Other Faces, Other Lives

00:15 What do you think? Couldn’t be harder? which end up getting the children in? Yeah, we can do that. We usually stop and take breaks. She’s ready right now. All right, that’s a pretty dress I gotta go so I gotta go.
Where’s your cabin?
It’s 35 miles from Yellowstone

00:44 Area called Madison. You know mansion. So we’re gonna cabin right there next to the lake. Allen Park reservoir. Lake

00:54 Erie Well, it’s close to memories lake but oh, that’s supposed to be great fishing.

01:00 Yeah, it is Great (unintelligible) like that. Now. Paul has been fishing there. I guess three times they only caught one fish. But big keeps wanting it was a big one. Yeah. It keeps wanting to give back. The good eating this time of the year.

01:18 Fish report. What type of fish?

01:20 Cutthroat. That’s the trout family and rainbow on the reservoir.

01:28 We come from a fishing family also you’re saying you’re on a tuna boat and my father had a sports fishing boat.
Oh, did you? So we went after albacore during the summer. We did too.
Yeah, I actually got my skippers license. Oh, they because you have to have to license skippers when you take out public.

01:52 Okay, okay. You guys could clearly hear what’s going to happen. He says get closer you just keep chatting like we are now. Yeah.
Calm and collected.
For one thing, why don’t you just tell us a little bit about your past. Tell us about your utilize.

02:15 Well, Richard, you want to start? The I know, but I can’t just ended with myself. I gotta have questions. Wow. Well,

02:24 I understand that your family first settled in Hawaii, do you want you to talk about that. And then yeah, one of the events leading up to coming to Idaho.

02:32 Should I give my uh, you know, my history from the time they first come up in the 1800s.

02:38 You’re the one that knows more about you read on it.

02:42 And now I guess at the Bishop Museum in Hawaii, they’ve got our picture one of the first settlers.

02:50 here know that they had actually written written a book during their centennial celebrations and you know, indicated that the Yamada family and the Somata families were the first two to come actually over on contract to work the plantations in Hawaii.

03:09 How long was your family there?

03:14 Well, my folks born there and I guess they stayed in Hawaii for about oh, I’d say gosh, I was eleven when I left so at that level, my team dad was 22 So So 22, 32, 33, 33 years in Hawaii. But then the original area they were in the island of kawaii they came over to raise rice go they had the they didn’t have rice in Hawaii at the time they emigrated or their workers out in the cane fields. So he came grandpa and grandma come over and they got to make region raise rice. That’s the beginning of it. Of course later on the migrate to the island Oahu, Honolulu.

04:17 That’s about it. His father was quite talented. He used to sing for different programs, weddings, and this and that. And he had a wonderful voice. And he also played the saxophone. You know, I showed you that he had more than that. And he played what else the guitar and guitar,
In fact, jazz band playing the

04:43 old time music, you know, same as in the 20s.

04:47 And he used to have dances at play for dances and everybody would congregate at his place and they’d have a dance like Saturday nights or whatever. So he was one of the first to do this, you know in the Japanese.

05:02 And when did they come over to the mainland?

05:04

1. That was in 1923. And that was due to the that land law or lease-law that they had in California at that time they had that what they call the papers that come out about the yellow peril. Have you heard read about that? So they made it illegal for aliens to rent, lease land. Do you know about that too? Well, I had an uncle in Lomita, California. And he wrote to my dad and says, you’d like to have him come over and lease land since he was a citizen. And that’s the reason why he came over just to get around that law. So you see why or we were in on the main mainland.

05:54 His father was a postman too.

05:58 Mailman, mailman. And they take them to win a cup. Well, I wouldn’t know too much about my mother made him quit. Quit being a policeman says it was dangerous. So he became a postman. Mailman.

06:20 And this is when he was living in Lomita. No,

06:23 that was in Hawaii. Oh. So what when we came over to California, my dad just made a living leasing land. He has some like 1000 acres under his name. So actually if that my dad was crooked, he could have not embezzled, take all the profit and keep it because legally all that farming was under farming was under his name. But he was such an honest person. That’s why he died a poor person. Too honest.
Any other Japanese come over and do that too? Right. Did other… Not very many. That is Japanese male that was as old as he was. He was the oldest one of the oldest one that was a natural born citizen. See? So that’s why he had the well, most land that was leased under his name. They’re charging. He was charging them $5 an acre per year. If you had 1000 acres, which he had, that’s 5000 a year. But a nickel was a nickel station. 10 cents, bought a pack of cigarettes and 25 cents would have bought T bone steak in a restaurant. So you can see that 5000 He did a lot with that set my brother to college, incidentally, became medical doctor.

07:57 And tell us about all of your siblings, your brothers and sisters. Talk about who your brothers and your sisters.

08:03 Well, the family originally had five girls and two boys. That’s including me. And they’re all settled. And well, most of them came back from after the war back to out to Los Angeles. I was gonna go back to with her. But I just didn’t like what I what I saw too many people. I’m kind of a loner. The best part of my life was out on the Merchant Marine and, and being a radio man, you know, so I had to communicate with the landlines to get the information. See I was on a freighter. Later on, I was on the transport during the war. But then due to that, I couldn’t I didn’t like to be around a lot of people. So we’re not when I went back to Los Angeles, I saw so much people around. I just got nervous. And I said no, this is not for me. I came back.

09:01 I understand that there’s an interesting story about when you were in the Merchant Marines, and then you came back to shore and then sent demands and our initial.

09:11 You don’t want me to tell you my incident and you want to hear the unpleasant part of it?

09:19 This is really this is part of what brought you here. I understand, eventually.

09:23 Oh, yeah. Well, what actually happened was this. When Pearl Harbor was struck, was that morning that night, we left at midnight out of Pearl Harbor. See that would be on that Sunday. See? And we’re just outside of Hawaii when Pearl Harbor was struck. Well, I guess the way the merchant marine operated, they only had one radio man to keep track of the well, for information on where to go, you know, destination and they do that for eight hours per day. Didn’t matter when I didn’t have to keep eight hours. Watch, just just so in 24 hours, I put in eight hours. Well, that morning I got up and put the earphones on and nothing but SOS is around. See, they were the Japanese were shaking merchant now. Well ships left and right around us and we had loads of chromite from the Philippines and you know how heavy they are, they’re heavier than lead. And we won’t have a free border, say about three feet. And one little torpedo, what a sad cuz it would have gone down like, you know, like a piece of lead. Well, when then the Navy would come in and says to shut up, don’t say anything, there’s a moment you hit that key. They can use their direction finders, them find your position. And they’d sent a bunch of ciphers. And I’d copied and give the skipper record see that he just share a heading or San Diego or San Francisco, we headed east. And I knew we’re going to Mexico I didn’t have been I knew how to navigate to like me, I had a skippers license to hold on hold on suitable. And by doing that, it took us about 15 days to get back from Hawaii. But we finally ended up in San Pedro see our home port which was in San Francisco. Well, we got in okay. But then you know who’s waiting for me? Guess who? The FBI. Now about a dozen them. They come up and they grabbed me and says now don’t you get away you’re gonna get off this ship. We don’t trust you. And the skipper was these folks from the old country are from Norway. And he came up and he said What do you mean, he’s, you’re gonna take him up be Japanese, but he’s more loyal than I am. He says I’m from the old. I mean, my folks are from the old countries. And besides, you’re breaking the law. If you’ve taken him off, he signed on to get off at San Francisco, which is the homeport. You think that led me off big hustle me off my off the boat, wouldn’t let me get my stuff. And that was it. And none of that led to you know what happened after that? Oh, I tell you something else. It wasn’t very wasn’t very long after that, that me and two other fellows figured well, just to show my loyalty list, join the let’s try to get in the Navy as a kamikaze. So we went to the recruiting, recruiting office and we got what we’d like to do to show our loyalty. You know what they did? They said, they laughed this is what I mean, trust you guys, you probably turn right around and and hit the battleship, you know. And boy that really made me decide to help with it. There’s no chance of ever getting treated right? Even if your arms aren’t say to see. And that didn’t matter. It was my face and being Japanese. Any more questions?

