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TI: So let's talk a little bit about your father. And so do you know where he was born?

RE: My father was born in the Tokyo area. My father's father, my grandfather, was an industrialist in the linotype industry. And so my dad came to America around 1918 to go to school in Philadelphia, to further his education. And of course, he didn't go back to Japan, I think he, my story that I heard, he gambled away boat the passage money. And so it was, at that time, the nation was on a verge of a nationwide railway strike by AFL. AFL had four hundred, over four hundred thousand members. So literally they were gonna paralyze the railway industry for the duration of the strike. But there was a call for skilled and unskilled machinists. And my dad, thinking that maybe he can make his fortunes in America, is to, being under the wings of his father, went to Clovis, New Mexico, they had a roundhouse there.

TI: Okay, so let me, let me make sure I get this. So he, he came to America, and then rather than going back to Japan, something happened to the money, might have gambled it away. And so got a job with the railroad.

RE: Santa Fe Railroad.

TI: The railroad, and this was during the strike, do you know about what year?

RE: 1921, around '21.

TI: And so he then started working for the railroad in Clovis.

RE: Uh-huh. And then he recruited more Japanese workers and trained them, because, you know, my dad's training is in tool and die, and being a machinist.

TI: And what was his name and what was he like?

RE: Shiro, Shiro.

TI: And how would you describe him as a person, his personality? What do you know about him?

RE: Gregarious, I would say, maybe I took after my dad. Very, very smart, exceptionally smart. He can do most anything.

TI: Did he ever learn to speak English?

RE: Yeah, and Spanish, because he was forced to speak all of that in his employment, yeah.

TI: And so when you conversed with him, was it in Japanese or English?

RE: Japanese. Usually my mom and dad -- when my mom came over some years later with her three kids, the rest of us, of course, seven of us, were born and raised in Clovis, New Mexico.

<End Segment 2> - Copyright © 2008 Densho. All Rights Reserved.