Densho Digital Archive
Densho Visual History Collection
Title: Richard Murakami Interview
Narrator: Richard Murakami
Interviewer: Dee Goto
Location: South Bend, Washington
Date: May 12, 1998
Densho ID: denshovh-mrichard-01-0013

<Begin Segment 13>

DG: Now let's characterize your father a little bit. He was about five feet tall, I think.

RM: Yeah, about, I would say...

DG: A small man.

RM: Yeah, 5'1" or something like that.

DG: And I hear he was very good at organizing and...

RM: Yeah, he was.

DG: ...getting along with the local people.

RM: Yeah. He was real capable and getting along with people real good at that and people liked him, uh-huh.

DG: Now, I read somewhere that one of the advantages some of the immigrants had was because they learned this in Japan, that it was part of their culture to organize and get along in a small community.

RM: Yeah, they probably learned it in Japan, I would think. Yeah.

DG: Now did your mother participate in any of this?

RM: Yeah, well, she was the business head, I guess, and she was quite active.

DG: Did she work in the oysters and the cranberries right along with your father?

RM: Oh, yeah. She did a lot of work in the oysters, cranberries. She'd work all summer long.

DG: Did you have any extended family living with you at all like grandparents that came over or...

RM: No.

DG: ...or uncles or aunts or anybody that lived with you? Just your own family?

RM: Just our own family.

<End Segment 13> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.