Densho Digital Archive
Densho Visual History Collection
Title: Frank Muramatsu Interview
Narrator: Frank Muramatsu
Interviewer: Tom Ikeda
Location: Seattle, Washington
Date: June 10, 2015
Densho ID: denshovh-mfrank_2-01-0003

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TI: Now, when you went back, could you imagine growing up and living there? I mean, because, in some ways, your parents had already met and started a family. If they had not come to the United States, they would have had you there. I mean, did you ever think that?

FM: No, I just can't... at that time, my sister already, (...) had a family by then, because it was... I went back on my own thirty-fifth wedding anniversary with my wife. And so I think it was in the early '80s that we went back -- we went, not back, went there for the first time, and the only time that I ever have been in Japan. And no, we think about having (...) lived there possibly, and I don't think I would have been able to accept it.

TI: How do you think your life would have been, I mean, if your parents had their, all eight kids in this little fishing village?

FM: Oh, my goodness.

TI: Would have become a fisherman?

FM: Well, they had, I understand that they had a little bit of land, my grandfather's property. And I saw it, and at that time, of course, my sister... I'm trying to think of her name, and isn't that terrible that I can't think of her name even? We didn't do too much with them. But the land that she had, I think she rented it out (...). It was a rice paddy type thing. (...) She had this land down at the bottom, and there was a mountain. And she owned, they had land that (...) went up this mountain, but I don't know what they did with it. I think they just, I think it might have been groves of trees or something like that. (...) My sister had three boys and a girl. And you know, at that time, I probably should have probably been a little bit more mindful about what they were doing, but I think they worked in a, some kind of a factory.

TI: And these would have been your nephews and nieces.

FM: Yeah, my nephews. One of the nephews, as a matter of fact, at that time had come to the United States, not immigrated, but he had come to, I guess to just study and live with my older brother in Portland, Oregon. And by then I had met him, H.B. I don't know what his real name is, but we called him H.B. And he had lived with my brother, and so I knew him, and I had met him (...). But when I went to Japan at that time with my wife on this visit, he was there, and he treated me very well (...). As a matter of fact, you know, I didn't speak, I don't speak Japanese very well. I understand it a little bit, but I don't speak it hardly at all. And that first couple of days with my sister was a real problem, because conversation just did not exist too much. She would talk to me in Japanese, which I understood. She didn't understand English at all, and that was the problem, that I couldn't speak.

TI: But your nephew, could he kind of translate?

FM: Yeah, he was our translator.

TI: Okay, that's a good story. You mentioned earlier that your grandfather on your father's side was in the United States.

FM: Yes.

TI: So did he come over the same time with your parents?

FM: I think he was here before. (...) He was probably living in, at that time, living in Oregon (...). As a matter of fact, as I think back now, his wife, my grandmother, was there. Both of my father's parents, father and mother were here in Portland. But she died very early after we had moved to the North Portland farm. The recollection of her is very vague.

TI: Yeah, I was going to ask about that. And what was your grandparents' names on your dad's side?

FM: My grandfather's name is Tatsutaro, and he was with us for quite a while, actually.

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