GOTO-HEALTH

Today was lunch at Sushi Joa on Mercer Island with Elaine and her two younger brothers Darrell & Zen Kitamura. This occasion follows the first meeting, two weeks ago, with Elaine at the Seattle Public Library, where my daughter, Kelly, was a speaker for AANHPI (Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders in the United States) conference. 

 

As Elaine was passing in front of me at the conference lunch break, she stopped and asked, “Are you Kelly’s mother? I’m Elaine Kitamura.”

 

I recognized the name as she confirmed that they were the family that ran the Kokusai Japanese movie theater  on Maynard until the 1980s.  I mentioned, “I knew your mother, Mitsuye Tanaka, from Ontario, Oregon, where I grew up and have been trying to connect with her.”

 

Elaine started to cry and pulled out kleenex saying, “Everyone knows my dad, but you are the first person I’ve met that knew my mom. She was quiet and never talked about herself. I want to bring my brothers and hear some stories about her.”

 

Today, Elaine brought her two younger brothers. Evidently, Mitsuye was born in Kent, Washington and had been sent back to Japan for her education. She was walking to school with friends when the Hiroshima Bomb knock then in to a ditch and burned her neck and back. 

I was able to add what I knew about their Tanaka heritage when I was 10-yrs-old and living in Eastern Oregon, where the Snake River divides Idaho and Oregon.

 

Mitsuye was brought back to the USA after WWII because of the dire conditions in Japan. Her dad and my grandpa were best friends and had migrated to Eastern Oregon in 1937, when the building of Owyhee Dam provided irrigation for farming that desert area and provided new opportunities because of discrimination and hard times in the Seattle area. Then, with the WWII incarceration of West coast Japanese, Ontario Mayor was the one of the only ones who welcomed the Japanese to help them start over. Therefore, our families were involved with establishing businesses to serve the influx of 100 of us before WWII to 1000 of us Japanese after. Ontario population was 5000 when I graduated.

 

The short time Mitsuye was in Ontario, she helped her dad run the Eastside Hotel while “Old-man Tanaka” as we called him, played the Japanese games of Hana and Go with his friends like my grandpa. Grandpa was the babysitter of my baby cousin and me while our parents ran the Ontario Fish Market business across the street/highway 30. Mitsuye was the one who changed the diapers and made “onigiris” for us while the men played. There was a skating rink in the first floor business spaces and she took me to go and learn skating.

 

The four of us got excited as we contined to share stories and agreed to work on a book, as children of business owners growing up in Seattle’s Japan Town after WWII. The siblings confirmed they were with their Dad as he interacted with various business owners dealing with “cash exchanges”. We’ve agreed to keep getting together.

 

Sitting at the next table with only the shiny head showing, Mike George of Bezos Academy, couldn’t help but say something about our excitement. Elaine, with her irresistible nature, drew him into possibly working with us!

 

My life continues to be a series of coincidences and serendipity situations! Love it!!