Densho Digital Archive - Sat Kuwamoto Interview (denshovh-ksat-01-0024)

<Begin Segment 24>

JS: That was, what was that like, do you remember what it was like when you came home?

SK: No. I just... I mean, my brother was in the same boat, too. I mean, he was still a student over there at college.

JS: Which college was your brother --

SK: I mean, he was with me at Missouri School of Mines. That was not his liking, but anyway, he did graduate from there.

TI: Earlier you said you were able to use some of your schooling in the business. How did your education help you run the store?

SK: Well, no. What happened was that after graduation, my brother had, he always liked selling, natural-born salesman. He liked working, oh, we started thinking about import and exporting and things like that. And he was, lived in San Francisco for a while. Oh, he went back to the University of California and got a degree over there, too, in business. And he really liked selling. At one time, he was selling for a Chinese company as a salesman. And let's see, what else?

TI: So here you have your background and your brother's background, so what did the two of you do with that?

SK: Well, later on, we bought... in Fresno, we have, for keeping cool, we have these evaporated coolers. And those people that I was buying those pads from, and my brother used to go back and forth. He found out that that fellow was ready to retire, so that's how we bought the place. And he took over, we had two things. I ran the store, and he ran the manufacturing of aspen pads, and that's how we got started. That's how we got started in the... that's how I ended up in the Midwest. We decided that it was best to have manufacturing at the source where all the trees, aspen trees were. So we went to Gallup, New Mexico, and we opened a manufacturing plant over there. That's why I know of Hershey Miyamoto, 'cause he was there in that town. Slightly, 'cause I don't think he'll remember who I was.

TI: And Hershey Miyamoto was a war hero, he was a Medal of Honor...

SK: He was then, he was already a hero then. But he won't recognize me, anyway.

TI: So you were, so you used your engineering background to help start this manufacturing, or run this manufacturing company?

SK: Well, that's how I got into more work out in the Midwest. We had an operation where we manufactured, and I had a... oh, distribution center in Amarillo, Texas. And then I had another operation in Buckeye, Arizona, which is just south of Phoenix. Anyway, that's how I got to the... and that was a lot of traveling in those days.

JS: So both you and your brother were overseeing the manufacturing and distribution?

SK: Right. I mean, at first, you know, we're trying to operate the place, and I might even have had, still own it if... it kept me away from home a lot of the time. And my, during the latter years, I did most of the traveling because my brother came down with Parkinson's disease, and he had to stay at home and couldn't travel as much. But we had somebody take over the manufacturing. And actually, the best... I didn't know it then, but I know now that the best man to run, to be a CEO of a company is someone that most everybody would call names, or call him a bastard or something. [Laughs]

TI: Someone that's really hard-nosed, someone tough.

SK: Right.

TI: I see.

SK: And we had a man like that. I didn't know it then, but I know now that I may still have had it if I kept it.

TI: And finally, what happened to the manufacturing company? Did you sell it eventually?

SK: I finally sold it. It'd be years later, I mean, I sold it. But I spent a lot of time away, like almost twenty hours sometimes, going to these different places.