Densho Digital Repository - Tomio Moriguchi Interview (Densho ID: ddr-sjacl-2-23-1)

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KE: Yeah, hi, okay.

TM: You're a student?

KE: Yeah, I'm a student, I am going into my second year at U-Dub. I am direct to the engineering department, so my plan is...

TM: What are you studying?

KE: I'm studying Human Center for Design Engineering. I'm really excited about that. And I'm planning on minoring in Informatics, so I'm really excited about that. Yeah, okay. So why don't you start by telling us a little bit like about yourself, your upbringing, maybe some activities, where you went to school?

TM: Well, first of all, you're aware that it didn't start out as JACL a hundred years ago, it was considered the, what was it? The Progressive Citizens League or something like that. The reason I know that is when we have our 50th anniversary, I think people from Fresno called us to say, "No, you guys are not the original JACLers." But anyway, that was, I wouldn't say a surprise, but they were very upset that we said that we were the 50th JACL. But for me, I was born in Tacoma, you know, actually, a couple blocks away from your great grandfather. They had a hotel, as you know, my father had a grocery store. And so Mako was my age, Joe was my brother's age, so we kind of interacted quite a bit. I'm assuming my father knew your... I mean, not assume, I know that they had a very good relation with your great grandfather, great grandmother. So I was born in Tacoma. And so we went to camp when I was five or six, 1942. I was six years old. And when we came back to Seattle, went to Bailey Gatzert, Washington, Garfield and University of Washington. The other day, Bill, I took the consul general up to the Columbia Tower Club for lunch, and I told them that I could see every, the four schools I went to from the Columbia Tower. They weren't that impressed, but anyway, always like to think of it, but I haven't gone too far from where I kind of started in Seattle.

KE: Yeah, that's awesome. That's really interesting; that's so cool.

TM: So as my father, he learned, he was born in the city of Yawatahama, which Ehime-ken. Then he after ninth grade, in Japan, it's mandatory to go to ninth grade. After that, it's an option. And so after the ninth grade, he went to the city of Wajima, which was then a very vibrant city. Just to give you an example, when I first went there in 1962, they had about 100,000 population. Probably it's down to like 40,000 now. So the point is, but at one time, it was a very vibrant city, and the fishing industry had industry in they also made small fishing boats. So they it was a very prosperous city. Anyway, my dad went there to learn how to cook, make satsumage and kamaboko. So when he came to Seattle... he came to Tacoma, excuse me, so he opened the business. Actually, before he even got married, 1928, He was making these kamaboko at nighttime and in the daytime, he would deliver it to various camps and Bill just mention a camp in Fall City, but you know, they had camps around Tacoma, oyster camps, sawmills and fishing camps and things like that. And so he would deliver rice and soy sauce, miso plus kamaboko. And that was what distinguished him from the other peddlers, they called them, because he made these product for others. So anyway, so the reason I mentioned that is, since I was a middle age, I mean, I had older brother, older sisters, so third. So my mother couldn't take care of three of us and didn't want to take care of me, I guess, so he would. My dad would take me and I would sleep on the rice in the back of the truck or something. So I got to travel a lot with him. And so it was, I don't remember in detail, but it was always a nice experience. Because all the people that we met, the few ladies we met, they always gave us something to eat or drink and things like that. So that was good. So I don't know what else you want to learn.