<Begin Segment 13>

MH: You had six brothers and sisters. The oldest was Akiye. Tell me a little bit about Akiye?

EF: Akiye.

MH: Akiye, I'm sorry.

EF: Akiye was just, Akiye was the oldest sister. She did well. She held her position well. She was a hard worker.

MH: She get married?

EF: Huh?

MH: Did she get married?

EF: Oh, yes. She got married early in life. I think she was married when she was nineteen.

MH: And where did she live?

EF: She lived in Shelton, Washington. They lived in a houseboat out on the Oyster Bay at Shelton. She lived there until evacuation because they evacuated before the order. They voluntarily left the area before the order came into effect, and they decided to go to Brighton, Colorado. Although they didn't know a soul out there that's where they decided to go. Her and her brother-in-law and his family also went. I was well aware of that because I had to deliver something to her before, because the next day, they were leaving, going to leave, and I said they're voluntarily evacuating. I mean, they're on their own in other words.

MH: So you were eighteen and you stopped to see her on your way to Tacoma or --

EF: No. I made a special trip there because they were going to leave the next day. I had something that they had to have. But that must have been quite a trek to Colorado from that area.

MH: You said that she came back every summer with her children. Why did she come back every summer?

EF: At that time, she had two boys and two girls, and they were all berry picking age. They could pick berries. They were old enough to pick berries. They would bring their family car. She'd bring them in the family car, so there was no big expense about that station when she drove. Later on, the boys were able to drive because they're old enough. But every year, she had those family ties. That's why she came back. And she was, that's what she was, an oneesan like we used to, you know, call her. She would do anything. She just felt that was an obligation she had to do, so she always came back every summer.

MH: How old was she when she passed away?

EF: She was eighty-two years old.

MH: And she had a business of her own you said?

EF: Well, she was self-employed, housekeeping, you know, housekeeping, self-employed. And she worked two days before she passed away, so she was an astonishing woman actually. You know, everybody asked me, worked two days before she died? They can't believe that. But if they knew her, they knew she would do that.

MH: And you had another sister named Kimiko. What does she do?

EF: Kimi was just a housewife married to a dentist.

MH: And where did she live?

EF: She lived in Newberg, Oregon. She still lives there, and she's a widow because her husband has passed on. She had three boys, and they all kind of lived in the area down there like Corvallis, Albany, and Lake Oswego, so it is very close by.

MH: Kaz was the oldest son?

EF: Right.

MH: What does he do now?

EF: He's retired.

MH: Jack was next.

EF: Yeah. Jack's been gone for, he's been gone for ten years.

MH: And did he farm also with your dad?

EF: Yeah, right, he farmed also.

MH: And Jim?

EF: Yeah. He's still farming.

MH: He's farming. Tom?

EF: Tom works for the Department of Agriculture Soil Conservation Service. That's where he retired from.

MH: For the State of Oregon?

EF: Federal.

MH: Federal?

EF: Yeah.

MH: He must have gone to school somewhere?

EF: Oregon State.

MH: And then Tad, the youngest?

EF: I don't like to call Tad a vagabond, but he stayed on the farm most of the time but got caught in the Vietnam War. And from there, he did merchant marine service, then retired in California because he got, he got an early retirement because of physical problems.

MH: And is he still living?

EF: Just passed away.

<End Segment 13> - Copyright © 2003 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.