The North American Post Seattle Tomodachi Special Edition - Celebrating Sam Goto

SEATTLE TOMODACHI Special Edition March 10th, 2018

Your Link to SEATTLE’S JAPANESE COMMUNITY Since 1902

Interview with Sam and Dee Goto

Sam and Dee tell the story behind the Seattle Tomodachi strip (p. 8). Photo: Goto Family

Sam surveys his final comic strips

SPECIAL EDITION

Remembering Sam Goto

Seattle Tomodachi cartoonist left lasting legacy

Sam left quite a few comic strips that we will continue to publish in each issue of the North American Post.

▲ The very first Seattle Tomodachi strip appeared in the September 6, 2012 issue of the North American Post.

This special edition is a collaborative project of the North American Post and the Japanese Cultural & Community Center of Washington (JCCCW) made possible by a grant from 4 Culture.

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The Early Days

Sam

imagined what life must have been like for a Nisei in Seattle in the late 19th century. The gold rush was on, and people were coming through Seattle ready to stake their claims or celebrate their newfound riches.

He also gives a nod to Japanese thrift in a strip that shows a father tell his son that steady money can be made serving the newly rich, who often let their money quickly slip through their fingers.

Meanwhile, Sam captures the heartbreak of Japanese as young as 14 coming to a new country far from home to work.

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Hardships & the Gambaru Spirit

Seattle

Tomodachi brings home just how hard life was for Nisei before the war. But the comic strips also show the resilience of the Japanese Americans and their never-saydie gambaru spirit in the face of natural calamities, institutional racism and life in a new land.

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Hardships & the gambaru spirit

Sam

was especially good at reminding us how hard life was for our ancestors. The strip where the loggers come home from Montana, stop in Spokane to celebrate the end of World War I, then arrive in Seattle only to find that the Spanish flu is sweeping the area shows in six small boxes just how tough life in the first part of the 20th century could be.

There’s a pathos to Seattle Tomodachi that never makes it a downer even when Sam is delivering difficult news like the fact that Asian women who married non-citizens lost their citizenship. He delivers a history lesson that, if anything, makes us realize how resilient our grandparents’, great grandparents’ and great-great grandparents’ generations were.

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Nisei and the American pastime

No

American sport grabbed the interest of the Japanese Americans in the Pacific Northwest more than baseball. There were all sorts of leagues. Tournaments were held on the 4th of July.

And sometimes, games were held with white teams, helping to bridge the racial divide little by little.

▼ White River Buddhist Baseball Association Photo Courtesy of the Yamada Family Collection (From Densho Digital Repository)

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▼ Baseball Game in 1930's Courtesy of the Natsuhara Family Collection (From Densho Digital Repository)

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Keeping Your Sense of Humor

Sam

wanted to bring a smile to the readers of Seattle Tomodachi.

Often, he found the humor in everyday life. He had an ear for a good story and a way with telling details. Even the story about the doctor who constantly recommended the names Mary and George for newborns was said to be true! If you have a Mary or a George in your family tree, maybe this is the doctor that delivered your relative long ago!

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Food is Important

Sam

's comic strips about food show both how the Japanese Americans loved their Japanese cuisine but also how they adapted to life in Seattle wherever they could. For example, Sam has many comic strips about mushrooms, especially the delicious and once plentiful matsutake. In Japan, this was considered a fabulous treat, but in Seattle, if you knew the right place to go in the Cascades, you could find plenty of big, beautiful matsutake and dine like an emperor. And American-style fried chicken is pretty good too!

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INTERVIEW

Sam Goto ▲ Sam at his desk, where he drew each Seattle Tomodachi strip.

wanted to make you smile

Sam Goto drew his Seattle Tomodachi strip for five years. He passed away on New Year’s Eve 2017, but he left the North American Post with enough new comic strips to last well into 2018. For five years, Sam told mostly true tales about Nisei life in the Pacific Northwest. His strips were funny, whimsical, silly and sometimes a little serious or sad. But collectively, they tell a story of what it was like to be a new immigrant to the US, what the community did to maintain its culture and values, and how, little by little, people would assimilate into the mainstream culture.

