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TI: Today's date is March 26, 1998. We're at the Densho offices, 1416 South Jackson. And my name is Tom Ikeda and I'm the interviewer. And today we're interviewing Henry Miyatake. Henry, I'm going to start. There's a lot to cover, but what I thought I would start with is your childhood, and would start with the question: what are some of your earliest childhood memories?

HM: I had two real interesting accidents, and that might have had some effect on what happened afterwards. One of them was, we lived in an area where there was a very steep hill that was adjacent to this long building that composed a whole bunch of units, housing units. They had closed the road because the road was too steep for vehicles to traverse. And consequently kids used to play on this, the long areas where you had a deep drop which was protected by a fence which was not very well maintained. The consequence of that, during the summertime when the kids used to play around on this high level area -- I was about, I guess about two and a half years old I guess at that time -- but, I was walking along the side of this fence line and there were kids playing around with a portable pool, water pool. And they're running around, I guess it was a counter-clockwise direction and here I'm going towards these guys and one of them hit me. And unfortunately, there was an opening in the fence line there and I went down, about probably about 30 feet or so. At that age, you're not too fearful, so consequently I saw the world go around me, it was kind of interesting. The next thing I knew I was in the bed and the doctor was trying to revive me. But I was unconscious for about two days I guess.

TI: So you were in a coma of some type.

HM: Yeah, I was in a coma for... but that wasn't too bad. But the next accident was a little bit worse. This was within the same year. And my father had a grocery store at that time, and this salesman came and gave me a brand new pencil. In fact, he even sharpened it up for me, which was kind of a problem later on. [chuckles] And Nobi Shigehara, the neighbor friend of ours, had a brand new tricycle. So he said he'd like to have me go for a ride with him. So, yeah, fine. So I was holding my brand new pencil, sharpened, and we were on this tricycle. I was standing in back of him, and we were going along on about a block away from our residence, and there's a oak tree that had uprooted the sidewalk to about a thirty degree angle. Anyway we were rocking away, we were just yelling and having a great deal of fun. And unfortunately, there was a guy riding a bicycle coming the other direction, so Nobi, in order to avoid the guy, made an abrupt turn. And the consequence, I went rolling over on the side. Unfortunately, the pencil penetrated the side of my head. [Laughs] In fact, there's a hole here. And I didn't come out of it for about two weeks. They thought I was going to expire, I guess. [Laughs]

TI: So this was another coma that you were in? Two weeks?

HM: Yeah.

TI: How old were you on this second accident?

HM: Must have been about three years old, I guess. And the thing I remember about that thing was, I had a tremendous fever. I guess I got infected. And the problem was that they were worried about the graphite that broke off inside my head here. And they thought that I might be getting some poisoning from that, so the doctor wanted it out and there was no means of getting it out without an operation. And he said let it come out by itself, if it will. Anyway, that was kind of a difficult period because when I was able to talk to other people, I had a difficult time even focusing my eye. I couldn't see right. So it affected me, I think it for... maybe that has a lot do with how my life got perturbed. [Laughs]

TI: Well, that's the question I was going to ask is, when you think back to those two accidents, I mean, can you see an effect? Or what effect did those two things have in your life? Is there anything that you could sort of pinpoint?

HM: Well, for one thing, my mother -- at that point I was the youngest of three children -- and my mother thought I was accident prone and felt that I should be taken care of and paid more attention than the other children. So I did receive a lot more attention and I was the baby of the family. My mother, I guess, felt that I was the prize of the family, or you know, the baby, so I should be taken care of more closely so...

TI: You mention your mother. I take it both these accidents happened in Seattle?

HM: Yes, uh-huh.

<End Segment 1> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.