Interviews

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

2. Working as a night clerk at family's Spokane, Washington, hotel, throwing out the drunk residents

3. Family's hotel clientele, transients traveling by rail

4. Japanese American railroad workers are fired following the bombing of Pearl Harbor

5. Losing job with railroad because of being Japanese American

6. A racist encounter at a movie theater following the bombing of Pearl Harbor

7. Encountering a train full of Japanese Americans being transported to a concentration camp

8. Description of the process of chick sexing

9. The rigorous work schedule of a chick-sexer in upstate New York

10. The importance of speed and accuracy in the chick-sexing industry

11. The enormous demand for chick sexers in the chicken hatchery industry

George Yamada

(b. 1923) Chick sexer

Losing job with railroad because of being Japanese American

I even got a job driving a car to post what trains were coming through Spokane: freight, passenger. And I got the job, but they found out I was Japanese, and, “Hey, you can't have a Japanese delivering train schedules.” They were afraid the Japanese would bomb or whatever these railroad and freight, freight cars loaded with war goods. I've seen tanks going through Spokane, you know, army tanks. I was fired immediately, on the spot. They found out I was Yamada, Japanese, and I couldn't have that kind of sensitive job delivering. I used to have to go into Hillyard Station and post arrival of a freight train coming through Spokane and that. And it was a job that was a good job, but they fired me on that.

discrimination interpersonal relations racism railroads Spokane United States Washington

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 )

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