gotohealth's Blog

Mr. K. Miyamoto was my grandpa from Goin, Hiroshima Ken, in Japan and clearly was a leader of the Eatonville Lumber Company Japanese workers. My Dad, Sago Miyamoto, was born in 1908 and was a nisei. Records indicate the “Jap Camp” where the workers of Japanese heritage lived separately, was created around 1910. Dad and his younger brother George graduated from Eatonville High School. After George graduated, the parents chose to return to Japan and left my Dad penniless in hopes he would follow. Dad wanted to be American.

 

Japanese immigrants who stayed in America were very entrepreneurial and found clever ways to earn extra money. My research indicates the immigrants were from established and not poor families in Japan, as it took over a year’s average salary to pay for passage to America in the early 1900s. They were clever in facing discrimination and clearly used their social skills to get to know the town leaders and sheriff in the small Washington towns wherever the first jobs and businesses were created. 

 

Typical of immigrants, they didn’t talk about their hard times. I knew little about my Dad's history. Accidentally finding the following article on page 422 of Jess McAbee’s book  RAILS TO PARADISE - The History of the Tacoma Eastern Railroad 1890 -1919, was most enlightening!

 

 

 

 

 

 

“The manufacture of illegal spirits was popular in the West even before the Volstead Act (National Prohibition Act) of 1919. Loggers and lumberman particularly liked their whiskey regardless of race, apparently, and the newspaper editor found great humor in the whole affair:

 

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Last Sunday Eatonville was accorded the supreme honor and privilege of entertaining the County Sheriff and a bevy of his ‘acquaintances.” ‘The party was the guests of Mr. K. Miyamoto a Japanese mill-worker in the employ of the Eatonville Lumber Co.  Mr. Miyamoto entertained his friends with some novel sights, notably an amber colored liquid used, as Mr. Miyamoto explained, ‘for experimental purposes.’ As the guests had taken a large amount of this liquid for the purpose of showing it to their Tacoma friends, they were entertained in a little game known as ‘Break the bottle.’ This proved very amusing and entertaining. On account of lack of County transportation the Eatonville City truck was pressed into service to carry the ‘experimental’ liquid to Tacoma. This however proved disastrous because of the peculiar actions of the truck after the cargo was safely stowed aboard. After crisscrossing the road a number of times, it finally sloughed into a ditch and turned over on its side. The escort vouchsafed the information that the truck was loaded."

One of the issues in our present household is my reluctance to cater to my daughter and granddaughter’s taste buds. Daughter is a great creator of various cuisine and lovely hostess as a result of her interest in food from early childhood. 

 

During the 56 years I cooked for my late husband Sam, he hated elaborate recipes and just wanted strait salt and pepper on his meat fish and vegetables with brown rice. My cooking is therefore simple, quick and fills a need. I grew up being, from early childhood, the family breakfast cook of bacon and eggs with rice.

This morning, I’m feeling harassed as to following this Martha Stewart Recipe type routine. I’m using this incident to learn. The first suggestion by Beck is to accept the “suffering” - pay attention to the suffering and let it stay.”  We all have suffering daily and this is applicable to all levels.

 

The second step is to address my suffering with compassion and kindness. As soon as I let it stay, it will quiet down.

 

The third step is to realize and practice holding the suffering - creating a peace that holds that suffering so lovingly that it is no longer concerning.

 

Fourth Step: Never stop having this process available every day/every minute! Beck has suggestions for a “daily practice” outline that I will write in another blog. 

 

I am learning to feel my real self, inside my human embodied existence and it is exciting. 

 

 

 Growing up in the Treasure Valley of Western Idaho and Eastern Oregon and graduating from Ontario High School, my Aunt Ethel told me this story with emphasis about how grateful she and the community felt about Mayor Elmo Smith. 

When Executive Order 9066 was signed in 1942, unlike the Governor of Idaho and mayors of the other small towns nearby, Mayor Smith declared, “If it’s necessary to remove those of Japanese heritage from the West Coast for security reasons, they have to have a place to go.”   And he welcomed Japanese to Ontario.

 

Ontario, Oregon, is a small area of Eastern Oregon, on the Snake River that divides Idaho and Oregon, not far from Boise, Idaho. Smith, orphaned at age 13, grew up with an uncle near Wilder. He supported himself financially and graduated from the College of Idaho. He founded the Ontario Observer newspaper in 1936 before he was elected Mayor of Ontario in 1940. 

 

Ninety miles north of Ontario, Baker City Japanese were forced to leave and many of them moved to the Ontario area. Aunt Ethel’s family was one of those Baker City Japanese families. Ontario area Japanese were also considered for removal, but Aunt Ethel again explained, “Mayor Elmo Smith stood up for them.”

 

When the incarceration camps like Minidoka, in Idaho, closed in 1945; Ontario was where many started over. My Grandpa K, his sons, Ben and Frank, with Uncle Ted started a grocery business, Ontario Fish Market, in 1945 with delivery services out a 50-mile radius of the Treasure Valley. When Uncle Ted died in his crushed van in 1947, my dad became the FISH MAN out of ONTARIO MARKET. 

 

The 1949 Ontario High School Annual shows that 15% of the students have Japanese names. Ontario population at that time was around 4500. Also, I counted the Ontario Evergreen Cemetery names in 1995 and found 10% of the names were Japanese.

 

As I research the Japanese Experience in the Pacific Northwest and visit small towns, it is clear that most first generation Japanese immigrants who stayed in America were very entrepreneurial. Valuing American freedom, most immigrant farmers were from established families in Japan where getting along, culture and education were high priorities. Getting to know the mayor and chief of police is characteristic of most of the stories I am hearing. 

 

Ontario Citizens were drawn to this Eastern Oregon community from Canada, Spain, Mexico, Japan - the Japanese because the Owyhee Dam, completed around 1930, provided irrigation for row crop farming. My family moved to the area in October 1937.  Maybe there is something in Ontario air and water, but a surprising number have gone back out to the world, becoming major contributors.

 

Elmo Smith later became Governor of Oregon. Our 1956 Class President Loren Cox was head of Asia and Africa with Peace Corp. Calvin Tanabe was one of Portland’s leading Neurosurgeons.  Ray Dickerson escorted Colin Powell around Saudi Arabia. From Ontario are two Washington State Senators, Jim Honeyford and Steve Conway. Marvin Harada, Bishop of Buddhist Churches of America, says he was born in Ontario.

 

What a heritage example of “doing the right thing” people like Elmo Smith provides for today’s communities, a mantra we can pass on to future generations.