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VY: So let's see. So your grandparents were in Seattle, and what neighborhood did they live in?

DS: Well, in 1905 when my father was born, the family was getting bigger. There were already two boys in the family, and they were living in a small apartment in downtown Seattle. So my grandfather bought several plots of land on the outskirts of town in South Park, which is south of the Boeing field, and it's on the banks of the Duwamish River. And he bought several lots of land and built two houses. By 1905 when my father was born, he was born in the first house that's still standing if you go to South Park. And the family was raised in those two houses. It was quite primitive at the beginning, one-room house with bedrooms, kitchen, and it was basically a one-room house and outhouse. And there was a pretty, it was quite primitive living there. But I think the reason my grandfather chose that, to live in the outskirts of Seattle, was that, first of all, land was cheap and he was able to purchase land at a very reasonable cost. And I think it was symbolic because buying land meant that you were going to put down roots into this country, and that he felt that he would never go back to his old life in Tsuwano but that he would start a new life, a new family, in this new land. And he was very committed to living in this country and establishing his family in the United States. And I think the other reason that he chose buying this land and building his house on the outskirts was that, at the time, in the early twentieth century, there was a lot of discord between the Chinese and the local community. And as I understand it, there may have been even race riots between the Chinese and the local inhabitants. And I think that my grandfather wanted to move away from the chaos of the downtown area in Seattle and find a more idyllic location to raise his family. And I think the more I look at his home, his previous home in Tsuwano Japan, I think the Duwamish River location reminded him of home. With the hills of West Seattle, with the mountains in the background, and then Tsuwano which was the home of a samurai, there were koi in the little canals that ran along the samurai homes. But also there was a beautiful river that ran through the valley that was filled with carp. So it must have reminded him of his home in Tsuwano Japan.

VY: Yeah, yeah. It's a beautiful area. Now, he purchased the land --

DS: It's not so beautiful now, it's highly industrialized.

VY: No, it's not so beautiful now.

DS: But also, let me just say, before you ask another question, there was a little map in our family volume of history, and there were no Japanese living in the area. There were all Caucasians and largely Scandinavians. But it was a welcoming neighborhood. And when my grandfather passed away, the neighbors all contributed to the welfare of this growing family.

VY: That's interesting. Do you think it's because it was more of a neighborhood of people who were just kind of trying to start their lives and kind of supportive of each other in that way?

DS: I think so. You know, the Pacific Northwest was a haven for Scandinavian settlers and immigrants. And I think this was a common feeling of putting down roots, being new arrivals in this country, and that being Japanese, not Scandinavian, wasn't a major stumbling block, but in fact they all share the same social, economic class and dreams of being newly arrived immigrants.

VY: You know, something just occurred to me as we're talking about this, because I'm thinking about how involved your grandfather was in the Seattle community with the church and various things. But then he moved down to South Park which, today, that's not all that far, that neighborhood. But back then, I'm just thinking about transportation and going back and forth and that sort of thing, how that must have been hard going back and forth between South Park and Seattle, or not hard, but...

DS: Actually, when you look at the hand-drawn map, further up the river, there was a bridge over the river. And there was a streetcar that ran all the way from the Duwamish River all the way to downtown Seattle. So transportation was fairly straightforward at the time.

VY: Oh, that's interesting. I did not know that, okay. Oh, one more thing, so your father bought the land. Did he build the house as well, or was there a house...

DS: My grandfather...

VY: Grandfather.

DS: ...bought the land. My grandfather bought the land in 1905, built a house, and the house was finished. I have a feeling it was hand-built. I don't think he had enough money to hire a contractor to build it. So he would, I could imagine he would work on the house on the weekends and he would have time off from working. So the house was ready by 1905.

VY: Okay. So your grandfather really was just so busy, he did so many things in the community and for his family, he had nine children. So what happened next?

DS: Well, the family grew, and by 1919, there were eight children. They had lost one, and there was my aunt Gracie was in the incubator, and my grandmother was expecting the birth of Grayce. So in about twenty years there were nine, almost ten children. So my grandfather, in addition to working, was quite busy building his family, and my grandmother was busy with the children. But as the children grew older, they began to help raising the younger children. But unfortunately in 1919, my grandfather suffered an accident. And the story was that he had been, he had fallen off a streetcar and suffered a serious injury and became disabled, and eventually passed away from complications of the injury in 1919. And he wrote a last poem that he dedicated to his yet unborn daughter, and it's very sad. But before he died, he gathered... the story goes, he gathered the three boys, four boys, and admonished them that when war breaks out between Japan and the United States, that they should be loyal to the United States, that they should not be loyal to the Japanese imperial army. He was prescient, because twenty years later, the war did break out. And so this was an important admonition, and you'll hear more about this during the camp experience.

VY: That's so interesting that he was able to see that coming even in 1919.

DS: Well, I've been thinking about why he would make that admonition. Well, first of all, he was committed for his family to become permanent resident citizens of the United States. But more importantly, I think, he grew up in a time when there was great change in Japan. He was born at the beginning of the Meiji Restoration, which brought in, including Christian missionaries, a lot of Western ideas. He also saw the effect of the Russian-Japanese war, where the Russian navy was defeated by the Japanese modern navy, and he saw the modernization of the military and of the transformation of the military from a samurai-based army to a modern nationalistic army, and saw continuing invasions into Manchuria, Korea, and (China). So he was quite concerned by the events of the time, of the growing military arrogance of the Japanese government.

<End Segment 3> - Copyright © 2022 Densho. All Rights Reserved.