Interviews

1. Business in Missouri (Japanese)

2. My daughter couldn’t fit in Japan, so I decided to go back to America (Japanese)

3. Facing discrimination in America (Japanese)

Ohtomo,Hachiro

(b. 1936) Shin-issei welding business owner

Facing discrimination in America (Japanese)

(Japanese) I don’t think people would ask me, ‘Can you do the job?’ if I was American, too. But they would ask me things like, ‘Do you know how to do welding?’ so frankly. They would ask that even inside the store. So I’d get them out, saying ‘Where do you think you are? What do you think we do here at the welding store? Please leave. Goodbye.’ I would say that to bad-mannered ones. So people who know me, since I’ve been doing the business since 1978, uh since 1980, they know that I would lose my temper if people said something rude, so they would tell people, don’t go there, they would say, don’t go there - or you need to keep your mouth shut if you really want the work done at his place. Those who know me know things like that.

Date: July 17, 2016

Location: California, US

Interviewer: Yoko Nishimura, Mitsue Watanabe

Contributed by: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum

Interviewee Bio

Hachiro Ohtomo was born in August, 1936, in Ono-mura, Monou-gun (currently Higashi Matsuyama City) in Miyagi Prefecture to parents who made a living by farming and fishing. He moved to Yokohama right after high school graduation and became a plumber, engaging primarily in construction works of power plants. In 1961, at age 25 he established a contractor of power plants ‘Kahoku Sangyo’ with his brother gaining success, yet he left the company and started his own business, after conflicts with his brother. In 1975, he ran for mayor in Yokohama but lost the election. He then decided to move to America. He obtained a green card and moved to Kansas City in the state of Missouri, where his sister lived at the time, with his wife and two daughters but returned to Japan after a year and a half. As his daughter couldn’t fit in the life in Japan, however, after 10 months he decided to go back to America with his family. In 1978, he moved to Los Angeles with his family. He has lived in Monrovia, California since then and has been engaged in the welding business (AAM Welding Company) in Baldwin Park. (October, 2017)