<Begin Segment 2>

AL: Do you think it was his plan originally to return to Japan?

EO: Yes, it was. It was, yeah. He's always wanted to kind of return to the homeland. But he liked it here so he stayed here when he got off the ship and worked his way on up to Tacoma, Washington, and then went to work for a photo studio. And shortly after that he bought the studio. This would have been in the very late 1900s or the early 1920s. He bought the studio. It was on 1327 and a half, Broadway.

AL: Do you know, did he buy it from another Japanese person?

EO: No, it was, it was a Caucasian. Because I had looked at the papers at one time and the name was a Caucasian name.

AL: What was the name of the studio?

EO: He called it the Tacoma Studio.

AL: And do know if his business was primarily other Japanese Americans or was it Caucasian or mixed? Do you know anything about it?

EO: It was mixed. Yeah, there were some very interesting pictures of course there. And being a photographer and having a studio, they'd get people... he has some pictures of Japanese consulate members that came over; pictures of Caucasian women dressed as, kind of in clownish type of clothes or uniform you want to call it. Children, picture of me in a little derby hat, I was about five years old. But it was everything.

AL: So, in this time, did he ever get his paperwork straightened out to become a legal immigrant or did he remain an illegal immigrant?

EO: He remained an illegal. I don't know if he could have become a legal immigrant because they were unable to become naturalized to gain American citizenship.

AL: I know some World War I veterans eventually got their citizenship, but maybe he was not among that group of World War I veterans. So, he... do you know anything about his living situation in Tacoma? Did he live in a boarding house, or did he buy anything?

EO: The part that I remember was his owning the studio. It was of course up on the second floor, 1327 and a half, half was upstairs. And the studio was up there. As you come in the door I remember kind of a large waiting room. And directly on the far end of the waiting room was a door into his darkroom. And to the left was the studio where he had his studio cameras and everything of that sort set up, chairs and backdrop. And to the right of the waiting room, in the back, was the living quarters. I remember back there they had a, a large room on one side and the little area was the kitchen. I remember the gas stove with a little spigot to turn it on. Bedroom... now it was an open area with a bed, bedroom on one end. And kitchen table and all the other necessary things on the right hand side of this large open space.

AL: Okay.

EO: And that's where, that's where home was.

AL: All right.

<End Segment 2> - Copyright © 2008 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.