Interviews
From scrubbing pad factory worker to tailor
Most people moved inland to pursue agriculture, but we were brought there by Shimuta Katsumi and Shimuta, so we didn't need to farm and we lived in São Paulo from the beginning.
The Shimuta couple ran a small factory that made scrubbing brushes. I think they called us in to secure a labor force for the factory, but no matter how I think about it, the people who had been there since before the war and those of us who came after the war had completely different ways of thinking.
So, how long were we there? About a year and a half or two years. My father was a tailor. So, in Japan. He had been doing that since he was young. So, because he had a job, a career, he was able to somehow make it even after he left there.
Date: September 19, 2019
Location: California, US
Interviewer: Yoko Nishimura
Contributed by: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum