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TI: Okay, so we're, so the mill, sawmill went broke, and your family moved to Seattle, you mentioned Sixteenth and Fir, which was in, you said, in terms of school districts, the Garfield High School district. But when you first came to Seattle, what was that like? How would you describe Seattle back in, what, this is like 1939? What was Seattle like for you in 1939?

TT: Well, actually, I had some friends in town. We had our own Japanese school in Selleck, when I was growing up.

TI: Oh, that's interesting. So how frequently did you have to go to Japanese school?

TT: Every day after school.

TI: And how many students were there in the school? Like in your group, how many?

TT: Well, the younger ones from our age down, we had, Mrs. Mihara was our teacher, and the older ones, like my brother, that kind of age, they had man teachers. He used to work, he was working at the sawmill and he was teaching after.

TI: And how did you like going to Japanese school?

TT: [Laughs] We had to go. There was no way of skipping in anything because the little community there, you know.

TI: What about Japanese community gatherings? Where there things that you did, whether they're picnics or...

TT: Picnic area. Used to come, well, they didn't have any Japanese store there, so the salesmen used to come up from Seattle, in fact, Tsutakawa company, Furuya, Asia Trading. Mr. Katayama, they had the grocery store on Rainier Avenue, he used to bring up produce and fish. There used to be a, oh, hakujin came up from Ravensdale selling meat and stuff. Oh, they had a general store in Selleck, (...) used to get all these other people coming up selling. Post office, we had our own little hospital, church. There was a consolidated church.

TI: Going back to these vendors that would come from Seattle to Selleck, were there ever things that they brought for the kids that the kids got to buy or the parents bought for the kids, do you remember? Like candy or anything like that?

TT: [Laughs] Like I say, it was Depression days. And those stores in town was hurting, too.

TI: So earlier you mentioned there was an annual picnic. Describe the picnic. What would happen at the annual picnic? What kind of things would you do?

TT: Oh, mostly eating. [Laughs] Play games.

TI: And what would be some games that you would play?

TT: Oh, the older ones would organize some games for the kids.

TI: Do you recall any of the games that were organized?

TT: Different type, races, typical... of course, we don't have picnics around town anymore like we used to.

TI: And you mentioned eating. Describe the food. What kind of food...

TT: Everybody would bring food.

TI: Like what would be... I'm guessing Japanese food?

TT: Well, even sandwiches and stuff, too.

TI: And did you have any favorites? When you think back to the picnics and the food, I mean, what would come to mind? What would be your favorite picnic food?

TT: Sushi and rice balls, all different things. Oh, just typical, what you get now.

TI: So you mentioned the Japanese language school, you had this picnic, how about church? Did you guys have a church that you attended when you were in Selleck?

TT: We used to go to the hakujin church. Well, actually, we didn't have a minister. Minister used to come up from Seattle. I don't know if you remember, there used to be (...) a little church beside the road (north of downtown). The minister from there used to come up. Once in a while from Black Diamond, the minister used to come up. The Japanese, Reverend Murphy, I don't know if you've heard of him or not, but he was a former missionary and he spoke fluent Japanese, and he used to come up. If I'm not mistaken, he belonged to the St. Peter's church in Seattle.

TI: This is St. Peter's Episcopal in Seattle?

TT: He used to come up once or twice a year.

TI: How about Buddhist? Did they have, like, Buddhist ministers come up there?

TT: No.

TI: Any other Japanese activities like cultural or community, so you had picnics...

TT: Well, we used to have shibai. The workers used to put on the shibai. And oh, somebody used to bring a movie up from Seattle, it was a Japanese movie, and show it at the... what you call it, kitchen has a big eating area for the bachelors, that was the meeting place.

TI: Like kind of a mess hall?

TT: Yeah, (in the messhall).

TI: And were these silent Japanese movies?

TT: Both. Regular movies.

<End Segment 7> - Copyright © 2009 Densho. All Rights Reserved.