<Begin Segment 9>

BF: Well, but, but so many, I've heard so many people say that following the war years the, the idea was to assimilate, to not be different...

TM: Right.

BF: To not highlight the culture. And yet your father went right back into selling Japanese goods --

TM: That's the only thing he knew. But like I say, he didn't think that was gonna grow because he probably felt the same way; that the next generation would be eating steak and hamburger and bread. And so I think that was the common feeling, that we would assimilate and the Japanese food would become a thing of the past. I think a lot of the people felt that way. I'm guessing my dad and mother felt that way, too.

BF: But did, but at your own household, when you did, when your mother did cook, she probably still cooked Japanese foods.

TM: Oh yeah. Rice was there always. We had rice and some form of Japanese food.

BF: And I assume she was still speaking -- they still used Japanese? They still spoke...

TM: Yeah, but he would say, and she would say, the next generation.

BF: Oh. Uh-huh, uh-huh. And so they come back and they're in Seattle. And there's probably not the same sort of lumber camp, you know large groups of Japanese working in the lumber camps...

TM: Right.

BF: ...or in the oyster industry, things like that. So he had to kind of restructure the business in a way so it was more retail-based.

TM: Right, and I think that continues with the same thought that the business is not gonna grow because like you say, it has changed since before the war. So I think he wanted to just make a comfortable living and just do his thing until he was able to go back to Japan, I'm guessing.

BF: So he's still planning to go back at this point?

TM: Yeah. And, but getting back before that. I think he always wanted to come back to Seattle because 1920s or '30s, Tacoma was fairly prominent city, but Seattle kept growing faster than Tacoma, number one. Number two, I think he mighta been getting tired of driving the trucks around and there was some then, more and more competition too. So, but, whatever reason he didn't hesitate, he wanted to come back to Seattle, there was no if and buts about it, he was just going back to Seattle.

BF: So there again, there was some strategizing there. It wasn't just go back to where he was most comfortable, where he'd been, but it was thinking about where was the most opportunity, what kind of business did he want to have.

TM: And I guess I told you the story, I asked my dad and others, why did you call it Uwajimaya instead of Moriguchi?

BF: Yeah.

TM: He told me two things, probably in jest. But he says, "First of all, if we fail, then I don't want my name on the business." And number two, he says, then he could sell it, the business, if it was Moriguchi-ya it would have been difficult, or he would have to continue to worry about it. He said for those two reasons. Here again, I don't know if it's true or not, but it's interesting how he was thinking about these things.

BF: Yeah, sell it and go back to Japan.

TM: Yeah. Then if his name was on there then he said it would have been more difficult. But the funny thing he said, like I say, he says well, if it went broke, he didn't want his name on, attached to it. [Laughs]

BF: Smart, very smart.

TM: In a way that's -- kinda tells the story of how my father thinking and his humor was very -- looking back, I have to appreciate it. That's the kind of thinking he always, or answers he always had, humorous side and not taking himself too seriously.

BF: So even though he was strong, and head of the household and...

TM: Yeah.

BF: He wasn't always so serious.

TM: Well some elderly ladies, you know they're pretty elderly now, they say, "Well, yeah, your dad had a heart of gold." Of course all of us kind of mellow as we get older I suppose. But they'll say, "Yeah, we used to go shopping forty, fifty years ago and he always treated us well." Makes you appreciate it. Of course they probably won't say it if it was the other way. I mean even if they had other feelings, they probably wouldn't tell you.

BF: Some would.

TM: Yeah, probably.

<End Segment 9> - Copyright © 1999 Densho. All Rights Reserved.