<Begin Segment 3>

SY: And then when he drove you... okay, I'm going to have to back up just a little again, so you were actually born in Seattle?

FK: I was born in Graham and that's a little bit south of Seattle and in between Tacoma and Seattle.

SY: And what was your dad doing at the time?

FK: He was probably farming at that time. My two brothers and my three sisters were all born in different areas in Washington.

SY: So your whole family --

FK: We were always on the move, yes. We were all born in Washington.

SY: Can you just go through the line with your --

FK: My oldest brother George was born in 1925. And my number two brother and my oldest sister are twins and they were born four years later, so that's '29. And then the next older sister or the younger, my oldest sister, she was born in 1931 and then myself '33 and my youngest sister '39, 1939.

SY: And so if my math is correct there are six of you.

FK: That's right.

SY: And so the six of you and your parents and Mr. Hosaki all came?

FK: No, my dad and mom... I guess it was because of the difficulty in raising a family and again, this is just my thoughts that he wanted to become successful and go back to Japan. And so he figured that I'm going to do this, go into the kamaboko business and become successful and then bring the whole family back. But meanwhile he's going to send his two older sons to Japan to be cared for by the grandparents, and so George and Harry were sent to Japan. And my sister, the twin, Miyuki, she was adopted by my uncle because they had no children and Japanese when you have twins... I don't know what it is or what it is at that time it was not a, my interpretation, it was not a joyous thing so they were talked into giving up their daughter to my uncle. And many, many years later talking to my sister, she was quite bitter when she was in Japan to be given away. Of course she was just an infant, she was just born so she didn't... but she realized why would a parent give her away. But it all came out nicely because while she also was in Japan, she went to Japan after the war from Tule Lake and they had a miserable life there too. And sometime later she did find her way back to the United States and came back into our family.

SY: So they all managed to get back.

FK: Yeah.

SY: So it was your father's parents that took in your two brothers?

FK: It's my father's parents and my mother's parents.

SY: Each?

FK: They went back and forth and they were well cared for according to my number two brother. They were really taken care of and were loved and they enjoyed it, just that they were away from their parents.

<End Segment 3> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.