The first opportunity was to work at the Port Blakely lumber mill, the largest in the world at that time. It was built in the late 1880’s by Capt. Renton and paid Grandpa, who was single then, $1.30 per day which included board and room. From those earnings he saved enough to build a barbershop with living quarters upstairs on Winslow Way, and started a barber business with Grandma who arrived on Bainbridge Island in 1906 after an arranged marriage in their hometown, Agenosho, Japan. The business expanded to include a bathhouse and laundry service in the neighborhood to help support a growing family of 4 sons and 3 daughters. A sign reads in the window “Haircut, Shave, and Bath – 50 Cents!”

The next helping hand was in 1924 when my grandfather wanted to buy a strawberry farm and needed a U. S. citizen of legal age to sign the papers, which was done by a member of the Nakao family. Ownership papers were transferred to Dad four years later when he became 21.

They developed a successful business on the farm, but by 1930 my father, John, accepted the generous offer to apprentice in a meat shop owned by Charlie Bremer near the barber shop for $12.00 a week. This was a decision that significantly changed the future of our family. Dad was so enthusiastic about the business, that after he completed the apprenticeship, he bought it in 1935 and in 1940 built a brand new grocery store replacing the barbershop building.

In 1933 my father and mother were married in an arranged marriage which also included his sister marrying my mother’s brother on the family property. To economize they all went together on their honeymoon in the same car.

After World War II started, the Japanese on Bainbridge Island were the first to be relocated by the government to Manzanar internment camp located near Death Valley in California. Continuing the theme of who helped our family over the years, Walt and Millie Woodward, owners of the Bainbridge Review, took a courageous stand defending the constitutional rights of the Japanese American families who had to leave. The Woodwards continue to be admired and respected for their principles during a difficult time in our community’s history.

Life in Manzanar was challenging with cramped quarters, 9 people living in one room, adapting to eating in mess halls, restrooms a block away, and finding useful employment. My Dad worked in the kitchen as a meat cutter, my mother was a housekeeper for the camp administrators, my uncle Mo enlisted in the Army 442nd Regimental Combat Unit where he earned a Purple Heart while fighting in Italy. My Dad’s youngest brother Ken finished high school in the only graduating class in camp. After the first year Gerald moved to Caldwell, Idaho, to join his sister Jean and her husband to work on a vegetable farm.

The next act of kindness was when Tub Hansen, who later became a state legislator, offered my father a job on his cattle ranch in Moses Lake, when we were released from camp in the spring of 1945. We stayed there through summer until time for school to start in the fall and when we felt that the atmosphere on Bainbridge was accepting enough for us to return. Fortunately, we had a home to come to which was the strawberry farm where my two older brothers and I were born. However, the grocery store Dad built before the war was sold and ownership lost due to the uncertainty of the times.

Starting over was a challenging time, but again, friends and partnerships were formed to help shape the family’s future. A long lasting one was with Ed Loverich who partnered with John and Mo in the grocery business in 1957. Another helping hand was given by the Winslow town investors, who offered to build a brand new building on Winslow Way for them in which to operate a state of the art grocery store. It became known as Town and Country Market. My late brother Don led the expansion of the business in the communities of Poulsbo, Ballard, Greenwood, Shoreline and Mill Creek.

The entire family does not work for the family business. However, some family members of each of the four sons who did are now employed by the business.

Our grandparents would be pleased to see today how many of their descendants are continuing to follow the American dream they had envisioned for themselves and their family over a hundred years ago. The individuals who married into our family as a husband, wife, son-in-law or daughter-in-law, uncle or aunt, have supported that dream as well.

I would like to recognize our aunt Yo Nakata who is our last remaining second generation, or Nisei, family member. She and her late husband, Uncle Ken, raised seven children, who are among my grandparents’ 23 grandchildren, 24 great grandchildren, and 12 great-great grandchildren. I know my grandfather would proudly say with a big smile, “Hooray! We are going to be in the phone book for a long time.

We hope we have reflected the mission and purpose of our historical society to cherish our past and to appreciate our ancestors’ accomplishments. We are blessed and forever grateful for our friends, community, and country.

We congratulate the other families here tonight and celebrate with them this special event