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VY: And did you tell me this already? Where was your father from?

KI: Well, my father is from Kagoshima, which is the most southern province aside from Okinawa on Kyushu. And although they were farmers, because they were right next to the ocean, they were also seagoing. And it was not uncommon for a Japanese man to be hired by a commercial ocean company. And given the fact that his older two brothers were also seamen and they came to Washington State, and just, if you will, walked off the boat without ever looking back, and in correspondence, they encouraged my father to come, and he was a seaman, walked off the ship. You know, in the parlance, they would have been considered "wetbacks," but literally they just walked off the boat illegal and never returned. This is the situation. If you have some relative who had been here before, you would go to them, they would put you up, support you, and find a job. And the job he had was in a restaurant. These relatively modest jobs were available, but any jobs of a more skilled or more upper income were simply unavailable. So the proposition of not making it meant that they had to go into other work where they could accumulate wealth. And one of the interesting things in Seattle was that low income hotels where migratory laborers would stay paid very little for lodging, were run by Japanese immigrants. In fact, before the war, there was an association of Japanese hotel and apartment owners numbering probably four hundred, which tells you that they found an economic niche where they could work without being, let's say, rejected. Because it was, if you will, work that others did not want because it was very exhausting and labor intensive, and it required hours of work. So my father eventually leased the Oregon Hotel, which was, I believe, on First Avenue, downtown Seattle. And my mother joined them and she would clean beds, sweep up, do whatever it is to keep the hotel clean. My father, if you will, did the plumbing, the electrical, whatever it was required to keep the place alive. And in addition, having a hotel meant you had a place to live. And so, even though they weren't, did not know each other, it was simply a practical matter of combining their labor to survive.

VY: So your father leased the Oregon Hotel and was, now, was this when your parents were married or before your parents were married?

KI: I'm not sure about the time of the lease and their marriage, but it was close. And my, his two brothers, my father's two brothers were also in the hotel business. One of them, Tohachi, I believe his name is, I called Cherry Ojisan, which meant that he was the "Man of Cherry Hotel." [Laughs] Which is on Cherry Street.

VY: That's interesting. So both your father and his brothers, did they each have their own hotel?

KI: Well, actually, the oldest brother, Ichisuke, I don't know how he did it, but he must have been skilled as a butcher. And they established, of all things, a grocery store on Capitol Hill.

VY: Do you know what it was called?

KI: I don't remember what the name was, but, from what I gather, they were relatively prosperous. But somehow they couldn't make it; the Depression was a very harsh master. And the reason why it seemed they were doing well was they had a large car like a Packard or something, and oh, they're doing well. But it was a tough time.

VY: Backing up just a little bit, how old was your dad when he came to America?

KI: Probably in his late teens.

VY: Late teens, okay.

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