<Begin Segment 2>

EG: Tell us about the background of your parents coming to America.

TM: My, both my parents came from Fukuoka, Japan -- countryside. I don't know exactly when they came, but I believe they came after the Russo-Japanese war, which ended in 1905. So after that, how soon after that, I don't know. But I was told it was after that war that a lot of Japanese came. In fact, they were urged to come because Japan couldn't feed the population and there were a lot of our returning soldiers and sailors and they were looking for volunteers.

EG: Had your father been in the Russo-Japanese war?

TM: I believe he was not. But one of my uncles was.

EG: But he, he got the impact from the Japanese urging of people to move to America because of the crowding, the economy and so on.

TM: Yes. Some of his friends were already here. And so they wrote to their friends and, I think my father was one of his, or their friends. And that's how they all came here.

EG: That's how come he settled in Oregon? He had friends in Oregon?

TM: Yes. They came to settle -- I don't know how they decided on Hood River -- but I guess it was based on the demand of the labor at that time. It's an orchard area, apples and whatnot. I guess they needed some Japanese labor.

EG: So there was work ready-made for them to settle in that particular area.

TM: Yeah.

EG: Uh-huh. And how long were they in Hood River?

TM: I believe -- well, the way I understood -- they were there for only a few years. Because the living wasn't too easy and the temperature was extreme near the Columbia River, cold breeze. And I guess the living conditions were not so good. So I don't know how that happened, but they decided to come to Seattle.

EG: Uh-huh.

TM: And my father and his cousin and a couple of other relatives were here in Seattle.

EG: What kind of work did they find in Seattle?

TM: I believe one was engaged in hotel business, managing a hotel. And the other one, I'm not sure. I believe my father and others were common laborers in the beginning, and later on he sort of bought a store -- a shoe store. And so his work wasn't too hard compared with others. I don't know where he got the money, but somehow he bought the shoe store in the University District.

EG: So you didn't live in the Japanese district in, around Jackson Street.

TM: Yeah.

EG: You did? But the store was over in the University District.

TM: The store was there but I believe my folks and just about everybody else was living in this area, in the Japanese town, 'Japan Town.'

<End Segment 2> - Copyright © 1997 Densho. All Rights Reserved.