Densho Digital Archive - Eiichi Yamashita Interview I (denshovh-yeiichi-01-0016)

<Begin Segment 16>

TI: And so you go to Franklin High School, not Cleveland? Wasn't Cleveland High School there?

EY: No, I went to Franklin.

TI: Okay, so you went to Franklin High School, and this is freshman year, Franklin High School?

EY: Yeah, freshman year.

TI: And so how many other Japanese were going to Franklin at this point?

EY: Oh, there must have been, there must have been twenty, probably around twenty or more.

TI: Okay, so a good size, but not a lot.

EY: Yeah. The Yamaguchis, the Kawaguchi, and then there was a fellow by the name of Bernie Indress that lived in back of our place. There was an Andy Opacich, basketball player. Endres was a basketball player, and then there was a couple of, there was a twin named McGregor.

TI: So I'm curious, now that you're a freshman in high school, how your education, having spent several years in Japan, how your education compared to other students at Franklin High School?

EY: Well, in terms of math, I was doing fine. But when it came to things like history, that was a no-no for me. But I remember when I was there, there was a baseball player, Soriano, and then there was a basketball player, Opacich. Some of the Japanese people had, I think there was a fellow named Yoshioka, but he transferred to Broadway. (Math was easy for me. Most American students were poor at math.)

TI: So it sounds like a pretty... well, so there were lots of whites, some Japanese, were there very many other Chinese or other races there?

EY: If there were any, very few, and a few Italian. That was, Rainier Valley is, you know...

TI: Right, so I would have thought there would be more Italians because of the Rainier Valley.

EY: Yeah, probably Soriano's Italian, isn't it?

TI: Right.

EY: What about Opacich?

TI: I don't think Opacich is, but I think Soriano is. Now, about this time, your family moves from Seattle to go up north. So why did your family move away from Seattle?

EY: Because my father's importing business was really no more. And so the only business we had was the oyster farming, but it was not, it was not something that really the family can do except my mother. She would do anything. So she had this restaurant, she asked my father to build a building for her, and he did. And so that's where we, my mother had a restaurant where the, about that the time the governor was Martin, Clarence D. Martin, and he and his entourage came by and had some oysters on the half shell. Initially they dressed up the plates and took it over, but pretty soon it got to be that they were not fast enough. So they just took a bucket along and then dumped all the shells into the bucket and then placed the oysters right on their own plate. [Laughs]

TI: So where was the restaurant located?

EY: Right on the Chuckanut.

TI: Oh, right on Chuckanut, so before you go up the hill, it's just the flat area?

EY: Oyster Creek, you know, Oyster Creek, it's about a mile north of Oyster Creek.

TI: Wow, so your mom ran a restaurant. I forgot to ask this, going back to Seattle, were there very many, like, Japanese community activities that you can recall? Like picnics or things where the whole Japanese community would get together?

EY: You know, I never did... I never did get to go to... of course, I had no interest, but then I... somehow or other, our family was not involved much with the local.

TI: Well, it may be one reason, I'll ask you this, did you go to Japanese language school?

EY: On occasion I did maybe on a Saturday, but then I didn't go very often.

TI: Because I'm guessing you didn't really need to because you spoke Japanese.

EY: Yeah. I think my father said, "I don't want you to forget it, though," maybe for, just to maintain it, it'd be good to go. On Saturdays I did go a few times to Mr. Hashiguchi's Japanese school. That was on Yesler.