13:18 Well, so what happened in terms of the events leading up to you eventually settling in this area?

13:24 Well, we were in Terminal Island. At that time, they gave us 24, 24 hours notice to get out of there. You know, we had a lot of stuff. And 24 hours wasn’t enough time we had no trucks. And you know, then the voters came around when they would they had that ultimatum. And they come over and knock on the door. You open the door and stick their foot in there. They want to buy our stuff, five cents on the dollar. We didn’t sell it on you know what we did? We gave it to the poor Mexicans. It burns up so much. We got our alright with hardly anything. In fact, we had to rent a place that was furnished. Couldn’t haul anything. Our battery card wouldn’t. Nobody would lend us trucks or anything. Incidentally, we had friends who were running superstition. But did you know that all the Caucasians deserted us? One day I knew for years, well the propaganda was that the Japanese were treacherous. You cannot trust them. They all believed that. See. So after that, that incident they gave us the wish cricket. We couldn’t even leave Los Angeles. Did you know that? They restricted us to the places place we lived. And they just wouldn’t let us go anywhere. Then they had that order to go to Manzanar because that was the first one. Well, I thought that’s what we’ll end up with. But then they advertise it says that the pay union leaves (unintelligible) because, like me, I’m pretty versatile I can do most anything. So I volunteered using and we got that union wages no 15 cents an hour or the 15 cents an hour or down to half per day something like that. And that’s how I ended up in Manzanar. And then I stayed there for about six months. By that time I was going crazy doing nothing you know, I got onto a job as a timekeeper but then they call then they had a bulletin saying that to be a loyal Americans and volunteer for to a Montana to top beets. I don’t know Montana. Incidentally, I was I agreed to go on I went to Montana This is to be loyal to the country. Well, I figured well, this will earn something anyway. So went to Montana the place where a Great Falls, wasn’t and when I got there, me and Ron maybe about 400 others that had gone but see I I’d like to read I always like to read a lot. First thing I did was buy a newspaper headline watch these, these jabs are gonna poison the water system. You know what we did?

We want to go back to hell with this thing. They tell us to be loyal come over and top beets and all that. And of course, I never knew it was that hard because I’d gone home right away which frankly, we don’t want to work here. They don’t trust us, they think we’re enemy aliens. And love of people thought we were shooting in other words they had they never conditioned the people about us that we’re going to go up there and top beets said we were American to them and those things were said. I guess they didn’t want to say that because that’ll turn the sympathy you know, towards us. So we went there and top beets for a while. The first day we taught beat we had a truckload of weed load trucks, you know how you know how they do they use the old fashioned way, come back with half a truckload of love dirt. And we knew that the farmer there was playing a dirty trick. And I think what we were spending for food wouldn’t even borrow food for the day. So we stuck again, saying this is not right.
And that the farmer promises that if we say that he said that there wouldn’t be as much dirt load. That was bald, because we’d hit that and tore it up, see. And the next day well, when we about two days later, that is it was beet without well, some dirt but the percentage was about five or 10%, which wasn’t bad. Well, after we got through tough and beets, there were issues we were supposed to go to another place that was that basically, Haarlem, Montana, close to the border, Canadian border. Top beets there for a while the owner was decent enough to treat us right. But we were put in a chicken coop wrapping stuff on the floor. And we stayed there and we top beets got through. We’re going through from there we oh, we had nothing else to do. So they sent us to a place called Shelby, Montana. And they put us in jail. All of us. And oh, there must have been about 100 or so.
We all got through with Well, that was a holding pen letter I call it, see? Then they had to send a train up to catch it to send us back to camp. And my plans were not to go to camp I told the guys that I went with four or five pillars that I started out as a crew. I’m not going to go all the way I’m going to slow down and jump off I want to have just a little duffel bag you know everything knows was confiscated so we went through Blackfoot. I woke my friends up and I says I’m gonna get off here and say well that’s your funeral no you don’t know what’s gonna happen I don’t give a damn what happens I’m getting off I got off and I no job or anything. But I read the paper and says Help Wanted as a mechanic or tune up man. Being a radio man I knew electronics enough to you know lie about that… Guy told the formula not for him but guy were hidden mechanic there. I said I can do tuneup work, how much experience I say well, I can do a lot of electrical work too, which was true but nothing on automotive. So he said well, you show up Monday and says Ah How about I borrow some of your service manuals, I could read it. I read read it from cover to cover. And I knew what the theory was now that you know, your ignition coils and all that. Learn how to do it. I mean, came Monday I had to start working. And I did. They were impressed.
I even ended up overhauling our speedometers you know, set them back calibrated. And what would then happen the, while I was there, they set the officials up like a border or War Relocation Authority, they wanted me to promise that I’d stay there they insisted that I go back, I said a no Over my dead body as long as I’m an American, take it away then you might be able to do whatever you want, but I’m an American. So the simple you stay here they don’t move and report all the time. Telling us for your at see, in Blackfoot. Well after a while the pay was so little I didn’t want to breathe and wouldn’t give it to me. So I went to Pocatello look for job and found a job here. And then be (unintelligible)I call it w era. They came after me again. So how come you got out of there? And I said, Well, I can’t make a living and blackbutt places too small. Then the old same old thing got changed. Okay.

00:09 Well, his, you know, cycles What wife knew about him because Saito had talked about him, you know, before they got married didn’t after they got married I guess.

00:19 So all through the war, you know they had never contacted each other and it was really cool instance Okay?

00:30 Yep. All right. How about you pick up where you came to Pocatello what was Pocatello like at that time? And what year was that?

