<Begin Segment 21>

TI: Any other memories of Garfield, what that was like for you?

TW: Well, you know, like I say, I was a housegirl. And I really didn't have much time on my own. But I know there was... do you know Kazzie Takahashi Kitayama? Was married to Mits Kitayama?

TI: Yeah, I do.

TW: (Yes), well, he passed away a couple of years ago. But she was in this girls club, the Japanese girls club. And she made it possible for me to be Miss Nisei Teen, because they were gathering money and votes, and Kazzie really worked on it. She's still here in Seattle. And she collected the most, so I was Teen Queen.

BY: So she chose you, then, to do it?

TW: Well, no, you collected money and votes, and she got the most. In other words, she was the popular one, so she got the votes for me. And do you remember... I would guess nobody's talked about it, but...

TI: So is this the precursor to the... we have the Japanese American...

TW: Festival?

TI: Yeah, and part of that, there's a Japanese American...

BY: Or Seafair?

TW: Seafair, (yes).

TI: Yeah, Seafair, that there's a Japanese Community Queen that the community then, they become part of the bigger Seafair, and from Seafair they choose the Seafair Queen.

TW: (Yes), I was in that court with Ben, do you know Ben and Helene and May, it it Tsutsumoto?

TI: Oh --

TW: Ben Tsutsumoto?

TI: Tsutsumoto, yeah.

TW: May was the queen and we were in her court. Marian Kono, is gone, and Phyllis and I were in her court.

TI: And this was when you were in high school or graduated?

TW: It was '49, I think.

TI: Okay, '49.

TW: If I'm not mistaken.

TI: Okay, because you graduated in 1949.

TW: High school.

TI: In high school. Okay, so you were essentially in the Queen's Court for the Japanese community.

TW: (Yes), for the Japanese, for the parade that they had.

TI: And so how was that for you? Or how were Japanese... so 1949, this was only four years after the war ended with Japan. And you have something called the Japanese Community Queen's Court on a parade going, I think on Fourth? Jackson? How was that? Were people accepting of a Japanese community float?

TW: I guess so. But I remember May Tsutsumoto's mother dressed, we were all dressed in kimono. And, of course, you can't dress yourself in a kimono anyhow. So May Tsutsumoto's (mother) dressed us all in kimonos, so that's what we were in when we paraded down the street (in a float).

TI: It's so interesting. Interesting to be part of the conversations of the community doing that. I'm sure there were probably discussions like, "Is this too soon?" Because interesting from a historical standpoint, this time period is really interesting because not as much is known.

TW: And it hasn't been that long before the war was over.

TI: Yeah, and that's why. So my understanding of what I read is oftentimes the community was very, kind of, what's the right word? Kind of trying to stay under the radar a little bit.

TW: Kind of being tiptoeing?

TI: Yeah, tiptoeing. But here, it's kind of the major parade in Seattle. There's a float with Japanese young women dressed in kimonos just a few years after the war ended, so that's really interesting to me. And do you recall any conversations about that, or did any of the elders kind of explain this to you, that maybe there might be a comment or something thrown to you or something like that?

TW: No.

TI: And do you recall any kind of comments or any kind of taunts or anything towards you or anyone on the court?

TW: I remember that's the time, I think the JACL group interviewed us. Not in kimonos, but just in regular dresses. And I remember I was asked who the governor was, and I didn't know.

TI: Would that be Rosellini? I'm not sure who was the governor back then.

TW: [Laughs] I don't know.

TI: You could have responded, "Well, it was because I've been in a camp in California over the last several years, that's why I don't know."

TW: Or, "See no evil, hear no evil." Anyhow, I didn't know who it was. But I don't think the other girls knew either.

TI: Yeah, when you mentioned the parade going down Jackson Street, so that, before the war, was Nihonmachi.

TW: (Yes).

TI: And, again, thinking about that neighborhood after the war, what I've read is that it got pretty run down during the war. And so it became a place of a lot of nightclubs, and so the community kind of disappeared during that time period. Did you have a sense of the Japanese American community in that Jackson Street corridor after the war?

TW: No, not really, because I was a Bellevue person, so I really didn't know Seattle.

TI: Know the difference of how it changed?

TW: No, no. I didn't really have that experience, because, not being a Seattleite.

TI: Oh, it's so interesting. I'm so glad you're sharing this, because it's giving me a richer picture of what happened in Seattle.

TW: I'm sorry, I don't seem to be able to help you.

TI: No, this is good. These are great stories.

<End Segment 21> - Copyright © 2022 Densho. All Rights Reserved.