<Begin Segment 15>

BF: Back when you were working with your father and you were saying that you kind of -- it probably was your, not your parents' hope or plan to have you necessarily go into the business, but did you want to? I mean at that point did you really, you said you liked helping out the customers. Did you, was there a part of you that, that really liked the business and hope that you would eventually work in it?

TM: No. You know, my father was probably surprised I went to college. But in those days it was either -- for the guys it was engineering or something like that, architectural, so that was a natural tendency if you went to college and if you were looking for a comfortable vocation. And so when we went through the high school ritual of going through job fairs and aptitude tests, actually I scored very well in the nursing field. But that didn't just seem right, didn't seem right. So I struggled through school. But there was a feeling that entrepreneurship was nothing. If it was, it was very late. It was not something that my father encouraged us, or -- and, and getting back to this Nisei issue, there was very few role models or people you could -- that were making a name of themselves, being business entrepreneurs. And the ones that were successful, you looked up to them. Community leaders were either professors at the university, or maybe business people, but, they were business people not because they studied business, you know these family type. I guess, looking back, the people that I looked up to like I told you, people like Edison Uno or Min Masuda, were all some way considered academia. And they were our heroic leaders. So, looking back I don't think I had any contacts with any so-called business people. And, and here again, I think, if all things when went well, my father stayed healthy, and business as he predicted not to grow so fast, my brother would have taken over and, and I was working at Boeing. It would have been okay, I guess.

BF: It seems like there was probably a different attitude or stature to, now at this current time in, in the '90s going into the new millennium, it seems like entrepreneurship is really at a high social status. But it sounds like during that time period, in that community, the thing, the thing to be and the place to be was more in get a degree, go into education.

TM: Well, like I say, it was doctor, lawyer or something like that was the, the quote, that's what all parents wanted their kids to be or something like that. I think, yeah, looking back, entrepreneurship is probably only become, I don't know, have its high esteem just recently, ten, fifteen, twenty years I think. That's when they became -- and I guess the Fortune magazine and all these, they start to publicize the CEOs making money. And I'm guessing the old, old money came from family wealth. So the CEOs were probably low-keyed and were not the subject of the best sellers or whatever, front-page news. Especially in the northwest it was lumber money, mining money type of thing and those were very quietly passed on from generation to generation.

BF: Yeah, yeah. So you didn't really hear about them.

TM: Yeah. And also, in those days the coming of the Japanese trading companies and big Japanese companies was still rare. And even if they came, the thought of being able to make a mark or achieve any high status in those companies was something we laughed at. I mean no way can you achieve that. From economically, or socially, and you knew damn well that the Japanese businesses weren't going to hire the local Nikkei, which I think was really crazy. They should have because culturally they could have brought a lot of, a lot to the table. But that's a different story.

BF: So the Japanese businesses, businesses Japan-based, they wouldn't hire the local Nikkei in, in the U.S.?

TM: No, no. And I only mention this because if, when I was about twenty if I got up and said I'm gonna become the chairman of General Motors, or General Foods, or Ford, or -- they would've all laughed. There's no, nobody's made it before. And, and at the same time if you say you were gonna become the general manager of Mitsubishi or Mitsui, they would've also laughed, for different reasons. But, getting back, the Japanese companies -- Japan Airlines or whatever, they, the little experience I have, they, they look down on the immigrants from Japan, the iminoko it was not so... but, I only mention that again because they lost a lot of opportunity not to take advantage of the Nikkeis, Niseis that had command of the language, knew the lay of the territory, and had this cultural background that they could relate to. But I think they missed the boat.

BF: Wow, that's really interesting, because it wasn't that removed, we weren't, that generation wasn't so Americanized that there wasn't some tie. And you would think that it would be an obvious benefit to companies.

TM: Yeah. The only few that have took advantage, parlayed it or understood it was Morita, of Sony. When he moved to New York, he made lasting friends with a lot of Nikkeis, to this day. He even hired a few Niseis in Japan that were Americans but chose to stay in Japan. And that was rare, very rare, in fact very unusual. And looking back, it's too bad because, too bad from my point of view is that this was one niche area where the Nikkei should have been able to excel because of this cultural, cultural background and awareness. But there was two probably, looking back there was two things. First of all the Nikkeis were not, Niseis especially, were not given this opportunity to have that kind of relevant experience, or expectation of them to become the CEO or the something. And number two, the Japanese business people that came just had no appreciation or feeling and, or -- well they looked, to say it bluntly, they looked down on the immigrants in general and specifically they just never thought the Nikkeis would be of any benefit to them. And I repeat, it's a shame because they could've added a lot to whatever they were trying to achieve in this country I think.

<End Segment 15> - Copyright © 1999 Densho. All Rights Reserved.