TI: Okay. And do you know why your father came to the United States?

RY: Well, I guess like all the Isseis, they figured to come over here and make a little money and go back. But he stayed. He had two of his brothers come over, but they taught, they didn't get a good job and they taught Japanese in our church, church Japanese school that we had. But they, they left way before the war.

TI: So they, I'm sorry, so these were your uncles?

RY: My uncles. I had two uncles.

TI: And they were, like, Japanese language teachers?

RY: Yeah. And one of 'em went back to Japan, he was, he became a principal at one of the schools over there, I don't know...

TI: So it sounds like your father and his brothers were, were pretty well-educated.

RY: I don't know about my father. [Laughs] But yeah, those two were very well-educated. And my, my dad, I guess, he was one of those easy-going boys. 'Cause he, he learned how to play go, he learned how to do a little bit of massaging, and well, you might say he was easy-going fellow. He didn't, I don't think he was much of an education, educated person. But my, I don't know, my mother --

TI: Before you go to your mother, how did your father get to Spokane?

RY: How did he get to Spokane?

TI: Yeah. Why Spokane and not some other place?

RY: That I'd never know. I've never got the good story on how he got here, nor how my mother got here. I haven't got, I never, never got a good... well, they never told me. They probably told my brother, my older brother about how, how things happened, but I never was... well, I never was told exactly how they got here.

<End Segment 3> - Copyright © 2006 Densho. All Rights Reserved.