<Begin Segment 17>

TI: Okay, so going back to you, you graduated from the University of Manitoba. After you graduated with your mechanical engineering degree, where did you go? What was next?

MO: What did I do?

TI: Yeah.

MO: I was back in... helping Dad fish one summer. Actually, 1950, there was a big flood in Winnipeg. And I know when we worked, piling, helping out in the city, flood thing, and then I went back to help my dad fish one summer. And then when I was in Vancouver, A.V. Roe, they were looking for engineers. And Vancouver, I went to interview and got a job. That's why I got a job with A.V. Roe Company.

TI: Now I'm curious, when you got that job, was your father glad that you got a job in, using your engineering degree, or did he want you to continue to fish with him?

MO: Well, you know, he didn't think I was a fisherman. [Laughs] This fishing is a tough job, you know. I mean, I really didn't like that.

TI: And so he didn't think you were a very good fisherman.

MO: I don't think I was a fisherman, I was helping my dad because he... and that year when I went to help Dad, we went up north, and it was a tough job. And when the season opened, he was out there all the time, you know. And you don't get to sleep, get enough sleep.

TI: Yeah. And probably, I'm thinking, because he was starting out again, he couldn't really afford to hire someone, right? So you were like family...

MO: Well, no, then he had young men working for him after that.

TI: Okay. So you interview with this company, what was the name of the company again?

MO: A.V. Roe.

TI: Yeah, A.V. Roe.

MO: It's an aircraft company. A.V. Roe Airplane Company in Toronto.

TI: Okay, so you got this job, so you moved all the way across the country?

MO: Yeah. And when I went to Toronto, there was a lot of Japanese in Toronto already, people that was either sent by the government or evacuated. Toronto was a big Japanese family there, lot of people.

TI: So did that surprise you when you got there, to see so many Japanese?

MO: No.

TI: Because you knew that there were a lot of Japanese there. Because my understanding is -- and we talked about this a little earlier -- right after the war, in 1945, Japanese Canadians could not return to the coast, the West Coast, and so many of them moved east to Toronto.

MO: Yeah, there was a lot of people moved east. Toronto got to be a big Japanese...

TI: Yeah. I think up until recently, it might have been the largest Japanese population, was Toronto. And so you're in the big city, Toronto, working as an engineer. So what was that like for you? Did you do a lot with the Japanese Canadian community when you were in Toronto? Did you do, like, social events and things like that?

MO: Oh, yeah, a lot of social events.

<End Segment 17> - Copyright © 2022 Densho. All Rights Reserved.