Densho Digital Archive
Densho Visual History Collection
Title: Fumiko M. Noji Interview
Narrator: Fumiko M. Noji
Interviewer: Dee Goto
Location: Bellevue, Washington
Date: April 22, 1998
Densho ID: denshovh-nfumiko-01-0002

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DG: And so let's talk about your parents and when they came.

FN: Well my, my father came over to the, he was brought here by a general contractor. Labor contractor with a lot, quite a few young folks from Japan. And not being able to come directly to the U.S., he went to Canada.

DG: And so what part of Japan?

FN: He, he came from Shigake. Hikone is the, the village.

DG: And he was how old when he came?

FN: He was nineteen.

DG: And then he, so he worked in Canada for a while?

FN: Well no, they, some of them, they were there just shortly.

DG: Okay.

FN: And, and they came across, through Sumas, where Sumas, Washington is.

DG: Oh, right.

FN: They came through there and they settled in a village called Clipper which was a lumber, had a lumber mill. And that's where they worked was in the lumber mill. But...

DG: Oh, so they recruited specially for like lumber workers and things?

FN: Yeah, they must have because that's the way he came. I couldn't understand how he was able to get to the U.S. so easily, but they were able to come.

DG: And you said this was around 1909 or...

FN: No, 19...

DG: I mean '01. I'm sorry.

FN: 1901.

DG: 1901, right.

FN: And he worked there at the lumber mill about 'til 1905. Then he went back to Japan and got married and, but he came back to Clipper to work again. And my mother, I don't know whether she landed in Seattle, or whether she came directly to Bellingham but, but Mother came to Bellingham because they had a Japanese boarding house there. And several Japanese were living, were living there. And among the people that were living there was Yamaguchi-san of North Coast, he was there. And he was a student. And he was the only one that was studying English and so forth. [Laughs] And so he, he was friends with mother for many, many years.

DG: And so your mother brought your sister who...

FN: Mother brought yeah, my sister was only about ten year, ten months old. And mother said it took so long to come across by boat that she was seasick all, all the while over here.

DG: And it was a freighter, it wasn't.

FN: It, it was by freighter. With those, how those freighters are. [Laughs] And I think it was in, in the fall. So, I don't know whether it was too stormy or not, but she thought it was quite stormy, of course they're never been, being on a boat or anything.

DG: So then your father. You lived in Bellingham and your father continued to work at the lumber mill.

FN: Well, he worked at Clipper a little while. And then see, my brother Yoshi and I was born in Bellingham and then after settling in Bellingham for a little while, then they moved to Mt. Vernon where Dad was hired as, in a farm. But I, I really don't know how he could go from lumber to being a farmer, but he did. That was where he learned how to... he raised potatoes and thing like that. And actually from there, he moved several times right in that area, in Skagit County. And finally...

DG: Well in those days, it seems like everybody was always moving around a lot.

FN: Yes. I, I was surprised, when I went back on the history, I thought, "Gee, Dad and Mom sure moved around a lot."

<End Segment 2> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.