00:45 It was just after that, well, I lived here being a mechanic I worked here, you know, still The pay wasn’t enough so I’m going right through it fast I’ve been to Denver, that’s where my folks were family in fact, but I couldn’t stand the altitude because I used to smoke at that time a heavy smoker and I just gasped at night. So I decided to hit with this, I better go elsewhere. Or before I went there I married her. How did you meet the two of you?
Well, this is what happened the Japanese community here the nice as you know, they were held the dances every once in a while. Well, she didn’t have a date and I didn’t have a date. And the guy said I’ll get you a good date. So that’s how I got to know her Was that in Denver? No, no, he’ll Pocatello

01:42 No a fellow. I knew the fellow that was living in Pocatello. They farmed. And so he came over and asked me if I’d like to go to the dance with this fellow, Richard. Of course I knowRichard. And were you working there? No.

02:03 Yeah. Were you working?
No. How long was toppin beets.

02:08 Oh, okay. He was working there. That’s why. He said why not? Would you like to go the dance with this fellow? Oh, I don’t know. Anyway, finally I said Well, okay. And so I went to the dance with him. That’s how we first met you

02:22 Why did you like me?
Well… I tell you she said, boy you’re a good dancer.

02:32 I win prizes that these dances see so, I’m What are doing she was impressed. Maybe that’s why we got married.

02:39 Why did you like her? Did you like her?

02:43 Well being musical and I’m musical too. Kind of agreed and a lot of things, only thing I didn’t like was being alone all the time. She’s out teaching and I’m home.

02:56 So we used to get, I used to play the piano too. And he used to bring his guitar and saxophone, and we’d fiddle around you know

03:06 How did you control her other boyfriends? How did you call her other boyfriends?

03:11 Threatened to punch them in the nose and the wave that was a truth. All my opposition, I’d go, are my competitors are threatened them that was, wasn’t fair it wasn’t. Well that led to after we got married to get this won’t do we’re future here is isn’t too good. Well, being a community like Pocatello The pay wasn’t much, cost of living wasn’t much either but then compared to the whole nation, the pay rate was too low. And we have a grandiose idea. I thought well, I better go to a place where I can get a lot of money

03:55 Well before you go to that place. What was Pocatello like at that time?

03:59 Oh, we’re just pretty good. No, I liked it. The town wasn’t very big.

04:07 I think there were only about maybe 15,000 people here.
Yeah, At that time.

04:12 See, like Yellowstone Avenue, just a dirt path. And if you look at it now it’s got malls and everything else is conditioned, not conditioned. But then it’s, it’s grown quite a bit. The people are more. I’d say at that time. A lot of them were were farmers, didn’t know too much about the people who’s been around a lot like me. I remember the time I tell you something funny. My neighbor, Caucasian friends, we went fishing and on the way we stopped at a restaurant and I want to eat some shrimp because it’s a shrimp so much. And the guy poked me you’re gonna eat that bug. I said, What do you mean bug? Yeah, that’s a seafood. It’s real. Good and the guy said, Well, my mother told me that you shouldn’t eat shrimp for bass bugs. And I ate it, boy with gusto you know? And the guy looked at I said, Boy, that must be good. You should like it. Don’t just be sure I do. He said boy give me a piece. One I said, Hey, this is good. I can’t wait isn’t a bug. And a lot of the people were like that. There were a lot of them didn’t know too much.

05:26 You saw that. You seem like you were fairly well accepted.

05:30 Yeah. It got better and better. See, right after during the war, the people were, that propaganda that they were throwing out on the radio was pretty bad. Boy I remember? See? Going back to the way we were treated, at first. It was bad. I don’t care what town you were in, they wouldn’t cut my hair. You go to a restaurant sit down. They wouldn’t wait on you. Well, we ate at one restaurant, the mother would push and running woman. Weak ancestry. Well, one day we went in there, there was a drunken there, he saw us eating. He got on the table start preaching. He says we got to get rid of them. We’ve got to kill them, they causing us a lot of trouble. That was us who had nothing just a fork and knife. And the guy was with he was a Manzanar too. And I told him I said, you know, the book can be attacked not by one person, but the whole mob in here is whatever you do, don’t just let them kill us. Try to take someone with a fork or a butter knife, doing anything with it. But luckily the lady, she understood our situation. She went up to the guy and told him that guy could be more American than you are they’re not from Japan. They’re not prisoners of war. So why don’t you leave them alone? And you know they all calm down they thought we were from Japan, they were crazy. So you see what the situation was here.

07:04 That was here, that incident in Pocatello?

07:06 Yeah, see that? Well that they’re the people that was in it were, you could sit but see by their face that they were interested. But I don’t think they were aroused again. But it would have been if she hadn’t stopped stepped in and says to leave us alone and they did and then nothing happened after that. That was the last incident I’ve had here, other times from then on it seemed like everything was okay. Of course our customers at this place the place I work with called Blair fried motors they had they were selling Chrysler product. Some of the customers were nasty. You know, my partner he had to come out from under under a car he was working on. Got his wrench and went after the guy you should have seen him school couldn’t help but what are you gonna do? You’re working,he’s insulting you steadily, you’re not gonna just take it, you know, your emotions will get aroused. And pretty soon you don’t know what to do except to get out and do whatever you think you should do. Things like that happened. That happened quite a bit all over. In fact, of course, things like that don’t happen anymore. But it used to see you a youngster don’t realize that any of you don’t realize what happened to us. But right now the as far Pocatello goes, I think it’s a good town. I wouldn’t be anywhere else.

08:32 I’ve got a question for you very directly related. Your dad just said that it doesn’t happen to the younger generation these days. So you find that you’re being discriminated against?

08:42 No, I don’t think so. I think you know, if they’re if there’s any discrimination right now, it’s probably more than a positive one and a negative. I think those that are still continuing to discriminate are probably a little bit ignorant of the facts. You know, when I say a positive discrimination, I think, I think because of because of my father and people like him and our grandfathers and they earned the right they earned that respect, I think from,from this community and the country in general. And so if anything, it’s it’s more a matter of pride now to be Japanese, because so much more is expected of you. But it’s it’s a wonderful challenge that I think that we’re, as a race, I think we’re up to

09:31 How are your children doing, are they being discriminated against?

09:33 No, I again, I feel that they’re looked up to they adapt and they accept all of the different races very, very well. In fact, you know, one of the things that I’m happy to say is that when someone else for example, a black is discriminated, my children can understand that and they usually side with that poor unfortunate child.

10:01 So you were about to tell us the story of you settling down here. You went to Denver first and then you came back to?

