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TR: This is an interview with Alice Nishitani, a Nisei woman, eighty-six years old, in Nyssa, Oregon, and it's December 6, 2004. The interviewer is Tim Rooney from the Oregon Nikkei Legacy Center's Oral History Project 2004. So thank you for having us here today and thank you for making it possible for me to interview you here today. Thank you for agreeing to this.

AN: Yes. It was only through Eleanor Roosevelt. She told me never, always do something you can't do.

TR: That's right. So always strive for something more difficult, right?

AN: Yes.

TR: Okay. So we want to thank Eleanor Roosevelt, too, for making this interview possible.

AN: Right.

TR: So we'll make it easy to start with. Tell me where and when you were born?

AN: In Emmett, Idaho, 1918, July the 2nd.

TR: And where is Emmett, Idaho?

AN: Emmett, oh, it's just over the hill.

TR: Oh, from here, just over the hill from Nyssa?

AN: Yes.

TR: Okay. And what do you remember about your father?

AN: What do I remember about him?

TR: Uh-huh. What kind of a man was your father?

AN: Oh, he was an amazing person, just, I can always remember his goodness to my mother, too. I can never remember that he ever spoke an unkind or disrespectful word to my mother which was an amazing thing. It was, actually, I think he was, I think he was a hot tempered man. But through the, knowing Christ and loving the Lord, he was able to change his personality completely, very understanding and very good.

TR: Did that change come about early or did he convert to Christianity while he was here or what were the circumstances and all?

AN: Well, I don't know, but I think it was while he was in Japan. He must have been going to school there because after he came over here, he came to Seattle and worked for a year in a bakery and worked in a home. And then, and then, he met his friend, Henry Fuji, and they went to Billings, Montana, and worked in the beets, in the sugar beets, working. And oh, I think they only got about a $1.70 for a day's work. So then you see, they didn't know anyone. They weren't acquainted with anyone, and so to have somebody speak to them and tell them about the Lord was highly unlikely. So I think he must have learned about the Lord in Japan, maybe a Christian missionary or something like that.

TR: Do you know what part of Japan he came from?

AN: Yes, Tottori-ken.

TR: And did he ever talk about what life was like for him in Japan before he came to the United States?

AN: Well, there isn't, there's not very much, but his father was a farmer. He had two sisters, and he did have, he had a good, good home and, because I know when he speaks about them, it's always in positive terms.

TR: Did he ever say why he came to the United States?

AN: No. He never did. But what I gather through his diary, I think, I know he's mentioned how his friends were all working for the government or teachers or something like that on that order. He says, "That it sounds too dull to me. It's not for me." So then, he found himself working on the railroad in Missoula, Montana.

TR: Did he come specifically to work on the railroad or did --

AN: Oh, no. No, no, uh-uh. He would say this is just a job, just something so I can get ahead.

TR: Did he ever mention how he came up with that job, how he started working on the railroad?

AN: Well, Henry Fuji and he went from Seattle to Billings, Montana, and worked on the beets, thinning beets and so on like that. And so from there, that was just another step to go to the railroad, and maybe they thought they could make a little more money there. It was really, really hard work.

TR: And how much did he make on the railroad?

AN: Was a $1.40 a day. And then when he received thirty-five cents for an hour and a half work, he said, "Well, it taught me patience and perseverance." [Laughs]

<End Segment 1> - Copyright © 2004 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.