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LT: So, Sab, where were you born and when --

SA: Hood River, Oak Grove, you know. It's about ten miles from here on the west side.

LT: Uh-huh. And what should we know about Oak Grove?

SA: Well, we used to have grade school there, one through eight, and we had to walk two miles each way to go to school. And it was rough on some winters, you have about a foot of snow, and you didn't have a bus like you do today, and they didn't plow the road those days way out in the country. My folks, my dad used to hook up the team, and they had kind of a v-shaped sled to push the snow aside, you know. He used to drag that down to the school and back.

LT: That's great, that's part of the...

SA: It was pretty rough days, those days.

LT: The challenge of living in a rural area.

SA: Yeah.

LT: Makes you tough. So you were born in Oak Grove. When were you born?

SA: 4/7/24, April 7, 1924.

LT: Okay. And your full name?

SA: Saburo, which means the third son. Of course, I go by Sab.

LT: Okay. I didn't know that. Thank you. And let's talk about your father and your mother. What was your father's name and where was he born?

SA: He was born in Okayama, Japan. What was the other question?

LT: What was his full name?

SA: Tomeseichi. He used to go by TS, Tom S.

LT: Okay. And I believe he was born in 1886?

SA: Well, that's probably right, I'm not too sure.

LT: Okay. So what do you know about your father's early life in Japan?

SA: I really don't know much. He never talked much about it. But I was thinking he left Japan in 1905, I think, and that was about the time, was Russia and Japan war was going on, wasn't it? I wonder if it had anything to do with the draft. A lot of immigrants from Japan came over. He never talked about it, but I was just thinking about it the other day. It could be something like that, you know.

LT: Okay, okay. Yes, certainly there was the Russo-Japanese War, and Japanese young men were recruited to the military. What kind of, what did his family do for a living in Okayama?

SA: They had a farm, raised about forty acres, I guess, apples, pears, peaches, cherries. And the cash crop was asparagus. He had about ten acres of asparagus.

LT: Was that in Japan?

SA: Huh?

LT: Was that in Japan? Excuse me, so what kind of work did --

SA: This is U.S., Oak Grove.

LT: Oh, okay. Okay, so going back to Japan, did your, what kind of work did your father's family do?

SA: I don't know. I really don't know.

LT: Okay. Were they farmers by any chance?

SA: I think they had a small farm. Of course, in Japan, they were all small farms.

LT: Okay. Well, so your father came to the United States in 1904 from Okayama. Why do you think he came?

SA: Hmm?

LT: Why do you think he came? Do you think it had to do with war?

SA: I wonder... we never, never mentioned anything like that, but I think there were a lot of immigrants around 1905, '04. But that was about the time of the Russian-Japan War, I think.

LT: Did he have family members who were in the United States at that time when he came to --

SA: Well, yeah, cousins. In Portland they had the curio store, that's where he came to work. The name was not Akiyama, it was Kohara.

LT: Okay.

SA: I think it was like Kohara Trading Company or something like that.

LT: Okay. So when your father came to Portland, he worked for the Kohara curio shop in Portland. What kind of job did he have, do you know?

SA: I don't know.

LT: Okay. Probably stocking the shelves and things like that.

<End Segment 1> - Copyright © 2013 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.