10:08 Denver. No, I didn’t come back and went to their Chicago. That pay we’re good but then I couldn’t stand the weather. You know how cold it is next to the Great Lakes. Last, I didn’t think were longer than six months. Because she joined me summer vacation. That was all the rest of time she had to teach. And then from Pocatello, she came back to teach and then from there, I went to New York City. And I figured well, the most money I could ever make was getting back into the machinery. So I tried to I had my papers today, but I wasn’t trusted. I had a mark against me, being a radio man see? And boy then everything about what I did while I was in the tuna boat, working on tuna boats. They even had an incident where see a firm in New York City wanted to get someone to be a buyer a broker get down there buy some alligator skin they offered 80 cents a square foot. So I thought boy that’s a good deal I can make a lot of money knowing that a lot of alligators here this was in Costa Rica as a country it just above Panama. So I accepted that and I went in to see the country, you know the area see what was going on but on the way in it’s all in the interior that Spanish called interior and took about three days to get. In the meantime, going in. I started get stomachache know that see? And the food I was eating too. And the water drinking out a river I got Tucker, malaria and dysentery. And when I got to the camp, to the alligator camp where they store skin had a shortage showed me the warehouse open that door that stench come out. And it knocked me over boy I puke and everything else. And then I was sick from then on. And I said boy, if I have to contend with this, I don’t want any part of it. And I went back and landed in the hospital. See? Well, they had all that information but it wasn’t me looking for alligators, it was that I was scouting for the Japanese Imperial Air Force for for now. airfield in Costa Rica being close to Panama City. And it was so funny. I laughed when I said What do you mean? I’m not a spy. My folks had never been to that time. They’ve never been to Japan never had seen it. I can’t be enemy aliens. My folks have never been to Japan. I’ve been to Japan but as as a student see? And I’m three generations here. So you just have to take my word for it. And you know, a month or so later I was cleared. It was okay. Then. After the war. Oh, it wasn’t too long. I went out to sea again. You don’t build your studio. Before I went to see. I did them.
Yeah, I think so.

13:33 When did you finally settle here? And

13:36 When did I settle? After 1948 then I stayed after that.

13:47 How has the community changed since you’ve been here?

13:52 Well, I think it’s it was like any other community here. Became more open, due to I still say I hate to say it but I say because of Japan’s status you know, prestige. They’re not they’re not a dumb race. They’re a smart race and all that it’s helped the Nisei a lot Don’t you think so? You being a Nisei, don’t you think
that it’s helpful up that the people respect us more? That respect is there I can see it now. But before you don’t talk to a Caucasian and and you could tell whoever you meet immediately you can tell by looking at them whether they despise you or they like you they can it can be either one of two they like you or they don’t like you in cases where I know that I have to associate the guy I tried to educate the person say that was before but now look, you don’t have to, they respect you. In fact, the common acid come over and ask good advice. You know that see Good example is up at Island Park. A lot of them are from Pocatello why we’re around, we’ll respect it up there. They look forward to being, going to our parties that we gave, you know, and have a lot of fun. They’re just like, I’m just like, one of them or they’re like us, see no difference. So I guess you’d know yourself that times have really changed. Did you ever think it would get to that point? Did you ever think you would get to that point?
Oh, no. That time I was bitter. In fact, I didn’t even like the white race anymore. Because of the way they treated us so badly. Especially when war broke out when all our white friends deserted us. Treated us like dirt.
Did they believe the propaganda? They believed that members, you could never trust a jap that was on TV, that they were treacherous. Even though, even though they knew you for a long time?
Yeah, that’s right. For years and years in the believing that, that for disillusion me. So from then on, I didn’t want to cultivate any of the Caucasians.

16:16 And my story would be a lot different.

16:20 Yes. Well, she was well accepted.
Well, I was accepted,

16:23 you know, because I lived in the community all my life more or less in Idaho. And when I was in high school, I was in Girls Council, Honor Society and all this stuff, and what’s office officers and different clubs. And I think the females don’t have that. Discrimination that the men do for some reason, I don’t know whether you feel that way or not. But being I was in the dancing, I performed for the high school assemblies and things like that.

17:07 Tell us about the whole history because we don’t have it on tape that, you know, from the very beginning.

17:13 Well, where’s the beginning? Where you born? Oh, well, I was born in Buhl, Idaho, which is a tiny, tiny, little community, in my little tiny, my folks, had a restaurant there. And then from there, they moved to Shoshone and eventually moved to Blackfoot. And we had a restaurant there. Then, later on, during the Depression. They had to give it up because of the business, you know. And they kept going in debt. So they finally gave that up. And then we moved to Pocatello. And my father worked full, he worked at the Carlson building, then he worked at the Shanghai cafe and so on so forth. And course I, at that time, I was just going to school, and so on. And

18:07 when did your parents come here, to this area?

18:12 My parents, they were my father came over from Japan when he was just a young fellow about 16 years old. And he never ever did go back. My mother came as a picture bride. So they, I don’t know whether you’re familiar with that. But, you know, pictures were sent back and forth. But usually the fan
About when was that? About 1918. And usually the families back in Japan knew each other, or they because they would say now, if your son would marry my daughter, you know, so on and so forth. You know. So that’s how come the pictures would start going back and forth. And they would correspond. So my mother came over that way. And she got off in Seattle. And at that time, my father was working on the railroad, like many Japanese people were. And shortly after that he got a job working in the governor’s home at that, and I don’t remember or have never been told maybe exactly what he was doing there. But he was ended up being one of the cooks. So then he learned how to cook and started at restaurants.

19:38 Well, I know that one of the major historical aspects of Asians and particularly Japanese in Idaho, was with the railroad. So how much do you know about your father’s involvement with the railroad?

19:54 I don’t know very much.

19:56 Do you know about how long he worked?

19:59 No, I have no idea

20:03 okay

00:09 Not any women… They didn’t have the money? I don’t think so go back.
No, you might maybe get that in the store because average person wouldn’t know what fits your rights.

00:21 Or maybe I can just write about kind of the whole

00:24 Can you tell us how you got into dance? But it really was. At that time, it really was.

00:40 You had a, you had a an idea in terms of maybe why you weren’t discriminated against, partly because of being an artist, artists. You know, it doesn’t matter whether you’re black, white or any other color. There’s freedom of expression. And she felt that,

00:59 I do. I mean, if you’re good, you’re good. And you know, a lot of people if they want to learn, and if they’re interested and serious about it, they’ll come to you whether you’re Japanese or Chinese or whatever, you know. Well, yeah, different people. No, that’s right. I didn’t know him at all.

01:26 Um, how about you pick up from your story about your father? Cook?

01:32 Did I say that before?

01:33 Yeah. And then after that, I, I guess part of what would be interesting is to get a sense of when you finally your family finally ended up settling in Pocatello, you were talking about all the various restaurants and then they finally came here, again, about how old you were in your early childhood memories.

01:53 Which governor was that? I’m not sure.

01:56 Anyway, yeah. After we moved to Pocatello, you know, after the depression and all this stuff. Why then so

02:01 So that was a few 30s? Yeah.

02:06 Thirty-six.
What grade?
I was a sophomore. And the reason, though, well, when I started dancing, most people didn’t give their children dancing in those days anyway. You know. And in Blackfoot, the people who delivered coal and ice to us in those days, you know, you had coal and ice, you didn’t have refrigerators, and freezers. Well. Their daughter was going to start teaching dancing. And so wanted to know whether my folks would give me dancing. So my father started giving myself, and my sister dancing. And I always enjoyed it and loved it, and it came easy for me, so I just kept going with it.
Was it ballet?
No, she taught tap and ballet, a little bit of everything. Acrobatic. Now that it’s gymnastics more so then I continued with the dancing, and when I got out of school, my I had worked some and then I went to Hollywood, and studied there for quite a while. I was at the same studio that Mitzi Gaynor… No, not Mitzi Gaynor, Shirley Temple, and Deanna Durbin, and Mickey Rooney, and Billy Lee, and Jane Withers. All of those child stars were there at that time. So it was quite interesting to me. And I got to study with the best I thought at that time. From then on, I just continued and then I came back and would teach and after I’d teach, I go back to Hollywood, and I’d come back and teach for a while then I’d go to and I went to Denver for a while, and so on, you know, always ended up coming back for a while.

