Densho Digital Archive - Yoshimi Hasui Watada Interview (denshovh-wyoshimi-01-0003)

<Begin Segment 3>

RP: Let's talk about your mom a little bit too. First of all, her name?

YW: Kinue. I've, I've seen it spelled K-I-N-U-E and also K-I-N-U-Y-E. It's Kinue, I mean it's pronounces Kin-yu-ay.

RP: And her maiden name?

YW: (Murakami).

RP: And, can you give us a little background on her roots in Japan? You mentioned she kinda came from the same area as your dad. And, and that she also came from a relatively well-to-do family?

YW: That's what it, that's what I gathered because she thought life was good for her in Japan. She couldn't imagine how much better it could be in the United States. How, she felt like maybe the streets were paved with gold. But she soon found out it was a little different. But she came over when she was like sixteen, fifteen, sixteen, and she went to finishing school. But I never did find out exactly what that was.

RP: And she came over by herself or was she accompanied --

YW: She came over with her brother and her mother.

RP: And do you know where they, they came in to? Seattle or --

YW: They came to Seattle. They came into Seattle and then she had friends or relatives or something in Swink.

RP: Swink? Where's that?

YW: That's between Rocky Ford and La Junta. It's a little town.

RP: And so she, she went there and stayed there?

YW: That's where she came but I think she went to the finishing school in Denver.

RP: Okay. So it sounds like she might have had some reasonable amount of education before she came to America?

YW: It sounds like it.

RP: Well-to-do. And so how did she, how did she adapt to the situation here? A lot of Issei women came here and really had to be pretty strong and perseverant in dealing with a, a strange country and new customs, a different language...

YW: Well, I know after she was married and she had her family she was out there working on the farm. And just working every day on the farm, working very hard. But I don't know what she did with her education that she got from her finishing school because I didn't ask. So, I never did know what she did with that. But I know she was, she knew how to sew and she knew how to knit and crochet and she did a lot of handiwork, and, whenever she had time.