Densho Digital Archive - Mae Hada Interview (denshovh-hmae

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Masako H: This is an interview with Mae Hada, a Nisei woman, eighty years old, who will be eighty-one on July the 5th, in her home in Hillsboro, Oregon. The interviewer is Masako Hinatsu of the Oral History Project 2003 of the Oregon Nikkei Legacy Center. Where were you born, Mae?

Mae H: I was born in Portland.

Masako H: When?

Mae H: 1922, July 5, 1922.

Masako H: What's the name of your father?

Mae H: Masa Akisuga.

Masako H: And what did your father do?

Mae H: He had a clothing store. He sold used and new suits, men's clothing, and he with my mother would alter to fit. And then they took in cleaning also and that was their business.

Masako H: Where did your father have this store?

Mae H: When?

Masako H: Where. Where did he have it?

Mae H: It's between Second and Third on Madison in Portland.

Masako H: Okay. And what was your mother's name?

Mae H: My mother's name is Hide Inagaki.

Masako H: And what kind of a woman was she? What kind of mother was she?

Mae H: Oh, she was pretty quiet. And she loved the arts, music, but her forte was haiku. She became a leader in the haiku group in Portland.

Masako H: And did she also write haiku when she was in camp?

Mae H: Yes, oh, yes, so did my father when he was in his camp. They were separate.

Masako H: You had mentioned that your mother went to a Christian mission school.

Mae H: Yes. In Japan when they went through a great depression, plus in her family, they had, they went through two fires which destroyed their store. They had a retail store, and so her mother sent her to a Christian mission school run by the Canadian mission. It was in the next prefecture, and I can't recall the name of that area, but so she knew a little English.

Masako H: When did your father pass away?

Mae H: He passed away in 1955, and this was in Michigan. That's where he opened a new business after the war.

Masako H: You told me something about your father that he was like a "dandy." What do you mean by that?

Mae H: Well, because he dealt with clothing, and so he always got the newest things. He even went fishing with a suit on and a hat. We always laughed about that. He thought that was so proper. [Laughs]

Masako H: And you said your mother was a "princess." What did you mean by that?

Mae H: Well, she never had to work real hard, physically, so her hands were just beautiful always. And in those days, of course, when I was born, they didn't, she didn't work because she, they didn't have washing machines or refrigerators for that matter, so there's some amount of household work she did. But she didn't have to work hard, real hard, physically. And she used to tell me that she came from Japan on a ship that after she married my father and they came over, and she didn't have to be in steerage, and she thought that was pretty neat.

Masako H: You also mentioned your mother was a lousy housekeeper. What did you mean by that?

Mae H: I meant by that that she had no model to follow. You see, she was at the mission school pretty much her younger days; and of course, they didn't have domestic classes over there. And she, as far as a lot of immigrants I'm sure didn't know enough about hygiene or proper, well, she didn't know much cooking either, Japanese style cooking. She was all hit and miss. So that's the way we grew up, but we were healthily except for the usual childhood diseases.

Masako H: How many siblings did you have?

Mae H: I only had one sister, seven years younger.

Masako H: What was her name?

Mae H: Her name was Martha; Japanese was Masako.

Masako H: And did she ever get married?

Mae H: Yes. As a matter of fact, she met my husband's brother while we lived in Detroit, Michigan. Eventually, she married him, so sisters married brothers.

Masako H: And what did your brother-in-law do?

Mae H: He was a watchmaker plus a jeweler, and he opened a store in Detroit, and he sold jewelry. But mainly, he could fix watches and sell watches.