04:15 And you’re continuing that right now?

04:17 Right, I still do some dancing, teaching.

04:23 What are some of your early childhood memories of being here in Pocatello?

04:31 I don’t think I had any special memories, you know, I mean, just nothing.

04:39 Do you remember your closest friend back then?

04:42 Well, I have two close friends that I went through school with in Blackfoot and over all the years. This one friend of mine and I have continued sending each other Christmas gifts and it’s been Like 40 some years, and we’ve never forgotten each other, we’ve always sent each other something for Christmas. And then always, after that we’d write each other, thank you for what you know, whatever it was and, and write a note about what we were doing and so on. And it’s really about the only time that I correspond with her, but it’s kind of nice. Then another friend that I have, we corresponded for about 30 years or more. And then she had a few problems. So then it seemed like we just kind of, get didn’t, but I think we’ve corresponded for over thirty years.

05:42 Do you have any brothers and sisters?

05:44 I have a sister in Los Angeles, and I had a brother but he passed away,

05:51 Was he here?

05:53 Here in Pocatello. He worked for Roland dairy for a long time as office manager.

06:09 How about you? Why did you come around and

06:13 Like around in 1951. And I’ve been here all my life, I have benefited from not only the tradition of knowing my grandma, my grandparents on both sides, and I guess cherishing those memories, but you’ve also been fostered in in an environment where education was a very key role. And I think that that’s an outstanding element in most Japanese families. But it’s not a direct education, so to speak. It’s an application to life, my parents would share going to where we would travel, and it wouldn’t matter whether it was from here to Blackfoot or, or to a foreign country, and they would save up and they would give my sister and I the benefits of traveling. And they taught us that probably 99% of our education would come through travel and learning to deal with people in our circumstances. That they were, I guess, smart enough to qualify that statement and say that without a formal education, we’d never truly be able to appreciate those experiences. So it’s been very gratifying to be able to travel with my parents, and to share some of the experiences as I mentioned in in 1969, when we went to Japan, my father was an international delegate for the Lions convention there. And it was it was interesting to to reminisce a part of his childhood. After he finished school in United States, he went to Japan and to retrace some of those childhood steps and memories with him is something that I’ll remember the rest of my life. The you know, I, I was,

08:05 Why don’t you tell some of the stories of your memories? The trash bin, the neighbors?

08:15 Well, I always remember and I guess, you know, if I can say one thing from my father and my mother, I think they have a special ability to, to search out and find a curiosity of life, something that I would love to be able to learn. That’s one of the reasons it’s so fun to travel with them because they would experience and they like to do the common things, the basic things to get off the beaten track from the tourists, and to go into the rural areas. My father, one day took my mother and I and off the Tokyo subways and said I remember that this used to be an alley. And right there used to be a trash can. And we used to climb over this fence and we kept breaking the fence down and so you know this gentleman was always mad at us but we would run like crazy. And then we would go across this alley and over that bump and then we would end up at Mr. Saito’s house. And sure enough, we ended up at Mr. Saito’s house. And it was interesting because as he approached the front door and and he knocked in gracious little lady came out and, and she knew him by reputation. And it was fascinating to me that reputation would carry for that many years spanning the war, and never having corresponded with his old friend, his childhood friend, that they should still be very, very close in touch. You know, that evening, they, you know, it’s kind of like all of the school children called one another and, and throughout the village, went from one house to another and we found our ourselves sitting down at night to a wonderful picnic in one of my father’s friend’s home, and she made sushi and the traditional type of food. But it’s just been, a been a fascinating learning experience. And I think one of
the things that, that I didn’t really understand until after I was well out of college was, again how to appreciate and relate interrelate all of these different circumstances. I had a very special relationship with my with my mother’s mother Kito, in that she was well into her 90s when she passed away, and my grandmother and I, because my, my mother and father, were constantly working during the time we were being raised, I’ve spent a great deal of time with my grandmother. And it was always very, very interesting to sit by her and listen to her recount the stories back in.. She lived through the feudal times, the samurai era, and, and to hear her reflect upon that tradition and that history. You knew it wasn’t just a story, it was a part of her life.

11:12 She has comes from somewhere I roots, right.

11:15 Yes, yes. You know, I don’t know a great deal about that. We, you know, we have part of our family is starting to research that in, you know, at Hawaii. You know, there are marvelous recounts, back in 1981, there was a spread on the 13th century invasion of khubilai, Khan by Japan and Takasaki. So Naga, you know, was credited with assisting the repelling of those invasions and through what they call mosquito tactics. Here were these huge armada of the Mongols coming to shore and, and Takasaki would take these small little, almost canoe like crafts and go out, and just almost like guerrilla warfare. But I know my father and my, like, my family has been very, very proud of that tradition.

12:15 What were some of your early childhood memories? And how did you see the community of Pocatello changing?

12:22 It’s very interesting, because I’ve, you know, know, by listening to my mother and my father reflect upon their experiences, you see one from the very, very tragic side of the war, of utter discrimination to my mother that was somewhat sheltered from that, because she was born and native to Idaho and whatnot. And I guess I was at the tail end of that, in most cases, I was very, very well accepted. I think partly because of performance, partly because of the war was becoming only a memory now. But there were still those, those families in those groups that still held that deep rooted discrimination. And there were times when I would come home from school, my sister, Marsha is two years older than I am. And she was very protective of me and I was very small and frail. And, and she would get mad, sometime the children would, would call us names and Jap, and whatnot. And, and I was not really old enough to, you know, have it make any difference to me, but she would get furious, and she would go beat somebody up, you touch my little brother one more time. And she would, she was fine protector has a big sister. So I came through a little bit of that there were, you know, areas on Roosevelt Street, one block from my house, and I would have to walk, I don’t know, maybe 10 blocks to where school was, but there was just the last block. That was the toughest to get through. If I was coming through at night, I would run and I would, you know, I would just be frightened to death. That was during the day, I knew I would be hassled during that one block, or, or I’d be fine.
You know, and that was probably when I was probably, you know, somewhere in the range of nine to 12 years old. And then from about the 12 year old range, things started to change. Then it became more of a matter of pride, it became a matter of acceptance because of achievement. There was almost I think, more pressure at that time on not just myself but all of the Japanese. At that time, we were one of the first classes into Highland high school here. And there weren’t as I recall, there weren’t there weren’t any other Asians. At the high school. There were two or three of us Japanese. And and we were always, you know, in in leadership positions in National Honor Society, and so… We really, were always very athletic. So we didn’t really see the the prejudice at that point. The frightening thing that, that I guess I had to overcome through this, this learning experiences that we were taught, I guess, to listen, to be very good listeners. And so that was a hard adjustment to try and to fit into society, because we were probably the shyest people in the class. And I remember being in great books class one time, my teacher said, you know, 50% of your grade is class participation. And that was the first day. So I went up, you know, about two weeks later, just knowing I was failing the course. And I said, I says, I really don’t want to flunk this course. But I can’t talk. And so I would not raise, right my hand, I said, I will do term papers, I will do anything you want me to do, but I will not talk. And it was really funny when I went to, to illustrate this point of how shy that we were, of how content we were to listen. And then to input through other means very creatively. When, when I enrolled at the University of Colorado, my parents, of course, came down to Boulder to help me enroll there. Because we’re going down the freeway, to Boulder towards Denver, we passed the signs at Colorado State University. And we kept passing signs at Colorado State University. And I still didn’t know that there was a difference between the two, when we finally decided just to keep going. And we finally made it to the University of Colorado. And during freshman orientation, the first two days, I went through all the lines, and I put all the x’s in the right boxes. And I finally, you know, got to the head of the line to where I was supposed to hand the lady my cards and come to find out that I’ve been carrying these cards around and doing all these these systematic things for two days. And I was matriculating for my cousin, who is is a girl one. And that was very embarrassing, of course. And so I had to go back to the end of the line and come back on but that was how shy that we were.

