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TI: So then after that meeting, then you applied to go to Chicago.

EY: Yeah.

TI: So tell me about Chicago. What was that like?

EY: Well, you know, Chicago was... I goofed again, you know. While I was waiting for school to start, I was working at National Tea, a wholesale grocery store where some other Nikkeis were working, too, I didn't see any. And Tom Matsuda kind of helped me in the choice of the school. My problem with women is always there. So Tom and Mrs. Matsuda one day said, "Come over." But it was on a Sunday, and then I had, I think it was Thomasine Allen that gave me the name of a minister, Japanese minister. And so I felt that I was really obligated to go and see him. Well, in the meantime, the Matsudas arranged for me to meet a young lady. But I was, I was simply being honest, and not responding to what they were trying to do for me. And so I chose to go and see the minister rather than the young lady, and I think I made a faux pas, faux pas. [Laughs] But that was in my youth.

TI: Was it because you were shy, do you think?

EY: Well, yeah, that could be one, that could be one. But I was then simply too honest. Simply too honest with my own belief or thought, you know. And so I should have taken up on her. [Laughs] But if I did that, why, then I wouldn't have this nice wife.

TI: So, but Tom Masuda was a very, I guess, helpful friend, I guess, for the family?

EY: Very... yes. Tom, like I said, Tom was an attorney that my father shared the office with. And my father helped him with his Japanese correspondence, and Tom, in turn, helped my father with legal matters, because it was difficult for him not to have citizens like having the right property rights and things like that. And so Tom found some legal ways in which he could get by temporarily.

TI: And so Tom was a, like, older Nisei?

EY: Yes.

TI: So that was a good combination for him, to have your father, yeah, that's a good combination. So you said that you were in Chicago just for a short time. Why did you leave Chicago?

EY: We had to come home.

TI: So the war had ended?

EY: Yeah. When I was in Chicago, the war ended, and everybody was happy and jumping around. So I was, I was worried, what am I going to do now? We've got to make a living.

TI: And so did the whole family go back to Samish Bay?

EY: Yeah. Whole family, we knew what we could do, so we bought a property on Highway 99 right close to Midway. And we thought that by shucking and selling oysters retail, and then any surplus we'd sell to the wholesalers, we could make it. We knew what we could do, so that's what we did.

TI: And where did you get the oysters?

EY: Hmm?

TI: Where did you buy the oysters?

EY: That was a stroke of luck. You know, in 1941, we had a tremendous set, and remember we cultched for seed? The 1941 set of oysters was all along the canal, from the mouth to the tail end. And so I went to Seabeck, and there was a postmaster. Postmaster knows everybody. So I went to Harold Altoff, and I said, "Harold, could you help me? You know everybody, could you help me get some people to sell me some oysters? And I'd be willing to pay you some small commission." I paid commission only once or twice, but other than that, the people came to us and made... with that wild set of 1941, we were able to survive and make it.

TI: So this is the Hood Canal, so that wild set, there were lots of oysters in Hood Canal.

EY: Hood Canal was all covered with oysters, all the way.

TI: And so you would buy it from all those people?

EY: I'd buy it from individuals.

TI: And then you'd sell it? I see. And were other people doing the same thing, or were you about the only one?

EY: No, it was new to people. There were people, there were people that did some, but I think we were the ones that did it the longest time.

<End Segment 8> - Copyright © 2014 Densho. All Rights Reserved.