<Begin Segment 16>

SY: I'm interested in more, talking more about our father because I, he died when I was still in junior high -- no, no, elementary school. Junior high school.

PM: He died when, in 1960.

SY: 1960.

PM: And he was only fifty-nine years old, so it was pretty young for having had nine children with our mom. But he lived a good life. He enjoyed life, so that was okay.

SY: So how was, so talk a little bit more about how he was as an employer, because you had to work for him for so many years.

PM: Yes, he was very strict, but everybody knew he had a really kind heart, but he didn't show it too much. So I don't know why it is we always knew that he was okay, but he was very strict. On first of every month he felt we all should be there early because unless we're there early the money's not gonna come in, so we all had to be there early, especially himself. Now normally bosses don't have to be there on time, but it's something that he had instilled in me as well.

SY: He had traditions, I think, that were very Japanese. Do you, would you call Dad a very Japanese?

PM: Yes.

SY: He, I remember him saying always to hurry up and be on time and that kind of thing.

PM: Right.

SY: His brothers, though, his younger siblings were very different from him.

PM: Right.

SY: And how was that? How did that happen? Is it because he was in charge?

PM: Maybe so. I really don't know about that because they didn't live with us when we were older, but Uncle Kiyo was more kind of lackadaisical, very... yeah, I think his wife had a little hard time because he spent his money as well. But Uncle Harry never did get married. Auntie Taneko was nice. She had a nice husband who passed away when he was forty-two so she had a hard time, but everyone has his own ups and downs.

SY: It's curious to me, though, that he, that Daddy, our father, was so active in the community. He really did make a lot of friends.

PM: Yes, he loved to do that, and even with Yamato Employment Agency he had a basketball team that he sponsored, and he tried to help in any way that he could. And he always gave sales items, like calendars, to everybody so that they would remember Yamato Employment Agency. He would pass them out himself, actually, go into the establishment, the restaurant or whatever it was, but if they didn't put up that calendar then he wouldn't leave it there. [Laughs] So that's how sales oriented he was. But he would go into establishments and say, "Do you know who I am? I'm Eddie Yamato of Yamato Employment Agency." He was very proud of the name Yamato because it means, Japan at one time was called the "Land of Yamato," and he said there aren't too many Yamatos. Unfortunately he didn't do too much to increase the name of Yamato because he had eight girls and one boy. It will probably die out. Even now Yamato in Japanese is spelled "big peace," and so some people say Daiwa instead of Yamato.

SY: Really?

PM: But Yamato is a good name and he was very proud of it.

SY: Yeah. How, you don't, do we know how that name, any further back than his father?

PM: No. It has always been Yamato as far as I could go back and see.

SY: Right. 'Cause a lot of people say Yamamoto. I know that's very common.

PM: Right. That's very common. But Yamato is not very common.

SY: I see. So he really sort of prided himself on his name. Yet I'm curious, was he able to make money, though, being as salesman-like as he was?

PM: He made money, and I tried to help him save it. We had a bank vault where we kept some of the money. He was pretty good at it, but he did spend a lot as well. He had his pleasures, so he could use it.

SY: He lived high.

PM: Right.

SY: And then when, our mom started working for him, right?

PM: Yes.

SY: So she then did what kind of work for him?

PM: She did the employment agency, interviewing people and placing them on jobs, but she had nothing to do with the money.

SY: She didn't?

PM: No.

SY: Did he, so what exactly did he do? Was it just being, going out and doing kind of the PR?

PM: He would interview people for jobs and put, and then go to employers and try to find if they had any jobs that he could bring his people to. He's placed many people all around town. And then when we moved from Denver Fred started working there as well, and he placed many people on jobs.

SY: So it, and it became not just for Japanese Americans. It was more, more of a...

PM: Right. Any kind of people that needed jobs.

<End Segment 16> - Copyright &copy; 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.