17:20 You have a sister? Do you have any other brothers and sisters?

17:23 No. Just like my sister, Where is Marsha? Marsha is up in Seattle. And she works on computers with Boeing.

17:33 What were your early memories interacting with Marsha besides her being protective?

17:38 Well, she was she was both my protector and my greatest adversary. And I think that that’s where I guess all generations and all races come together. She would protect me on the one hand and she gets so furious with me. And she, I always remember she she once, one time said that that is not right. And you know, you’re not going to do it. And she picked me up and she threw me into the wall. And I still have this great big goose egg right here. And ever since I remember, you know, I just remember that and I would never hit hit my sister. And I love her very dearly. And I just remembered that that very satisfying day when I grew up. And she was so mad at me and I held her hands. And she said she wanted to hit me she wanted to kick me and about all she could do after this was cry. So I says fine.

18:28 One question I’d like all of you to answer. It’s a two part question. Hang on a second, Jeff, because we’ve got about a minute left on this tape so it’s changed. Okay, so that we have plenty to think about

00:04 I bid on a job and I didn’t get it because of race. See, he doesn’t get that anymore. So you can see the improvement

00:19 There were certain accounts that were just dogs. They didn’t have any reason to hate the Japanese, but it was passed down from their father and their mother. Yeah, sometimes.

00:30 It’s the way they were brought up to you know? Did you ever feel any, Mimi?
People never knew what I was. Yeah. Yeah, probably so.

00:47 Okay. I guess the first question is, how traditional or non traditional has your family been with respect to Japanese culture?

00:57 As far as your parents bringing you up, did they bring you up as?

01:05 No, they brought me up as a traditional American. Of course, our problem was not, we didn’t have that problem learning, speaking Japanese because they spoke English. So I didn’t know how to speak Japanese. When I got out of high school. My folks sent me to Japan to learn it. Took me a year and that year was a long time for me. I finally learned it now I can understand but I cannot understand Japanese on TV. They speak another language. See, So

01:36 How old were you? How old were you when you went back to Japan?

01:41 Right out of high school.

01:43 Was that a common thing? I’ve heard of other people doing that, sending their children to Japan.

01:48 No, me me. I went because it was my choice. My brother was going to medical school and my dad asked me what I want to be, I says I don’t want to be anything. You want to be a dentist? I said, No, I don’t like to look in people’s mouth. And I said about going to Japan. And I was kind of a adventurous person. Anyway, I like to travel. That’s how it happened. I was asked to do the year. But as far as being here, you know, didn’t even give it a thought. We just wanted to be Americans. And treated as such. I know she’s the same way.

02:25 Well my folks, course were immigrants. So they spoke Japanese between themselves and well… And they spoke some to me. But they wanted me to be sure and get a good education. That was the primary thing. They felt like if you were here in this country, you had to have good education. So they pushed me as far as schooling goes. So I always had to get good grades. Because, you know,

02:57 So you’re pretty Americanized then. Yes.
And do you speak Japanese at all? No.

03:03 Well, the only Japanese I speak is from what I learned from my parents, because being immigrants, you almost learn that way, by listening to them and understanding what they were saying to each other, and so on. And sometimes they would talk to me. But then my sister and my brother, of course, we never spoke Japanese to each other, we always spoke English.

03:31 And you, how do you feel? Do you feel that you were raised in a traditional Japanese manner in terms of trying to seek out the Japanese culture, I know that part of your masonry work seems to reflect that.

03:43 I think, I think I’m, I’ve been fortunate to have the best of both worlds. Because when I reflect back, you know, about the time when my parents were growing up, you’re, you’re looking at a time of high discrimination hysteria, when a time of being Japanese was not fashionable. I think that, you know, we’re in a very, very nice time where I’ve been able to appreciate what happened, and more importantly, appreciate the past of who we really are. And I think I would recommend that to any race for them to find their roots and to appreciate that, you know, I think as I, you know, I’m very proud of of being Japanese because of the centuries of tradition and honor, that, I guess is emulated in day to day life. And I think that some of the things that the Japanese do today are standards by which others are matched. And it’s not the physical standard that is being said, it’s the mental and it’s the spiritual standard. I think when I went to Japan, one of the things that, that really stood out between two great nations, as an example, Japan and Germany that have a lot in common. They’re very, very basically the same in terms of their precision and their pride in what they do, and their scientific approaches. But Japan had one element that was tremendously different. They had more shrines. And you could see that visible in day to day living. I think that, you know, a lot of the great books that are being written about Japanese businesses today reflect that life is a struggle. And that, you know, as they’ve often said, that it’s the direct approach by which you’ll enter the battle. But it’s the indirect approach by which you’ll ultimately win the war. You know, it’s interesting that as the, the Japanese strategist talk in terms of life is as a struggle and as a battle, and learning to confront each issue. You know, they say, you know, for example, Miyamoto Musashi, said, you know, learn to parry your opponent’s useful actions and allow his useless actions, there are too many people who try to look good in the public eye. And by the time it comes to responding to the task at hand, they’re already tired, and they’ve already exhausted their resources. You know, they talk in terms of, you know, do not learn to, to fight the sword as it comes at you, but fight the man who wields it, you know, so each of these little tidbits they try to relate to day to day life. Some of the things that, that have meant a lot to me is that there have been a lot of tragedies in our lives. There have been a lot of miracles and miracles don’t just happen. One of the things, you know, I see that you never know, when that report card of life comes. And it usually will come at the most inopportune time, the most unexpected time. And I think that’s the part of our tradition that I cherish the most is the consistency of day to day living, of getting back to the basics and remembering who we are.

07:02 How has this community affected you? And how have you affected the community?

