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TI: So let's go now back to your father. Can you tell me your father's name?

KT: Yeah. Father is Kuhei, K-U-H-E-I.

TI: And where was he from?

KT: Same place, Shiga prefecture.

TI: And what did his family do in Japan?

KT: I think they were just farmers.

TI: So did it, how did your father come to the United States?

KT: He was in the Japan-Russian War, he was discharged, and I think he told me that they were homesteading in Hokkaido or something. He went up there. And he says Hokkaido's too cold, so they were, people were immigrating to the States, so he got on a ship and came to the States, and went to Hawaii. And he says Hawaii was too hot, so he got on another ship and came to Seattle. There's no job in Seattle, so he went up to Alaska and he worked in the hills.

TI: In what? In fuels?

KT: Hills, falling trees.

TI: Okay. So logging kind of.

KT: Logging, yeah. Funny thing, I never saw bowling 'til I was in like junior high school and all the... and he told me in the wintertime, with the snow, they can't do any logging, so he came down to Ketchikan and he set pins in a bowling alley.

TI: Interesting.

KT: Yeah. So that was, to me, that was a surprise that they had bowling way back when.

TI: Now, was he a good bowler? Did he do --

KT: No. [Laughs]

TI: I wonder if he ever did it in Ketchikan. And do you know about how old he was when he came and was in Alaska?

KT: Gosh, I don't know.

TI: Or about what year he came?

KT: Must've been in his twenties, early twenties, 'cause he's right after the Japan-Russian War.

TI: Okay.

KT: Yeah, and he, he and, I don't know if, he's telling me that when they get paid he would get the money, the gold coins, and they'd put 'em in these little leather, had Indians make these leather things and they'd tie it around their waist. And he said as that got heavier and heavier that it would callous around the waist. And then they, some Japanese that he knew, they decided, "Well, let's get out of this business." They come back to Seattle and they were walking to Auburn, I guess, was looking for areas to farm or something, clear land. And I don't know whether he was involved or he's telling me about somebody else, but he said, they said a bunch of kids, hakujin kids came out there and said, "Hey, Japs, Japs." And he said they had green apples and they'd throw 'em at 'em. They had money, but they couldn't talk, they couldn't buy food, so they ran around, picked up these green apples and ate 'em. [Laughs] That was so good.

TI: They were so hungry they, they...

KT: Yeah. And then eventually they found people that would, willing to let 'em clear land and farm there.

TI: Now, did he ever say why Auburn? 'Cause Auburn's pretty far from the waterfront. I mean, you'd think --

KT: Well, they got on the road and just kept walking, looking for places.

TI: Well that's a long walk, then, from, from Seattle, if that's where they landed.

KT: Yeah. I don't know, they might've had friends that said, "Down in this area there are other Japanese." But yeah, there's a place in Auburn called White Lake Hill, and down below the hill there, he said, "I cleared all that land."

TI: How interesting.

KT: Yeah, they cleared it and planted potatoes.

TI: And going back, so he had this sort of, I guess in some ways it's like a money belt, where he had all his gold.

KT: Yeah.

TI: So did he have quite a bit of gold? Was it, was he pretty well off when he came back from Alaska?

KT: I guess he was. He bought the tools, plows and things like that to farm with. I guess most of the Japanese saved their money.

TI: How about a farm? Did he either buy or lease a farm?

KT: No, they, most of it, for a long time it was, would clear it and farm it for some number of years, I don't know how many years. But then later on we leased the land, and when the war broke out... the land we were on was leased to so many years.

TI: Okay.

<End Segment 2> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.