<Begin Segment 12>

TI: So 1938 you graduate from the University of Washington with a business degree, and then you get a job with the Asiatic Overseas import/export.

TK: Yes. We were shipping logs over to Japan, and big bales of newspapers. I think it was going to India, I'm not sure now.

TI: And with this, with this company, what was your job? What did you...

TK: I was an accountant there.

TI: And did you ever have to speak Japanese in this job?

TK: If the client, not the client, but somebody came from Mitsui or Mitsubishi, I did have to talk a little bit Japanese. Let's see, there was Mitsui, Mitsubishi, there was another export company. See, ours was only a one-man company run by Seita Honda, and he ran this export/import company.

TI: And so he would go around lining up the logs, the paper?

TK: Yeah, he would go to Tacoma and contact various people that had these small logs and get 'em all together and bring 'em to Tacoma, to the docks.

TI: Now, how did you get this job? The reason I ask is --

TK: Oh, Father Tibesar knew Mr. Honda very well. Mr. Honda was a Catholic, and so he got me this job in this office.

TI: And, because I talked to some other Niseis who graduated from the University of Washington before the war, and many of them had a hard time getting jobs.

TK: Very hard, because only thing we could look forward to was working in -- I hate to say Bartell's, but in the back room or some other drug store, in the back room so that the people wouldn't see you, the Niseis.

TI: Yeah, so it was discouraging for many of the --

TK: Two or three of my classmates went to Japan right after 1938. They had money, so they went to Japan and went to college there, I'm sure. But then they, I understand they got drafted into the Japanese service.

TI: And sometimes they would go there because there were better opportunities?

TK: That's right, better opportunities. They could get into the, like, Mitsui, the Mitsubishi office there, because they knew English. But I had no money to go there at that time.

TI: So in your case, Father Tibesar helped you get this job.

TK: Yes, because, yes. Mr. Seita Honda was Catholic, and his wife was a Catholic.

TI: So tell me about Father Tibesar.

TK: Okay.

TI: And who was he?

TK: Well, he was born in Luxembourg... is it Germany? And he ended up in Maryknoll Society as a missioner. So he's, from the Maryknoll, he went over to Manchuria to missions over there, and then to Japan, of course. Other missionaries were going to China then from Maryknoll, Philippines. And he came back and then he was assigned to Maryknoll Seattle, and that's how we got to know him.

TI: And how would you describe him as a person? I mean, what was he like?

TK: He was an intellectual. He was very smart. His field was in anthropology, I think it was.

TI: And so really smart, anything else that you...

TK: Well, he was related to be a missioner, so he went over the Manchuria, learned the language and went to Japan, learned their language.

TI: How would you say the Japanese and Japanese Americans viewed Father Tibesar? How would they talk about him?

TK: See, he took interest in us, too, like the Maryknoll Sisters did. Because he knew our situation. In fact, during the war, he was the one that kind of guided the JACL through the crisis here. He was a good friend of Jimmy Sakamoto, who was Baptized later, and Bill Hosokawa and all those people. He was kind of a mentor to them.

TI: Oh, so during this really difficult time when the war broke out, people like Jimmy Sakamoto, Bill Hosokawa, would get counsel or advice from...

TK: Yes, because Father Tibesar could go to the people in the Western region... what do you call the Western region people that put us into camps?

TI: Yeah, the Western Defense...

TK: That's right. He would contact, he would have contact with them, you see, Father Tibesar would, and they would confide in him, too.

TI: Did you ever have an opportunity to talk to Father Tibesar about that? This is interesting.

TK: No, because I'm sure there was a lot of secret stuff. [Laughs]

TI: And so Father Tibesar, I guess what you heard was he helped facilitate the discussion.

TK: He helped relate us to the evacuation process.

TI: And so sometimes he would talk to people like maybe Jimmy Sakamoto...

TK: Yes, I'm sure.

TI: ...and he would then convey this information to maybe the military, and the military may say, "Well, this might be something to do."

TK: Yeah, it would be all secret, of course, at that time.

TI: Oh, that's interesting. I didn't know that he played that kind of role. That's interesting.

TK: Well, he was sort of a go-between for the Western Command, the JACL, I'm sure. Now, that might be secret, I don't know.

TI: No, that's okay.

<End Segment 12> - Copyright © 2008 Densho. All Rights Reserved.