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Title: Tokio Hirotaka - Toshio Ito - Joe Matsuzawa Interview
Narrators: Tokio Hirotaka, Toshio Ito, Joe Matsuzawa
Interviewer: Alice Ito
Location: Bellevue, Washington
Date: May 21, 1998
Densho ID: denshovh-htokio_g-01-0044

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JM: We were leasing a property, so, (...) when I left, when the war started, I was, like I said, I was just in the in-between going to Redmond, where my folks, my mother and brothers, took over this property. The Bellevue property we just let go, there was nothing left there but the house, and it was rundown, and I don't think that that place was improved for quite a while. I think later, I drove by it I think, probably around about 1950-something, and the house was there, it's kinda tumbled down, and there was nothing done to the property. But I think all that other businesses came in after the highway came in, 405. And then, of course, my folks in Redmond, they were renting this property from the owner. Of course, they didn't go back, they just came back to another place near Woodinville. It was, let's see, it's between Redmond and Woodinville. They stayed there for, oh, I think three or four years and then they moved to, back to Bellevue where the Overlake Hospital is right now, or just north of it. And, at that time, it was King County. But, the City annexed the property, that area there, and they virtually got taxed out of it, because taxes were so high. They were doing a little gardening and farming, and Roy, my youngest brother, was drafted, he had to leave. So my older brother, he kinda took care of it, but he was not as, well, very aggressive type, you know. So they struggled along until Roy got back, and then he worked a while for -- that is, my older brother -- he worked for Bellevue Nursery, which is owned by Mizokawa. He did some other odd jobs, I think. I think he went out with Tok Hirotaka, I think it was, went to a mink farm and worked there for a while.

And finally, when the taxes became unbearable why, they had to find a place to go, so they moved to Bothell, that's near Canyon Park. And that's where they, well, the family settled there, Roy is still there -- my youngest brother. And my mother, and other family members have passed away, so he's there by himself. But my dad was, when he passed away he was buried in a little cemetery plot almost adjacent to where that Overlake Hospital is now. And I think a lot of the Japanese were buried there. And some outfit came and bought the property, and there was some big to-do about them taking over a cemetery. This cemetery was, it was a Bellevue cemetery. A lot of pioneers were buried there, too. And I think they made some kind of arrangement where the cemetery could be dug up and moved to the Sunset Hills cemetery. And there's a little plot there in memory of the unknown graves that, I think, that were there. They didn't know, when they removed the graves from the other plot, the old plot, they didn't know who some of the people were. But, they got a little plot now down in Sunset Hills dedicated to the old pioneers, Japanese pioneers in Bellevue.

<End Segment 44> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.