07:13 Just feels like an American. I feel like what the rest of them feel. And, of course, what I think you know that others might think differently, cause nobodies are alike. So I don’t think there’s any problem as far as the community goes. I feel like there’s no difference. Like everybody else. Was it hard getting your business started? That’s right. Well, I’ve been out of it for about 10 years. So I wouldn’t know what the trend is right now. But he’d like he can tell you, but I think he’d do a real good look up to there are things to look up to. Whereas when I was in business, I had to look there, it looked down on me and make me look down by insulting me.

08:08 Why don’t we talk about your business?

08:10 When I was in it?

08:12 yeah, and how it’s been transferred?

08:14 Well, mainly it was so being a lesser, I mean, a minority in a minority group, I had to do a little bit better in order to succeed. See, that’s been that way throughout my life. If I want to hold down a job, no matter what, I had to put out a little bit more effort to be a little bit better than anything I do. So came my little depression, some that hold on to me and get rid of the others. But if I were Eagle, I would have been the first one to let off. That is a racially because if you’re competing with a bunch of Caucasians, you’re you’re just mud. Unless you excel in your ability a little bit better. If you’re saying your your out, oh, that’s how it was in business two, I’d been if the bids were saying I’d lose every time see. And I know Huey. I don’t think he he’d have that too. But there must be some business even now that, that’ll…discriminate.
And what business is this?
This isn’t a store. He’s running a store. I was in the contracting business where I bid on a building and then they compare bids. See, during that time, they didn’t have such a law as well… What they call that Huey, were you when you bid and same and then reveal the amount of…

09:48 A peddled bid, huh? A peddled bid or closed, closed bid?

09:53 No, it was all open those days. They don’t have such a thing as closed bid. They called it peddling. The peddle is… a well he’d bid $2,000. So your bid is 5, 2500? Will it come down to 11? And how many 1999 and beat him by $1? That’s what happens. So I’d lose out and… What hurts is a time that’s involved figuring out the material, labor and all that. So you want to build wrench around 15-20,000 with building material those days. Then you’d lose out. So one time I was so disgusted, I went to the company. I guess you know, uh, FMC here, you know, the big factory here? And I demand it as I’d like to see that bid. Because I know the person I bet against role is high, kind of late, a lot of overheads. And, you know, they wouldn’t show, tell me about it. I lost and I’d like to know why. And to this day, I just got, you know, think about it once in a while, but I’d never do it again. If it was those days, maybe now it’s over with because you can insist bids be closed. And they don’t reveal it till I mean, they don’t open your envelope till the time comes. See

11:22 How about you tell us about your business.

11:24 Jeff, I, I’d like to, if I could, for just a second come back to a previous question. And my answer, in terms of if I felt I had been raised in an Americanized family or a traditional Japanese family, and I started to say, and I got sidetracked, that I feel that I’ve really been raised in the best of both worlds. Because, again, I think, because of the discriminating times were over, it was acceptable and almost becoming fashionable at that time to, again, search out your roots and appreciate those. You know, I think in addition to that, spending so much time with my grandmother, I was able to pick up the Japanese language, because she couldn’t speak English. And because of the opportunities that have that afforded me, just that one little incident, I interpreted for the Japanese delegation at the first international Boy Scout Jamboree in the United States. Which was quite an honor to me and a privilege to be able to share again, part of the Japanese American culture of how it had been westernized and sharing some with the old country. You know, I think the other side of it is, is again, being able to, I guess, profit from the experience of listening to the feudal times and the life’s experiences, and, and my mother and father have always taught, to encourage, to encourage that learning and that curiosity. And consequently, I was encouraged through those experiences to search out, you know, some of the, the finer points of our tradition, of some, of how deep rooted and sacred it really is. So I feel if I were just if I were given a choice to say traditional or non traditional, I would say very traditional Japanese. And I think our business, attitudes and techniques, our day to day performance and the consistency of what we do reflects that, that traditional Japanese approach.

13:28 Tell us a little bit about your business and how it’s grown through the years.

13:32 Again, I think with, with the business, I have to come back to, to crediting that the doors were I guess, opened as a result of, of our, of my father and my grandfather and our ancestors earning that earning the right of respectability. And so consequently, it has made it easier on us to, to be accepted and to succeed. When my father retired, we jointly built the buildings out at Suenaga Masonry supply. And I remember building those buildings with our own hands. And it wasn’t a matter of, of an eight hour day, it was 17 hours a day, seven days a week. We’ve been in business 17 years. When I think back of things in my past that were an inspiration to me, when times would get hard during the construction phases. I would always remember that when my father said that he built my mother’s studio. He didn’t tell you that, that, that has a full basement under that studio, and that he dug that by hand. You know and so as I reflect back in terms of how hard we perceive that we have it, I always come back as an inspiration to what our, our parents and our grandparents went through because that’s when you inspiration. What’s happened is because of of being accepted because we’ve earned our right and society. Suenaga Masonry has been able to go coast to coast, we’ve been able to do more shopping centers than any other single distributor in North America right now. In 1984, we were awarded the Jimmy Sikes Memorial Award as the number one distributor in the USA, by a vote of all the domestic and the foreign manufacturers throughout the world. I say that not as a credit Suenaga Masonry, but because it’s the tradition and the people. And the attitude that has driven that to that level. I think, where the benefits beyond the business side of what Suenaga Masonry is, it has spun off other organizations and contributions to current society. A second corporation that we’re involved with, which, which we are the owners of is Architectural Hieroglyphics, which is highly artistic. But beyond the business side, what it has done, it has given us the opportunity to contribute back to our society and to our friends that have supported us through the years… To I guess, have buried some of those hatchets, so to speak, and gone forth, as my Father is saying today, he enjoys a healthy relationship with people of all walks. You know, the, you know, I guess the reason we were brought into community service, for example, was because of my mother and father’s reputation. My mother and father have always been strong supporters of children, the obvious, you know, that direct approach, so to speak, the obvious is, is through my mother’s teaching has touched so many children’s lives. And it’s an inspiration to me to see that gratification come from, from coast to coast, as they grow up, and they call back. And it’s always with very timbre feelings. You know, I feel that each family needs to make a statement and needs to make a contribution to society wherever they are. And it’s not, you know, I guess that contribution is a relative thing. You don’t measure success and how large it is. It’s what it means to you and your family. And I’ve been able to continue that tradition in helping children and helping elderly people in our community, because of the education and the, the sense of travel, that learning to deal with people in our circumstances. It has made, enabled us to assist in some of the more political aspects of our community, in contributing from the business side, from the economic development base of assisting on on redirecting the strategic plans of the region.

18:07 In what way?

18:10 About three years ago, we were selected as, as one of 34 people on an executive strategy commission to write and document a plan for economic development. We were very, very instrumental. In fact, the quotations and everything that are in that strategic plan for economic development came from the influence of this family. And that doesn’t happen by me, or my children or my mother or my father, independent on, one another. It’s, it’s a collective effort.

18:43 You’ve talked about what it meant to you to be able to draw from the best of both worlds. Essentially, Japanese American. How about the two of you, how what does it mean to you to be a Japanese American?

