Densho Digital Archive - Toru Sakahara - Kiyo Sakahara Interview II (denshovh-storu

<Begin Segment 22>

TS: Well, as far as my professional or business practice is concerned as I mentioned I started the office in life and casualty insurance and when I got, I passed my bar examination, I opened an office for practice of law so I was doing both. Then in the meantime my brother Ted came into Seattle and was at loose ends as to what to do and I suggested that he start (in the) insurance business and he took care of the insurance business and split the profits from insurance, which kept me going on the practice of law. And ultimately my brother was able to establish a large following in the insurance business and we decided to separate our business. In other words he took over all insurance business and I kept my office as a law office only. And later on in about 1962, I... shortly before that I had Wing Luke, a Chinese ancestry attorney and member of the City Council do some extra legal work for my office and finally he took a job with the state Attorney General's office and I asked him well, what am I going to do for somebody to help me, and he says I'll find somebody for you, don't worry. And he introduced me to Donna McArthur, who became assistant and later partner. And for about thirty years thereafter, we were associated as partners in the name of Sakahara and McArthur. So for over thirty years I was associated at work with just women and I really don't know why I managed to stay in partnership. It was just one attorney, much less with a woman, but I guess she was pretty patient and forbearing and I had some degree of it, so we managed to stay friends and associates for all the time until I retired in 1991.

DG: So were most of your clients Japanese?

TS: Oh, I would say that 80% were Japanese.

DG: And how many Japanese lawyers were there in town when you first started?

TS: Well, there was just Clarence Arai, who was a prewar Japanese Seattle attorney and the other prewar Japanese attorneys, Kenji Ito stayed in Los Angeles, and Tom Masuda stayed in Chicago, Illinois. So I was the only young buck attorney in Seattle, which was a fortunate circumstance.