<Begin Segment 8>

TI: So, I'm curious how other Niseis, the Niseis who were born and raised in Seattle, how did they get along with boys who were educated in Japan, and then as teenagers they come to Seattle. How did that dynamic, relationship work?

TK: Well, I don't think we had any problem. The Kibeis, you know, they call them Kibei, they were, they had their own group. My brother joined them. He played, they had a baseball team, they joined the Courier League, they had their own. They did pretty good, too. I think they won the championship one year. Our team never won a championship. [Laughs] So anyway, he, Kaname played for that team.

TI: Okay, so Kaname, was, so he had a group of friends, other Kibeis that he would... and so were there quite a few Kibeis in the neighborhood?

TK: I think so. They were, they had their own club and everything. I was invited to a couple of their gatherings. I got along with them real well, far as I can remember.

TI: Oh, good. In any way do you think, did the Kibeis ever look down upon the Niseis? Because the Kibeis were more educated with Japanese?

TK: No, not that I know of. As far as I know, we got along pretty well.

TI: Okay, so I'm going switch gears here a little bit and talk about your relationship with your father. Were there any, do you have any stories or examples of things that you did with your father, you know, growing up, in terms of maybe in terms of activities?

TK: Well, my father used to take me fishing. We had a friend that owned a boat down around near Sears, down there. The water was way up close then. And there he had a little boat down there and we used to borrow the boat and he used to take me fishing. I remember that, that was really fun.

TI: So describe the fishing. To get ready, like for bait, what would you have to do to get bait for fishing?

TK: Bait, we'd get them off the pilings. You go on the boat, and if the tide is low enough, we can scrape the piling, get the worms off the pilings, use that. And other than that, I can't remember where else he would get the bait if the tide was too high. Of course, he would figure those out ahead. I was only five years old.

TI: So I'm curious, when you went fishing with your father, did he do everything for you like bait the hook?

TK: Oh yeah.

TI: Or did he try to show you how to do these things?

TK: No, I don't think he showed me anything. He did everything.

TI: And then when you had a fish on line, did he reel it up for you?

TK: No, no. That would fall to me. That's where the fun is.

TI: That sounds like a fond time. What kind of fish?

TK: Oh, rock cod, shiner, we didn't go for salmon then. Other people did, a lot of people did. But a lot of people fish for bottomfish, too. And so, we were bottomfish fishermen. So we got all kinds of fish down here. We never worried about pollution or anything like that. The sewage plant, sewers were coming out of the, right around there, we didn't, it didn't make any difference to us.

TI: Now did your father do these same fishing trips with your older brothers?

TK: My older brothers weren't interested. He wasn't interested in fishing. He used to take me fishing on the docks without a boat. I remember that, and we used to catch shiner, rock cod and stuff, but he quit pretty early. I kept on fishing with other people.

TI: Okay.

<End Segment 8> - Copyright © 2008 Densho. All Rights Reserved.