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."