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FK: Okay, Tats, what can you tell me about your mother and father? Like, where was your father from, what part of Japan?

TM: Oh, he's from Hiroshima, that's all I know. I guess he's a farmer's, used to be a farmer's son, I guess, back home.

FK: Did he ever talk about why he decided to come to America?

TM: No. He came to Hawaii first, you know, and he didn't like it there. Got into the... I don't know how the... he must have been working on some contract, I guess, or something. But anyhow, he got out of it, I guess, some way, and he came to America.

FK: Do you know what year that was?

TM: No. Must have been in the early 1900s, I guess.

FK: And he came over, then, when he was single, then, huh?

TM: Yes.

FK: Okay. And did he come directly to the Northwest, then, when he came?

TM: Yeah, as far as I know he came directly around here, I guess.

FK: Do you about what time, what period of time it was when he moved to Bainbridge Island?

TM: Oh, about, about 1910 area, I guess.

FK: So how did he, how did he get married?

TM: How did he get married?

FK: Yeah, how did he meet his wife, or how did they get married?

TM: Oh, that's a long story there. My mother was supposed to, she's a "picture bride" or something for another man and they didn't, they didn't like the looks of each other or something, there never was a marriage there. He just, he just walked out, and she walked out, I guess. And I don't know how my father got in there, but he said, "Well, I'll take over this mess here." And so he, so she, they got married, I guess.

FK: So did he, did he do that all on his own or was there somebody that went in-between to arrange that?

TM: There probably was, but I don't know anything about it. I didn't even know she did that, all this until she died, you know. She kept that pretty well... maybe everybody else knew but I didn't even know, the family didn't know anything about it. Only time it, all this came out first is when the FBI raided the house and didn't think that, stuff didn't add up, you know. Name was, her name was, married name was Yuki or something, and that's, that's what the passport and all that stuff said. Here she's a Moritani... well, I don't know, the bookkeeping, bookkeeping didn't keep up with her very much.

<End Segment 1> - Copyright © 2006 Densho. All Rights Reserved.