<Begin Segment 12>

TI: Now, you're back in Seattle, did you go back, did you start going back to school when you come back to Seattle?

WS: No, I can't go back to school, there's no money.

TI: And so were you ever able to go back to the University of Washington?

WS: I was barely making any money to be able to support the family.

TI: Okay. So you never, so once the war started, that really stopped your whole university career?

WS: Yeah, in a way. But after I came back to Seattle, step by step I changed the job. And at one time I was working at the Seattle Lighting and Fixture company, that's on the Second Avenue and Main Street. I was working there for about a year and a half or so, and then I was offered a job to work in the Seattle Engineering Department. And the wage was much better than working in the janitorial work. So anyway, I started working for the city, and worked in the... let's see. I worked in the Seattle Lighting and Fixture company for also about a year or so.

TI: So you first worked at Providence as a janitor, and then from there you went to Seattle Lighting and Fixture?

WS: No, before that, in between that, I was working at the St. Vincent de Paul. I was working in the electrical part, which people would donate electrical goods, and some of 'em are broken and some of 'em are just a simple repair. Then they sell those, so I was...

TI: When you worked there, I remember talking to some people, and they said there were other Japanese and Japanese Americans who worked there also?

WS: Yes.

TI: That they worked, I think, in like the sign shop and different places?

WS: Yeah, that's how my brother-in-law, Mr. Tokita, he was, he had a sign shop before the war. And he was doing the sign painting and all that for the St. Vincent de Paul, and on their truck, they have the sign: St. Vincent de Paul's truck.

TI: Now, did you know that he was also an artist, that he did paintings and things, Mr. Tokita. Did you ever see his artwork?

WS: The what?

TI: Did you ever see Mr. Tokita's artwork? Like he was an artist and did paintings?

WS: Yes.

TI: Did you see that also?

WS: Yeah. I had known my brother-in-law... 1930. I think 1931.

TI: Okay, so before the war you knew him.

WS: Yeah, before the war. He got married to my older sister.

TI: Okay, and what was your older sister's name?

WS: Haruko.

TI: Haruko.

WS: H-A-R-U-K-O, Haruko.

TI: And tell me a little bit about the artist Mr. Tokita. What kind of person was he?

WS: Kind of hard to say.

TI: [Laughs] Why do you say that? Was he quiet or was he funny, or how would you describe him?

WS: I can't say.

TI: Okay.

<End Segment 12> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.