<Begin Segment 19>
TI: Something you mentioned earlier I was curious about, you lived in Seattle up through high school, then went down to L.A. and talked about being around Japanese in the L.A. area. How would you compare the two Japanese communities, Seattle and L.A.?
BY: That's a good question. You know, we used to have parties... you know the Fort Lewis army base? There were a lot of guys from L.A. that were stationed there, and they used to come to Seattle because Tacoma was such a crummy place at that time. And so they used to come up to Seattle looking for parties, and we'd see them at the bowling alley and places like that, and they'd come to dances and organizations. I don't know where they had dances, the VFW, I guess. And they were really good dancers, which really attracted me. I swear to god, I love dancing. Like my second husband, he could not dance a lick. [Laughs]
BY: I'm surprised that you fell for him. [Laughs]
DR: Well, he was a charming guy. So the L.A. guys were more, to me, anyway, they seemed to be more outgoing than the guys from Seattle.
TI: And so was that true in L.A., you felt that same thing, that the community down there were more...
DR: Outgoing.
TI: Outgoing.
BY: But you came back to Seattle.
DR: I did.
BY: So why did you come back to Seattle?
DR: Well, because my husband passed away three years ago, and my brothers live here and my nieces and nephews live here, and I just needed to be someplace close to family. And my kids, my daughter lives in La Quinta, which is right next door to Palm Springs, and my son is in Connecticut, and I lived in Alameda. And there's quite a distance between both places, and I just needed someplace where there was family, immediate family close by, that's why I came back.
BY: So coming back to Seattle, was that an easy transition or was it, did it take some adjustment to do that?
DR: Actually, no, it was easy.
BY: You're a very outgoing person, so I can imagine that you make friends wherever you go.
DR: Yeah, I kind of wormed my way in. [Laughs] No, you know, I did a lot of research for retirement homes. I must have looked at -- not physically -- but looked at researched twenty different facilities.
BY: All over the countries?
DR: No, just in Seattle, the Seattle area. And I found one, the Murano downtown, do you know that one?
BY: The hotel?
DR: No, Murano retirement community. It's a highrise right around Third or Fourth. Not University, it's closer in, closer to Pike. Anyway, it's a highrise, and went in and it's just gorgeous, absolutely. It was elegant. They had this Chihuly hanging from way up high, right down into the reception area, I fell in love with that place. And he took me up to have lunch upstairs in their dining room, and then he took me up to the roof. And you had a 360-degree view of all of Seattle, everything. It was so elegant. And so I actually put a down payment there. And then I came here, and I thought, "This feels more like me." And so I called and I said, "Frank, I can't live there." And he said, "But, Dotti, you love this place. "I know," I said, "it's beautiful." And he said, "You already put money down." And I said, "Yeah, I know I put money down, and I expect you to send me back my money." [Laughs] But anyway, he couldn't talk me into staying. I came here and I said, "This is the place for me."
BY: Was the fact that there were quite a few other Japanese Americans...
DR: I didn't even know that, no. What a nice discovery that was. But my best friend from high school is living here, or has been here for five years now.
BY: Who is that?
DR: Akiko Kikuchi. Do you know the Kikuchi family?
BY: No, I don't. So that's interesting because we did an earlier interview earlier with Tak and her best friend lives here.
DR: Who's her best friend?
BY: Best friend in camp? Rose Kishi.
DR: Oh, Rose, of course.
BY: Yeah. So they were best friends in Minidoka, is that where they were? Yeah.
TI: They made taffy.
BY: That's right, secretly. [Laughs] So I think that for some of the residents here, the fact that there's a lot of other Japanese here.
DR: Yeah, it's really nice. I really like that.
BY: And so now you're close to your siblings, too, and other nieces and nephews?
DR: Uh-huh. They're right up here on Beacon Hill.
<End Segment 19> - Copyright © 2022 Densho. All Rights Reserved.