<Begin Segment 5>

LD: After high school, when you became eighteen which was considered an adult in those days, what did you do?

HT: What did I do? You know, as we were growing up, the Issei custom was the chonan or the elder son would take over the family, take their assets or the debts, either way, but they would look after the parents, you see. This is where, in the environment that we're raised, you know. Then we have five boys, but then the eldest one would look after the parents. And of course, we were really poor, so, and then everybody used to tell us, the rest of us, go day to day, you go out on your own, and we were all reared on that, you know. So when I got, we graduated high school, the first summer, I left home and went to work for my cousin in South Tacoma. He had a fruit stand, see. So it's not a total stranger for parents to let me go either, and I looked forward going there. That's when I left, you know. And there again like the society of the [inaudible], rumors had it that Hiro, he couldn't get along with his folks. So when he graduated high school, he took off, but that wasn't the case, you know. So I didn't feel whatever they say, you don't feel bad. But in my own heart, I know what I'm doing. I know what the parents are doing, see. So then I worked there for a whole year and then that's when they sold the fruit stand. So I came back, and I stayed on the farm for another year, and then my same cousin Tom and Fred, the two brothers came back... no, Tom is the one that came back, and he started a store, grocery store, so I went to work for him again. So I went to work for him for three years. And then I said, "Well, Tom, I want to go on my own, so I'm going to quit," you know. He says, "Well, you got a store located?" I said, "No, not really." But I didn't want to be working and looking for stores. I'll let you know that I was going to retire from your store. He says, "Oh, why don't you just keep working for me, then I'll help you locate, look for a store?" So I says, "Well, that's okay. That's fair enough." So I stayed there, and we talked to different salesmen and different people, and it was a whole year before I found a place and decided to go, and this was 32nd and Southeast Hawthorne. And so I went there and then opened up that store. It was about a year and a half when the war broke out. That's when the war broke out again. So again, everybody know the history of the war.

LD: Well, I'd like you to mention the name of the store that you leased. But then, yes, the war broke out, and how did you deal with that? Because you were now leasing a store, what did you, how did you handle the situation?

HT: Well, like I said, the war broke out. So we're there and right away, the evacuation came so I think we had to, well, we all had to, we were all forced to leave. And at that time, Portland and then I think Gresham was two different areas, you know. So I lived in Portland, so we had to get rid of our store because you just had to leave, you know. And at that time, there was about forty of our Japanese grocery store. It was quite a bit in those days, forty. In those days, we had a store, and then we had delivery service, free delivery service. The people would call and deliver, so we all had a van, you know. But then finally, we had to give it up, you know. So one by one, these people would come around and offer to buy your place, and just not even buy, they just want to steal it from you, you know. And so but then what are you going to do? You got to leave within a week or two weeks. So most of them, in fact, they all gave up sold it, whatever the best they could do. And then like I said they had the van, they just threw the van in and it was a sad situation. I was stubborn. It just made me so mad that I didn't even want to sell the place, you know. I'll never forget, Shiz Onishi was working for me at the time and she said, "You darn people come in here and try to, get out of here." She was just in tears, you know. I never gave up. So I finally, I had to close the store, and then I asked the owner if I could lease the place for the duration and he agreed to lease it for me. And then at that time, I was paying fifty dollars a month rent, and he agreed to give it to me for twenty-five dollars, so I said fine. Of course, we didn't know how long it was going to last, but we just took our chances, you know. So I agreed to that, and then I sold whatever thing I could sell. And then the case that wasn't open, I returned it to the wholesalers and got credit there, you see. And this is, so I was, I think I was the only one that never did give up or give it away you might say, you know. So then I moved to my home place out of Troutdale. That was, I think it was probably a week or two later they had to come into assembly center. So I went out there first, and then we were the last ones into the assembly center.

<End Segment 5> - Copyright © 2003 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.