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BK: So your folks were here in America, had the two children, returned to Japan and then came back. Do you know anything about when they had come the very first time?

JT: No, I don't know anything about that. I do know where they worked, I know they worked in Shelton, or they called it Oyster Bay. And they were shucking oysters at the very beginning. That's what the earliest part of what I remember her telling me, that they were in Oysterville, shucking oysters. And somehow or other, I don't know what their decision was to come to Seattle, but they did come to Seattle and my sister tells me they had a grocery store on Minor Avenue. And then during the early 1900s, later, of course, then 1922, the store did not do well, so they decided to go to Alaska. And what made them go to Alaska I have no idea. In the meantime, he had the grocery store and he was taking photography from a local man, Mr. Amano, who was a photographer, I guess, early, as early as that. And so he learned photography from them and when he went to Alaska, they went to Petersburg which is on a little island in the south, Southeast Alaska.

BK: Do you know how they selected Petersburg?

JT: Well, no, I really don't. I can't imagine unless there may have been someone who was recruiting from canneries in Petersburg, because Petersburg is mainly a Scandinavian village and they have fish canneries as well as shrimp canneries, and so they went and worked actually in the canneries at that time. So they probably either picked shrimp or worked in the fish canneries. And I don't know which of them they did but they worked in both. My mother worked in the shrimp cannery, I know that. And in the early days everything was done by picking the shrimps by hand, and so, which was a very tedious task, and so that's what they did. And then, and then my folks must have started this hand laundry after that and then my dad, since he knew photography, became the local photographer and he developed films for people and took photographs, portraits, and did the coloring. He knew quite a bit about it so he was able to put that to use and that's what supported the family, too.

[Ed. Note: After this Densho interview was conducted, Ms. Takahashi provided a written addendum to this section of the interview, describing her parents' early life in America.]

[Begin Addendum:]

(The year was about 1916 when Mama and Papa came to the USA to make a better life for themselves. They left the oldest sister, Tsuyo, in Japan with her grandmother on my mother's side. She later joined the folks coming to Seattle by herself in 1922 when she was 16 years old.

Mama and Papa worked on an oyster farm in a town they called Oyster Bay, and also in Shelton, shucking oysters. I don't know how long they remained there. During this period two more daughters were born to them, Ayako and Fumiko. Since they worked all day, the girls were boarded with a Caucasian lady during the week and Mama would go after them on Friday after work. I think Ayako and Fumiko were about two and four years of age then. They were so happy when Mama came after them, but cried on Sunday evening when they had to go back to their care giver. My parents felt so bad about this that they decided to take them back to their home in Japan until such time as they were in a better situation to bring them back again. I know Mom regretted this very much and in her later years often spoke to me of this.

Eventually they came to Seattle and opened a grocery store somewhere on Minor Avenue. This was during the early depression years. The store didn't do too well and they had to close down. In October, 1921 my brother, Kenny, was born and in 1922 my sister, Tsuyo, came from Japan to rejoin the family. My father had learned photography while in Seattle. So with his new vocation and addition to the family, he moved them all to Alaska to a small town called Petersburg.

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<End Segment 2> - Copyright © 1997 Densho. All Rights Reserved.