<Begin Segment 27>

MS: They also had something operating for the Japanese community which they continued since the days of the Japanese immigrants. When they first came over, aliens could not borrow money from the bank. And so in order for them to have some money to start a business or do anything, they pooled all their resources into something called the tanomoshi and that was a lifesaver for many of the Isseis who came back to find that their property, their businesses, their homes were no longer there. That the promises of it being taken care of during the war had not taken place. And my father was one of them. The fourplex that he had been told by a neighbor was going to be there for him to resume ownership of was already sold to someone else, and all our things were gone. We don't know whatever happened to it, but we were not even allowed near the property 'cause it was no longer ours. I think that was, of course, it had to be a blow to my parents, but there's something... you know, my parents were so strong through everything else. I guess they accepted that as something else that they're gonna to have to overcome.

LH: When your family first returned, they fully expected to come back and return to the business that they had held prior to the war?

MS: Right. And because the fourplex was theirs, and they had some belongings that we had stored there. We had no idea of the length of time we would be gone or anything. No one knew, so we left a lot of nice things there. Everything was, of course, gone and the owners that were there professed no knowledge of anything. Only that this was his place.

LH: So in your father's case, did he turn to this tanomoshi?

MS: At the very beginning, he didn't have any money to put into it because you only earned $15 a month when you're in camp. So he had no money to put into it. So he had to immediately go find a job, and he worked as a cook at the Olympic Hotel for awhile. And my mother then pitched in as a cleaning lady, and she went to a lot of private homes. And the community here, the larger community, knew that all these influx of evacuees who needed, and they needed cheap labor, so of course there were jobs for them to do as long as it was cheap labor. It was something that they could go into right away, and they earned money, however little it was. They were very frugal, and they saved the money and they also must have had some savings. I don't know where they got it from but with that combined they were able to then borrow some against the tanomoshi that some people had started up as soon as the camp let out. We were one of the later ones, so maybe it was pretty much up and going again. There were some people who were fortunate. There were people who did come back to businesses that were still there. So everyone helped each other. That was the marvel of things; they knew when their community members were in hard times. Everyone pitched in. So the rich or the poor, they all tended to get together and help each other out. So this was one way he was able to borrow the money and... we first lived in a rental home for...

LH: How long was it before you were able to move from the dojo to a home?

MS: Oh, that was, that wasn't too long. I think we had help from friends to find a rental place because that was supposed to really be temporary, just to get us back into Seattle and then try to find a place so we're out of the camps. And they had, by that time, wanted to get the people out of camps as fast as they could because they wanted to close those down, too. So there must have been that because I don't remember staying in the dojo for maybe a few months, at best. It wasn't that long.

<End Segment 27> - Copyright © 1997 Densho. All Rights Reserved.