Densho Digital Archive - Aya Fujii - Taka Mizote Interview (denshovh-faya

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TP: Tell us a little bit about your father. He was the first one to come to America. What was his name?

TM: Yasukichi, in fact we have the whole history written up on our parents.

AF: He was called Billy by his, you know, neighbors because Yasukichi was too hard to pronounce but he was a very laid back man. My mother was more of the, --

TM: We were a matriarchal family.

RP: Where in Japan did you father come from?

AF: They were born in...

TM: Shiga-ken.

AF: Shiga-ken. I don't know whether anything about the little provinces and the little hamlets that they have.

RP: I'm learning.

AF: You have heard, and they probably knew each other's families, and Mom came over as a picture bride. And dad came over earlier and he never went back to Japan once he came over. It's amazing, but he never went back and my mother's gone back several times but like she was the middle of three sisters and she came over when she was eighteen on a boat.

RP: Do much about your father's early life in Japan?

TM: Well, I think he came, you know, in his teens, late teens, and I don't know how the story is, they came as a stowaway, you know. And he went to Montana and then ventured into Seattle area and... what did he do in Seattle?

AF: I don't know but I heard that he lived in a boxcar.

RP: Did he work on the railroad?

TM: He could have, he could have, but he must have had... see, my dad's younger brother in Japan married my mother's older sister so they knew, you know, even they say "picture bride," there must have been because that's how it happened and so my first cousins they came... live in Vancouver, I mean, the other uncles and aunts. So it was very interesting because even though they're "picture brides" they had, knew they came from good blood I guess. what I'm saying?

RP: Did you ever ask your father why he came to America or did he ever share that with you?

AF: We probably never asked but, I mean, they probably all came as an adventure to, I don't know, when he was so young that he came over to make a fortune or anything like that, but you know, yes.

RP: Do how much schooling he had in Japan before he came over?

TM: How much what?

AF: Schooling.

RP: How much schooling?

TM: I don't know, but remarkably he learned... he wrote a diary every day, every day of his life. And he got his... he was one of the oldest to get citizenship when they were allowed to get citizenship. Do you remember how old he was?

AF: It was in 1950-something.

TM: But he was certainly a scholar in that way that he wanted to... and he read well, you know, Japanese of course but he was always up on, you know, politics and things like that.

AF: All of his diaries were sent down to L.A. weren't they? Into the museum.

TM: Into the museum, Japanese museum.

AF: I mean stacks of, you know, of diaries. And so one day I looked up the day I was... I mean on March 31, 1927, and it says that he took a sack of potatoes into town and a bale of hay. Incidentally I was born, I was the last entry of that page. [Laughs]

TM: But yes, he just, you know, it's amazing that he wrote a diary every day. And the year he passed on it was sporadic.

RP: It was all in Japanese.

TM: All in Japanese.

AF: Well, then he wrote down the temperature of the day and things like that you know.

TM: It's amazing, yes.

RP: Aya, you mentioned that your dad was kind of laid back. Anything else that either one of you can share, the most vivid memory of your dad?

TM: There were about... I don't know how many Japanese families in Washington county and that encompassed like Beaverton and Hillsboro and several other communities around there. And there was a community of more Japanese in Banks, Oregon, it's a little small town, and because they had more Japanese there, there must have been about a dozen Japanese families there. And that was probably, in those days it took us about an hour to get there but now you'd get there in about twenty minutes. But the Japanese wanted to have their own organization, association, so that they would, you know, have social and business contacts with other Japanese in the area. And my dad was, you know, he was the leader or the community leader for a long time.

RP: So he was organizing folks and --

TM: Well, yes.

RP: And how about your mother, what was her name?

AF: Ito.

TM: Ito.

AF: Ito, it's I-T-O.

RP: And she also came from Shiga?

TM: Yes, she came from Shiga also.

RP: And what can you share with us about your mother when you think about her physically and also personality wise.

AF: Well, she's very strong willed.

TM: Dominant.

AF: But she had to be, you know, with five of us.

TM: Well, I think we owe a lot to her for the success of the farm and things because she made sure that we got out there to work hard and...

AF: We had to work hard before we went to some social and worked hard because we went to the social.

RP: You had to earn the social. What other values or lessons did you get from your parents that stuck with you your whole life?

TM: Well, education was foremost. And then education and not to... and to be a good citizen, not to --

AF: Bring shame to the family and all that sort of thing, yes.

RP: And your parents were married in Seattle, Washington?

AF: Yes, they were married in Seattle weren't they?

TM: Yes.