<Begin Segment 21>

TI: So I'm curious, in these early years like in the late '40s, early '50s, how accepting was the overall Spokane community, do you think, to Japanese?

ET: Okay, 1946, I was already working in Spokane. The company was Magin Porter letter shop, it's kind of like a mimeograph shop. And when I worked, what I did was doing some artwork and some sales. But didn't involve in production of anything. Then the company beginning to change. It started getting printing equipment, and they wanted me to learn about the process of these new presses, because certainly it ties in with whatever I do, artwork and layout and things. So we became a full-fledged printing company, and not because, because I, but then I think the time was there so that they should go into something new. But at the same time, I think I probably provided them the type of help that they needed for them to grow into this Magin Porter printers, they called it afterward. And it's quite a, quite a shop, and we were one of the major companies. And well, make that part a little simple, I worked for him for about eight years. And they were gonna give me a part of the business, but that's not exactly what I was thinking about. And I bounced some of my ideas to Keith at the time, he said, "Oh, you know, Ed, I think you're all ready to establish your own company." And I kind of knew it, but then I just wanted to use his brain and advice. So I started the Litho-Art Printers. And really what happened was when I started, Magin Porter just quit the business and joined us. So now it's a completely changed position, I am an employer and they're... [laughs]

TI: You have all these people who are working for you. [Laughs]

ET: Yeah. The owners and his wife and a son all came to work for us. It was a great, great help.

TI: So why did they do that, why did they...

ET: Well, they figured that might as well keep the same kind of customers, and Keith was working for a huge, the best, biggest advertising agency around here.

TI: And so he would give you lots of that work?

ET: So he'd give 'em all the work, yeah. But then some of it we couldn't do it because much, much fancier than, than our equipment could do. But our equipment was enough to do eighty, ninety percent of the work, so he gave me all that work to me, yeah.

TI: And during this time, as you're starting your business, did you ever have problems with the, the Spokane community accepting you and your work?

ET: No, actually, it's, right at the beginning, said, "How can you do this? You're Japanese."

TI: I'm sorry, who was saying that?

ET: Well, some, some of my old competitors, and some of the people that didn't know us enough. 'Course, establishing business is nothing new to me, because my father did that, my uncle did that. So I went ahead and did it.

TI: How about, how about the Spokane Japanese Americans? How did they see...

ET: Well, Japanese Americans couldn't believe it either.

TI: So did they kind of think, they were kind of shaking their head, thinking that you're not going to --

ET: Yeah, they says, shaking their head, and they said, "Boy, Ed, good luck." And some of 'em tried to help me out and came in and worked for me, but we ended up with about, one time, around I think fifteen, sixteen people working for me. And we become, there's approximately about 140 print shops in town, and we became number three. And so we had enough production, enough work and customers, mainly. And I really, really thank God that the old company, Magin Porter came and helped us, and I had a partner that used to work for that company, too, so that's all the reason they wanted to just quit and just join us.

TI: Oh, that's an interesting story.

ET: Yeah, in fact, well, I can't tell you, but then they said that, "Well, you know, no longer we could stay in the business, we could just about tell what our future is. You're gonna be having all the business." Well, maybe, but I didn't think, I didn't think about that, but when they said they're gonna join, I said, "Oh, yeah, you're welcome to join us, help me run it."

TI: That's good.

<End Segment 21> - Copyright © 2006 Densho. All Rights Reserved.