Discover Nikkei

https://www.discovernikkei.org/en/interviews/clips/686/

Memories of railroad workers who stayed at family's prewar hotel in Spokane, Washington

And quite often, the workers would come in, and my mother was the one that was working in the hotel, and my dad was working at Great Northern, so he wasn't home during this period, time element. And the WPA CCC people would come in and give my mother, they used to call her “Mama,” you know, like I used to call my mother. And would give her a big steelhead trout that they somehow captured in the streams that they were working in, in the mountains. And I remember several instances where the steelhead were, it seems to me they were in the eight, ten, twelve pound range. Large trout. And naturally we ate it. They were good enough to remember my mother and I guess we just all got along real well.


families hotels railroads

Date: March 15 & 16, 2006

Location: Washington, US

Interviewer: Megan Asaka

Contributed by: Denshō: The Japanese American Legacy Project.

Interviewee Bio

Nisei male. Born 1923 in Spokane, Washington. Spent childhood in downtown Spokane where parents ran the World Hotel. Father also worked as a mail handler for the Great Northern Railroad. Attended Lewis and Clark High School and Washington State University. During the war remembers seeing train cars pass through Spokane with Japanese Americans headed to Heart Mountain incarceration camp, Wyoming. Drafted into the army in 1944 and served at the Military Intelligence Service Language School in Fort Snelling, Minnesota and Presidio, California. After World War II, worked as a chick sexer in upstate New York and surrounding region for thirty years. Returned to Spokane in the mid-1970s and pursued a career in real estate. Currently lives with wife, Susie, in Spokane and is an active fly fisherman. (March 16, 2006 )

Wayne Shigeto Yokoyama
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Yokoyama,Wayne Shigeto

Food growing up

(b.1948) Nikkei from Southern California living in Japan.

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Pat Adachi
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Adachi,Pat

Relationship with my father

(b. 1920) Incarcerated during World War II. Active member of the Japanese Canadian community

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Venancio Shinki
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Shinki,Venancio

Iron discipline at home (Spanish)

(b. 1932-2016) Peruvian painter

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Kimi Wakabayashi
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Wakabayashi,Kimi

Arranged marriage

(b.1912) Japanese Canadian Issei. Immigrated with husband to Canada in 1931

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Shizuko Kadoguchi
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Kadoguchi,Shizuko

Marrying Bob against family’s wishes

(b.1920) Japanese Canadian Nisei. Established the Ikenobo Ikebana Society of Toronto

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Enson Inoue
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Inoue,Enson

Growing up in a Japanese American family

(b. 1967) Hawai`i-born professional fighter in Japan

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George Katsumi Yuzawa
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Yuzawa,George Katsumi

Death of sister in October 1942

(1915 - 2011) Nisei florist who resettled in New York City after WW II. Active in Japanese American civil rights movement

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Roy Hirabayashi
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Hirabayashi,Roy

Learning Japanese at school and at home with family

(b.1951) Co-founder and managing director of San Jose Taiko.

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Aiko Yoshinaga Herzig
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Herzig,Aiko Yoshinaga

Family separated in the camps

(1924-2018) Researcher, Activist

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Bert A. Kobayashi
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Kobayashi,Bert A.

Family first

(b.1944) Founder of Kobayashi Group, LLC

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Bert A. Kobayashi
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Kobayashi,Bert A.

Being accepted as biracial family

(b.1944) Founder of Kobayashi Group, LLC

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Paula Hoyos Hattori
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Hattori,Paula Hoyos

Her interests in Japanese culture (Spanish)

Sansei Argentinean

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Margaret Oda
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Oda,Margaret

Growing up with Japanese language and values

(1925 - 2018) Nisei educator from Hawai‘i

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Doris Moromisato
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Moromisato, Doris

I’m a Japanese, Peruvian… who am I? (Spanish)

(b. 1962) Peruvian Poet, Okinawan descendant

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Henry Suto
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Suto,Henry

Fitting back into American life

(1928 - 2008) Drafted into both the Japanese Imperial Army and the U.S. Army.

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