<Begin Segment 17>

TM: So can you describe the days leading up to the flood? Did your family know that something was going to happen? Did they make any preparations at all?

FP: Right, about two weeks before, to a week and a half before, prior to the flood, we knew that the levy was very likely to go. And so Dad, in preparation, had made arrangements with, Janet's name used to be Hachiya. And we made arrangements with the Hachiya family to stay in their hotel. We had a place to go if... Dad was a wonderful preparer, he would just prepare everything down to the tee. But that's getting off the subject. So we knew where we would go, and we had a destination, right. And then so we knew for about a week to a week and a half to two weeks that the dam may go, the levee may rupture.

TM: And, sorry, what hotel was that, where was it?

FP: It was where Marriott is right now in downtown Portland, and right in front of, facing the Waterfront Park, before Waterfront Park even existed. And let's see...

TM: And what was that day like on May 30, 1948? Were you there in Vanport?

FP: Yes, yes. And we were warned that if you hear a loud, loud buzzer, like an alert that goes over the city, that just goes continuously and does not stop, that that is the warning. And we woke up, and for one or two days we had heard that the levee was starting to leak, and so we, and that day, Memorial, 31st, it burst. I remember a man -- and this haunts me -- I remember a man running through the water where it was like a waterfall into this gulch area. And I remember him running across the top of the waterfalls, and I never knew what happened to him. I don't know if he got swept away, because there were some deaths involved. There was one Japanese elder that lost his life, and I know that that's a fact because the Vanport is mentioned on the back of one of the Rose City Cemeteries, of which I'm a cleanup chairperson.

TM: Is there, I know there's a Memorial Day service at Rose City that the community would be involved with. Was that happening as well?

FP: Probably. But by that time, things were so serious that Dad and Uncle Ro were close to home, because there were leaks developing.

TM: And did you get into the old gray Ford and drive out?

FP: Yes, yes. Oh, and I think by that time, Uncle Ro had an old gray Chevy, right.

TM: And so your family, it sounds like they didn't lose a lot in the flood, because your father had prepared.

FP: Right, and they had taken out pieces of furniture and valuables, and they had already made about a couple trips at least.

TM: Do you know what happened to your neighbors?

FP: No, no.

TM: Do you know what happened to other Japanese American families that you were friends with?

FP: Well, that one gentleman, I know that he perished. We heard that one or two died, and his grave in on the side of, it's a large gravestone. And you walk around the back, and it said he died in Vanport city.

TM: In (the Japanese) Rose City Cemetery.

FP: Right. (He was buried at Japanese) Rose City (located within the Rose City Cemetery at 57th NE Fremont).

TM: Rose City Cemetery. And so your family relocated to, once again, a new home. And in this case, you're in downtown Portland?

FP: Yes.

TM: And what's the name of the hotel again?

FP: The Columbia Hotel.

TM: The Columbia Hotel, okay.

FP: Right. And Mrs. Hachiya was, oh, she was a wonderful woman, and her name was Yamasaki by then, because she had married a second time.

<End Segment 17> - Copyright © 2014 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.