Sam worked in the Medical Dental Building in downtown Seattle as a dental technician until he was 82. He released a book in 2011 titled My Fifty Years in Seattle’s Medical-Dental Building that, of course, includes lots of his drawings.

The North American Post sat down with Sam and his wife Dee to talk about Seattle Tomodachi just before Thanksgiving 2017. It would turn out to be one of the last days Sam felt completely healthy; so looking back on that visit, we cherish the time we had with Sam and Dee discussing his work and life. Excerpts from the interview follow.

Interview by Bruce Rutledge Photo by Kimi Rutledge

NAP: I understand you were inspired by Walt Disney.

Sam: Yes, when I was about 6 years old.

That’s a long time ago. Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs and Bambi inspired me.

NAP: Where did you grow up?

Sam: I didn’t grow up in one place.

I moved around a lot. When the war started, we lived in Bully Creek, near Vale, Oregon. Those years were real tough because there was a lot of prejudice.

Man, I thought we were the worst race of people in the world. I would get beat up. If they were bigger, I would fight back. I got called names when I was nine or 10 years old. It’s not a good feeling.

That’s supposed to be one of the most impressionable ages.

In high school, I did football and track. At the College of Idaho, I ran track with RC Owens (later a star with the San Francisco

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49ers in the National Football League).

He was a skinny guy. We were a two-man track team a lot of times. He was quite a guy. I lost track of him. He didn’t practice track, but he could outrun me.

Two years into college, I got drafted. I was in Germany. I was with the 95th Combat Engineers for awhile, and then I got called up to 7th Army Headquarters in Stuttgart, Germany, and we had control over the whole army over there. It was a big deal.

To set a good example, we had to pull KP and all these things while other people hired Germans to do that. It was a pretty good job. I was a design draftsman.

NAP: Then you came back to Seattle.

How did you make a living?

Sam: I was a dental technician. I had a dental lab in the Medical Dental Building.

I worked there about 55 years. At 82, I finally retired. Basically, it was a one-

man shop. It was good that I had a little business, because I learned about how businesses have to operate. A lot of people don’t understand what businesses have to go through. Small businesses have to go through all the crap that big businesses do. I had to put a back-flow valve on the sink, I had to put a trap on this thing or that… I was by myself. I would see patients once a day, or twice a week, but I had to have an exit sign on the door. It was dumb!

NAP: At the end of your career, you were already writing Seattle Tomodachi. How long have you written the comic strip?

Sam: Five years. Isn’t that something? She (points to his wife, Dee) got me started.

She wanted to get some advertising in the Post, so my comic strip was supposed to be in exchange for her advertising. I got talked into doing it. I had never done a comic strip that much. Anyhow, it’s

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▼ Sam wrote a book about his career as a dental technician in the Medical Dental Building. It will come as no surprise that the book is filled with Sam's illustrations!

▲ Refrigerator magnet of Sam and Dee in earlier days.

“One of the guys at the paper said it made him smile, and that’s good enough for me. ” ▼ Sam peruses his final batch of comic strips. These strips are being published one by one this year in each issue of the North American Post.

▲ A drawing Sam had framed to remind him of what was important.

been pretty good. I think we’ve helped the paper.

NAP: How did you come up with the concept of focusing on the first Nisei in Seattle?

Dee: I interviewed him. I have a tape of him. I got a job at the University (of Washington) to start the archives for the Japanese collection. I am actually a nurse. At first I said no because I had no interest in history, but Sam talked me into it. That’s why I know so much, because I went and interviewed about 30 of the Issei.

When I started working there, that was 10 years after we got married, we found out that his grandfather and my grandfather were best friends. And my grandfather stayed up all night with him when his grandfather died. They were really close.

NAP: Wow. And you had no idea that your grandfathers were best buddies until NAPOST.COM | JCCCW.ORG

10 years after your marriage?

Dee: I was born a few miles from where they lived. We didn’t know about that either. The old people never talked about their hard times. So they never told us the stories. Sam and I met in Seattle.

Sam: At one time, Seattle Tomodachi was going to be about Shigeru growing up.

