<Begin Segment 19>

VY: Okay. So I just wanted to kid of recap a little bit before we move forward, and so far also we've covered your very early childhood in camp, we covered your family history of your grandparents and your parents. And I wanted to back up a little bit and talk about when you left Tule Lake, did your whole family leave together?

MM: I believe so, I don't recall.

VY: Okay. And then, let's see, so you then, before the war, your family was in Tacoma. After the war, where did you return to?

MM: We returned to, we came to Seattle because my uncle had, my dad's half brother had already come here, and he was looking around for a place to live. And so we didn't come until he actually found somewhere, I guess, I'm not really sure how that worked. But he came out first, and then we came, I think.

VY: Okay. So he came here and he found a place for you to live, and then you all came?

MM: Yeah. We all sort of stuck together, because my dad and my uncle, his brother, were really tight, I mean, really, really tight. They talked to each other all the time. So I think it was important to them.

VY: And so is that when you moved into the duplex?

MM: No. At first we moved into some, I guess, hotel in skid row, but I didn't know until I was later in life, and then my mom told me. And then we moved to, I think it was called Montrose Apartments over here by the Buddhist church, actually, just a couple of doors down or something, and then we moved to the duplex on Twelfth Avenue.

VY: Oh, okay, so it's three places.

MM: Yes.

VY: Okay. Of all those places, what's the first place you actually remember in your mind?

MM: The Montrose apartment.

VY: The Montrose apartment. And can you describe it? Like were you living, was it just your nuclear family or were there other extended family?

MM: No, I think my uncle was, my mom's brother, I think, was living with us. He played, actually, a huge role in our lives. I don't think he ever had to stay in camp, he actually was going to join the army or something. Because I've seen a picture of him in uniform, but he didn't have to go out and fight. I think that the war ended by the time he was going to go and fight. So I don't know if he ever was in camp. If he was, he wasn't in our block or whatever you call it. But I don't really remember him until we were at the Montrose apartment. But I remember him being there.

CC: Do you want to give his name?

MM: Hmm?

CC: I don't think you've mentioned his name yet.

MM: Oh, we called him Oisan, which means "uncle." And his name was, well, his name is Mitsuyoshi Kikuchi, but everybody called him Chun, C-H-U-N, or we as children called him, Oisan. Well, not even just as children, until we were old, we called him Oisan until he died. Whereas my other uncle, in Japan, what they do is they call, they say the relationship, but where they're from. So my other uncle, we would say, "Downstairs no Oisan," because he lived downstairs from us at Twelfth Avenue. But he didn't live there his whole life, but, I mean, that's how he was described. Then we knew which Oisan we were talking about. [Laughs]

VY: Okay. And were there other family members that lived with you or near you in the same...

MM: No.

VY: No, okay. And then then after that, after you left the apartments, then where did you move to?

MM: Twelfth Avenue, the duplex.

VY: That was the duplex?

MM: Yeah. And we lived upstairs and my uncle, Downstairs no Uncle, his family, their nine children there, they had the downstairs.

VY: And how long were you there?

MM: Well, let's see. I think... well, I don't remember. I must have been... I remember I was in kindergarten when we moved, when we were there, because I went with all the kids in the block to school. So I must have been four. And then we moved to Rainier Valley when I was, I think, nine. No, just a minute. I was playing violin at nine, so ten. So how many years is that? No, what did I say?

CC: Six years?

MM: About six years.

VY: And so on that area, what was the racial and ethnic makeup of most of your neighbors?

MM: Where?

VY: On Twelfth.

MM: Oh, it was all Japanese.

VY: All Japanese.

MM: Yeah, we were in an enclave of Japanese. In fact, they weren't just from anywhere, they were all... I think mostly, well, I didn't know all of them very well, because I didn't talk to the adults. But let's see. Our family was from Ehime-ken, and the Moriguchis were from Ehime-ken, and the others, they were there, I assume they were from Ehime­-ken, but I'm just assuming, I have no idea, really.

<End Segment 19> - Copyright © 2024 Densho. All Rights Reserved.