18:58 Well, I felt like that we had to work with the community. And so I have had joined soroptimist International. And, as, as an officer, I felt like we did many projects to help the community. We, with the Rotary Club, we have donated many things like chairs to the service center to the citizens. For the senior citizens. We have donated a microwave to the abused children and Women’s Center. We have contributed machines of all sorts to the hospitals. We have done many service projects and outside of that, with the dancing we have the children have performed at the nursing homes every month each year and for different weddings and so on. So I think they have had a lot of exposure in their dancing. And I directed, the Miss Poke tilt pageant for seven years. And I also was Associate Director in Boise for the Miss Idaho pageant, and I was connected with so therefore I’ve worked with a lot of teenagers, and I hope I’ve helped them. So, and in return, really

00:04 He always encouraged me. Like he always encouraged me when, in anything I did. I mean, you know, he was good that way. My mother, she was a little skeptical. And then some friends of ours, you know, he says to Japanese people, they work kind of against that I know this one fellow was quite an educated fellow and he would come over all the time he, he thought I should quit dancing because that’s when I was studying and everything because he felt that that was entertaining for me, you know, like the geishas and that’s the idea that he has seen and he didn’t like that very well.
Okay.

00:51 Okay, what does it mean to you to you to be Japanese American?

00:53 What does it mean to me? Huh. To think, to think about it now I’d say I don’t think anything about it. Whether I was born another race or anything. It’s got to that point but years ago, I used to say why me? You know, when you’re in misery, but that’s all gone now. I don’t, only time I say “why me” is when I get sick. But outside of that, I don’t feel any different than me whether I’m Japanese American. I don’t even give it a thought that I did before. I don’t anymore. See. So it shows you how much time has changed. I don’t think Huey ever give that a thought that he doesn’t know. He just lived during the time that everything’s equal now.

01:47 So why don’t you introduce us to your grandchildren here?

01:51 My name is Richard.
My name is Julia.

01:55 Is that all?

01:57 No

01:58 No, my name is Richard (unintelligible) Suenaga the second.
My name is Julia (unintelligible) Suenaga. I am in three systems and in karate. I take international shokudo, American Kenpo, and international Kenpo.

02:19 Are all of these years over here? Yes. All these trophies?

02:23 And I am in third grade. I am eight years old, (unintelligible) school. And I have won the speech festival twice in a row. taking first place, second, twice against the eighth graders. Kindergarten through eighth graders, I have taken a first and the first and a third.
And I’m an orange belt in karate.
And do you take dancing? Dancing, dancing. Do you learn from your grandmother? No. I take it from Debby Eisley. And I take gymnastics.

03:16 Who are your friends?

03:19 I have one friend who lives down the street. I have one friend who is in Butte, Montana. I have another friend who is here, but she used to live in Ohio. Then I have another friend who is my karate teacher. And he lives over in Bert Perusing apartments. Number five. Number five or seven?

03:48 How about you Julian?

03:51 How about you Julia? I don’t know much about karate.

03:55 Who are you friends? Oh.

03:58 One’s name is Adam. Well, I don’t know where he is. One’s named Joey, he’s home. Kristen, Erin…

04:16 I don’t know much else..

04:18 I understand that there’s a Japanese community around here. Do you have much contact with the Japanese community?

04:24 Well, there’s a JCL. You’ve heard about that haven’t you? Japanese American Citizens League, and it’s the Pocatello, Blackfoot chapter. And I think that it consists of about, maybe 40 families.

04:40 Do you have many functions that you’ve attended?

04:44 Well, not very many. They have a salmon bake every about August. They usually have a picnic in June. And they meet once in a while, but usually when they meet it’s like the, for funerals, and weddings, and a lot of times they use the Japanese Hall to have their receptions. And all the women pitch in and make the food, good food, sushi and all the good stuff.

05:16 You know, it might be interesting to ask the children how they perceive their role as far as traditional or non traditional, and their acceptance and whatever. Yeah.

05:27 Yes, I do. Do they accept you? And well, I just started a new Japanese just called, Kendo?
Kenjutso. Kenjutso. And they accepted me in there in kenjutsu. And that is a very hard style that takes the blood and the Spirit and the power and the time and effort to do it.

05:58 Richard, do you do you learn anything from being Japanese?

06:03 Yes, I do. I learn the spirit of my great grandfather, and the sword and the staff, and have all sorts of different weapons

06:16 Interested in weapons?

06:19 Do you speak Japanese?

06:21 Only a little bit in practice in that in a long time, but I know I can count to 99 in Japanese.

06:39 Can you say the alphabet?

06:42 Julia’s last year’s speech included the Japanese alphabet. And she took an honorable mention two years in a row. And she started when she was three years old.

06:54 Excuse me. I think I might remember part of it. Okay, (recites Japanese alphabet). And I? Well, my, I know that a lot of people at my school like me, but they always know that I’m there for them when they need me.

07:29 Do they know that you’re half Japanese?
No? No, I don’t tell them. Do any of the kids that you play with, give you trouble because you half Japanese?

07:43 No, but there’s one kid who did when I was at my local school.

07:49 But that wasn’t because you were Japanese. Just because you’re….

07:55 I was only three years old! How about you, Richard?
No, not really. I haven’t had any troubles with my friends, except the one down in street.

08:07 In fact, do you think, do you feel that being Japanese has has opened any doors for you?

08:13 A lot of, a lot of experiences that I might have not had if I was full American?

08:23 You know, for example, do they accept everyone into kenjutsu?

08:31 No. Because some of them may have, may be the high ranking student or may have the power but they might not have the Spirit of the blood. Just like shekudo, they accepted me and I’m one of the lowest ranking students. And they didn’t and they and they don’t know if they’re going to accept the highest ranking student.

08:58 What does he mean by lowest ranking student?

09:00 The lowest of the low, one of the lower belts versus the higher belts. Do you know why you were being taught kenjutsu with the bow? The bow staff and the sword? No. Have there been very few other people have been accepted?

09:15 Because of you and because I’m half Japanese,

09:19 Is it because of the sword?
No. What is it?

09:23 My blood and my spirit.

09:29 So like a young one of you…

09:37 another

09:39 you’d like to best

09:46 cheer for you. Now originally, historically

10:00 for three hours lose the talk on this topic

10:17 just don’t turn it off

10:27 to take on new

10:36 challenges right

10:46 soon as possible

10:58 boys cries rather shoes

11:10 sister with legs

11:26 nobody wants to excuse me was the was the picture the last person or the sex that sounded Richard’s father he had a jazz group in Hawaii

11:55 gonna show up after the state right

12:07 now

12:17 there has been a Chinese that they had a second to last week on the show God bless

12:38 know I just don’t want to

12:52 live there going over the parapet as much as they can not just me talking about something that was very new. We’re kind of untraditional for almost for both American and Japanese having a business and being independent. But that was kind of kind of different than your marriage

13:37 No Sounds

13:55 good Saturday, Sunday

17:07 Wow

17:41 okay my friends