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MA: So today is June 7, 2006, and I'm here in Seiko Edamatsu's home in Spokane, Washington. Dana Hoshide is our cameraperson today. So thank you, Seiko, for, for this interview.

SE: Well, thank you for asking me.

MA: I wanted to start off by asking you where and when you were born.

SE: I was born in Seattle, Washington, July 18, 1919. The, I think the house was on Washington Street, and I can't, of course I can't remember how it was before we moved to King Street, 1256 King Street, where my two younger siblings were born.

MA: And what was your name when you were born?

SE: Seiko Miyagawa.

MA: And where was your father from in Japan?

SE: From Kumamoto-ken.

MA: And when did he come over to the U.S., what year?

SE: Let's see. That I am a little confused on, but he came as a cabin boy, on, I think it was a fishing vessel. And I think he said it took them... let's see, a whole month to cross the Pacific Ocean.

MA: And then he landed in Seattle?

SE: In Seattle. And I think at that time, recruiters got them to go working at the sawmills in Snoqualmie. But when he got over there, it wasn't his bag of tea, as you say. [Laughs] He wasn't much for manual labor.

MA: I see. So he, when he came over to Seattle, he met with a recruiter who had him work in the Snoqualmie lumber industry, and he didn't enjoy it.

SE: No. So he decided to walk to Seattle from Snoqualmie. And he recalled the time when he was somewhere around Kent or Auburn, when the townspeople saw this strange young man walking, and they gathered around him and so he couldn't even go, move. And then an elderly gentleman came and dispersed the people and let him go on. But I guess, you know, I don't know what kind of clothes he wore or what.

MA: So were they more hostile, or curious?

SE: No, they were curious more than hostile. I don't think that, he didn't say anything about people being hostile, as well as just, just curious, because they hadn't seen a Japanese before. Then to see this boy -- I suppose he was strange, dressed strangely, and walking down the street. But probably he didn't have very good shoes, you know, that was a lot of miles to walk. I don't know how he found the way even, and so I know he said he developed corns and calluses, and he always had troubles with them after that.

MA: So he knew that he was headed for Seattle, he wanted Seattle to be his destination.

SE: Uh-huh. Well, his older brother was there.

MA: Do you know why he walked that whole way?

SE: Just didn't have the money, I suppose, to have any other way of going, but he was determined to go where he might find work, I think.

MA: Did he ever tell you why he left Japan for the United States?

SE: Well, they were a very poor family, and they didn't have a father. And I think even farming, they didn't have much. I think they just gathered wood, and sold firewood to people, because they all used those firewoods to cook with. But they really barely, I guess, scratched a living, so they left.

MA: So his brothers and your father saw the U.S. as an opportunity?

SE: Uh-huh. His older brother had come here first, so he was in the United States, so he came.

<End Segment 1> - Copyright © 2006 Densho. All Rights Reserved.