<Begin Segment 15>

TM: Well, can you describe the circumstances of your parents and your family returning back home to Portland in '47? Did your father, was it something your father decided to do?

FP: Yes, yes, right. And he either came to get us in his rumbly gray Ford, which he acquired -- jobs were hard to find if you were Asian -- which he acquired by catching the plentiful salmon in the Willamette or the Columbia River, and big, big... we have pictures of him with big giant Chinook salmon that you don't get nowadays. And they were like, and they'd be holding these salmon, and then two or three people would be here, they'd be holding these salmons up. And so he sold some salmon and got the car and came back.

TM: That's amazing, wow. So do you remember the journey, your parents saying, "Guess what, we're going to move to Portland"? Did you know that was home for your family, and did you know where you were moving in this place?

FP: Yes, yes.

TM: Did they talk about Portland with you at that time?

FP: Right. Or over the kitchen table you kind of, as a youngster you just kind of absorb. When Mom and Dad were talking, you would absorb.

TM: So it wasn't really a strange new place for you, even though you didn't have memories living there.

FP: Right, right.

TM: What was the journey like driving in that car? How did you get to Portland?

FP: Well, since he drove, since he drove the gray Ford all the way back, this old rumble bumble Ford that, you know, had the shape like this, and with big fat bumpers on it, gray, we probably came back (and forth from Kent, Washington) at first I thought that we had come back on the train. But apparently we came back in the car, because Dad drove, I know that Dad drove out there, and he had caught these salmon just so that he could have a car for his family. And, oh, he had to go on the black market to get it, because there were no cars on sale then, because everything was for the war effort. The metal and everything was devoted for the war effort.

TM: So when you arrived in Portland, do you remember that day? Do you have any memories of the early days that you were first in Portland, any impressions that you might have?

FP: Well, we immediately drove to Vanport city, which is on the outskirts of Vanport. And Dad had found a place in Vanport city for us. And it was a pleasant place to live, you know. I went to school there for a year with (teacher) Mrs (...) Veggie.

<End Segment 15> - Copyright © 2014 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.