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LT: When they came to Grays Harbor, do you have any idea what kind of jobs your father had, anything about the details of his work?

DS: No, I really don't know except that he worked in a lumber camp, as probably many of the immigrants did at that time when they first came. I think they even worked, I think they actually worked in the lumber camps on the railroad.

LT: Okay. And what about your mom?

DS: Well, my mom took care of us, and she was very, she was a good lady. She took care of all of us, and I think she was the boss in the family. Or she would tell us what to do more than my father.

LT: Can you give an example? Can you talk a little bit about how you noticed that?

DS: Well, because my mother, we would always go to her for advice, and she would take it upon herself to regulate our lives more than my father did, which I think was typical with the Japanese people.

LT: Can you give me an example of some advice that you or your siblings sought from your mother, and what you asked, and how she helped you to address that?

DS: I don't know. I mean, I can't give you any specific times, but my mother was very, more dominant than my father. And what I remember -- this is so funny that I remember this. I must have been about six years old and starting kindergarten or school, we all went to Bailey Gatzert. And I don't know why this sticks in my mind, but I've always remembered this. That I was going to school one day, and it was pouring rain, so my father took me to Sears Roebuck in Seattle and he bought me a red raincoat, and then put me in a taxi to go to school. [Laughs] I went to school in a taxi wearing that red raincoat. And I must have been a first grader, and I can't remember, I can't recall why I would remember that as vivid in my memory of him. But I don't know why I remember that so vividly, but I did get a new raincoat, red.

LT: And did your mother have any comments about that?

DS: No, as I remember, we just accepted that that's what he did. He knew some guy who worked at the, Japanese fellow who worked at Sears was a friend of his, so he went to him and had him wait on us. I don't know why I remember that so vividly.

LT: Was that a way that he expressed his affection for you? Did he express his emotions to you in other ways?

DS: Well, yeah, but you know, Japanese Isseis are different, as you well know. I don't know what it was, but he did buy me that raincoat, and that's what I remember.

LT: Okay. Can you talk more about your father and his role in the family and his relationship with your mother?

DS: Well, I don't remember too much. I mean, we had five children, I mean, there was two others born after me. And I really don't remember too much about their relationship. I think we just accepted the mother and the father. I don't really remember that much. And they're talking about their life in Japan, they never really talked about their life in Japan, I don't know why.

<End Segment 2> - Copyright © 2013 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.