<Begin Segment 2>

I would like to ask you a lot of question by going way back, starting with your life in Japan as a child.

CE: I see, back in Japan...

MK: Can I ask your father's name first?

CE: Shin-e-mon.

MK: Shin-e-mon. And your mother?

CE: Kin. Ki-n.

MK: Kinu?

CE: Kin.

MK: Kin?

CE: Yes.

MK: Are they both from Fukushima prefecture?

CE: Yes, from Fukushima.

MK: What did your father do?

CE: My father graduated from a sericulture school and was a silkworm business instructor. [Laughs] He was traveling around. My mother was running her silkworm business at home. Our grandfather and grandmother, and great-grandfather and great-grandmother were with us when we were kids.

MK: You all lived together?

CE: We all lived together.

MK: In a big house?

CE: Yes.

MK: With silkworms?

CE: The family was running a silkworm business.

MK: In the house?

CE: Yes.

MK: Were they kept in the attic?

CE: No, no. We had a separate shed for our silkworms. Our mother was the boss. [Laughs]

MK: Did you make silk too?

CE: Silk making was done by female workers. We had about seven, and they span waterwheels. They tied silk thread together when it broke, they took a bunch of thread off the wheel when it's done, and our grandmother cleaned it. They sometimes got extra, and that was the source of grandma's spending money. She really loved it. [Laughs] She was bringing some snacks to the women to bribe them for a bigger share for her. [Laughs] That was pretty funny.

MK: Do you remember which county your official address is?

CE: Yes, It was Shinobu County.

MK: Shinobu County.

CE: It was called Amanome Village. It is Amanome, and there was South Nome and North Nome. We had branch schools there. Children in South and North Nome went to each branch school by the end of fourth grade. We went to the main school together for the fifth and sixth grades. Kids in South Nome had to walk for about 6.25 miles to go to school. We didn't have any public transportation like train back in those old days, right? Everybody had to walk. [Laughs] There is a mountain called Shinobu Mountain. When my father was a head of the village, the village merged with Fukushima because we got a deal to have a tunnel built through the mountain in return. The tunnel was there when I went back last time. South Nome didn't used to have a lot happening, but it was crowded with a bunch of wholesalers and other businesses. [Laughs]

<End Segment 2> - Copyright © 2003 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.