But then we watched some TV program where this cartoonist said he wouldn’t let his kids grow up. After that, we decided, he’s probably right. We don’t want them to grow up. But then he grows in different areas. In other words, he’s not at the age where he started; he’s at different ages.

NAP: So you put him into the late 19th century or the 1930s …

Sam: Right. You can go anywhere you want. I tried to keep a lot of historical stuff and our Japanese values and customs.

Special Edition March 10th, 2018

Dee: There was a debate about the incarceration.

Sam: There’s very little about the incarceration. I wanted to stay away from that. It gets too political.

Dee: He doesn’t want to put humor into it.

Sam: That’s the hardest part.

NAP: And the strips are based on true stories?

Sam: Most of them are based on something true. That’s why I might run out someday.

NAP: How would you characterize your style?

Sam: My style is pretty subtle. One of the guys at the paper said it made him smile, and that’s good enough for me.

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Setting down roots

The Japanese Language School

One

of the most vital locations of the Japanese American community in Seattle is the Japanese Language School, the oldest operating Japanese language school in the continental US. It was founded in 1902 and has grown and adapted to community needs over the decades. After World War II, it served as a temporary home for many of the people returning from concentration camps and trying to rebuild their lives. Today, the school offers evening classes for adults and weekend classes for students. The language classes also incorporate lessons on Japanese history and culture.

▼ Japanese language school undokai, which was similar to a field day. Photo Courtesy of the Seattle Japanese Language School. (From Densho Digital Repository)

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▼ The Japanese language school and students in 1910's. Photo Courtesy of the Seattle Japanese Language School. (From Densho Digital Repository)

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The Japanese Cultural & Community Center of Washington

The

Japanese Cultural & Community Center of Washington (JCCCW) was founded in 2003 by community leaders to preserve, share and promote Japanese and Japanese American history, heritage and culture. The three co-founders are former State Representative Kip Tokuda, TV anchorwoman Lori Matsukawa and Judge Ron Mamiya. From those beginnings, the JCCCW has grown into a dynamic gathering place for everything from language study to martial arts, writing groups and other community activities.

It is also home to the unique Hosekibako Japanese Resale Shop, which always has a few amazing artifacts and hidden treasures on display.

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Setting down roots

Sam

had a knack for turning the focus on children at key moments. He often focused on the changing role of Japanese American girls in the US, as he does in the last strip on this page. At the other end of life, he recalled tales of spirits and ghosts. The strip on this page about the uncle who kept tapping until he got a gravestone is said to be true.

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Sam

liked to remember the places where Japanese Americans gathered over the years. On this page, three famous gathering spots -the Occidental Cafe, the Jackson Cafe and Uwajimaya grocery store -- create the backdrop for his stories. A history buff, Sam would add details like the price of a T-bone steak (25 cents!) around 1900. He also had a keen eye for cultural quirks and differences.

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Ties to Japan

For

early Japanese American families, remembering and honoring the culture and traditions of their ancestors was an important part of life. As they adapted to American life, they made efforts to honor the past with traditions, festivals and crafts connected to Japan.

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The North American Post Seattle Tomodachi Special Edition March 10th, 2018 Published by

North American Post Publishing, Inc.

519 6th Ave. So. Suite 200, Seattle WA 98104 (206) 519-5469 | NAPOST.com

Japanese Cultural & Community Center of Washington 1414 S Weller St, Seattle, WA 98144 (206) 568-7114 | JCCCW.org

Cartoonist: Writer & Editor: Photographer:

Sam Goto Bruce Rutledge Kimi Rutledge

Japanese Cultural & Community Center of Washington Karen Yoshitomi Executive Director : Collections Manager: Stephanie Ikeda North American Post Publishing, Inc. Publisher: Tomio Moriguchi General Manager: Misa Murohashi Proofreader: Geraldine Shu Special Thanks to:

Dee Goto

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This special edition is a collaborative project of the Japanese Cultural & Community Center of Washington (JCCCW) and the North American Post, made possible by a grant from 4 Culture.

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Special Edition March 10th, 2018

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Sam Goto’s Seattle Tomodachi Special Edition