Oral History Program Mayumi Call Interviewed by Lorrie Rands and Brian Whitney 16 October 2014 Oral History Program Weber State University Stewart Library Ogden, Utah Mayumi Call Interviewed by Lorrie Rands and Brian Whitney 16 October 2014 Copyright © 2014 by Weber State University, Stewart Library iii Mission Statement The Oral History Program of the Stewart Library was created to preserve the institutional history of Weber State University and the Davis, Ogden and Weber County communities. By conducting carefully researched, recorded, and transcribed interviews, the Oral History Program creates archival oral histories intended for the widest possible use. Interviews are conducted with the goal of eliciting from each participant a full and accurate account of events. The interviews are transcribed, edited for accuracy and clarity, and reviewed by the interviewees (as available), who are encouraged to augment or correct their spoken words. The reviewed and corrected transcripts are indexed, printed, and bound with photographs and illustrative materials as available. The working files, original recording, and archival copies are housed in the University Archives. Project Description Immigrants at the Crossroads - Ogden City is a project to collect oral histories, photographs and artifacts related to the immigrant populations that helped shape the cultural and economic climate of Ogden. This project will expand the contributions made by Ogden’s immigrant populations: the Dutch, Italian and Greek immigrants who came to work on the railroad and the Japanese who arrived after World War II from the West Coast and from internment camps. ____________________________________ Oral history is a method of collecting historical information through recorded interviews between a narrator with firsthand knowledge of historically significant events and a well-informed interviewer, with the goal of preserving substantive additions to the historical record. Because it is primary material, oral history is not intended to present the final, verified, or complete narrative of events. It is a spoken account. It reflects personal opinion offered by the interviewee in response to questioning, and as such it is partisan, deeply involved, and irreplaceable. ____________________________________ Rights Management This work is the property of the Weber State University, Stewart Library Oral History Program. It may be used freely by individuals for research, teaching and personal use as long as this statement of availability is included in the text. It is recommended that this oral history be cited as follows: Call, Mayumi, an oral history by Lorrie Rands and Brian Whitney, 16 October 2014, WSU Stewart Library Oral History Program, University Archives, Stewart Library, Weber State University, Ogden, UT. Kay’s Apartment Building Kay’s Noodle Parlor Inside Kay’s Noodle Parlor Tomeno Mukai Kenjiro Mukai Mayumi Call October 16, 2014 1 Abstract: This is an oral history interview with Mayumi Call, conducted by Lorrie Rands and Brian Whitney on October 16, 2014. Mayumi shares her recollections and experiences as a Japanese immigrant in Ogden. Her in-laws, Kenjiro and Tomeno Mukai, owned Kay’s Noodle Parlor and were very active in the Buddhist Church. BW: So we’re at the home of Mayumi Call in North Salt Lake. This will be an interview with Mayumi that’s being conducted by Brian Whitney and with Lorrie Rands. The date is October 16, 2014 and interview time is a little after 11 a.m. So thank you for letting us back in your home Mayumi, we really appreciate it. MC: You’re welcome. BW: So just starting off with the basic information. Just your name and where you were born. MC: My name is Mayumi Mizuko Mukai Call. I was born in Tokyo, Japan, March 31, 1940, and I’ve been in America for half a century. BW: Great and why did you come to Ogden? MC: Ogden? Oh, at first came to America to Honolulu, Hawaii to attend University of Hawaii. I lived there for five years and I met my husband from Ogden, Robert Mukai. Through common friends we were introduced and we got married. I came to Ogden in March of 1963. So I’ve been in Utah since then. My husband at that time was an attorney in Salt Lake City. He was an Ogden boy; he was born and raised in Ogden and went to the University of Utah for his bachelor’s and master’s and his Juris Doctor’s degree. So it’s just natural I came to Utah that 2 way. I lived in Ogden for about—from 1963 until 1992, when I got remarried to Vern Call. My first husband was killed in an automobile accident in 1966. I was a widow for twenty-six years. So after I got remarried we have gone to Japan on LDS mission for eighteen months and to Nanjing, China to teach at a university for a year and came back here. That’s when we build this house. So that was 1996. We’ve been living here since then in North Salt Lake. BW: Great, what was your husband doing in Hawaii and you, were you in school? MC: He was here in Utah. He was in Ogden, I was in Hawaii going to University of Hawaii. Common friends introduced us so he flew over, and we met that way. He came to see me after a while. Each time he came over he spent about two weeks at a time. Then we corresponded by mail, no email those days. That’s how we got to know each other. BW: What were you pursuing education-wise? MC: Oh in Honolulu, I was studying math and nutrition. I didn’t graduate when I got married. I was in junior year. After I came to Ogden, we lived right next door to Weber State on Taylor Avenue between 36th and college. So it was easy to attend school. So I continued and I wanted to graduate in nutrition, but they only have a two year program and I have taken all the classes they offered. I had to change major. I was not very good with English so it had to be something science, I like science anyway. So I majored in microbiology and minored in chemistry. That’s what I graduated in from Weber State in 1972. Then I wanted to be a medical technologist. Now the internship is included in a four year 3 program, but those days, I have to have bachelor’s first. Then take twelve months internship. That’s forty hours a week, for twelve months at the McKay- Dee Hospital laboratory. Then I got nationally accredited. You have to take an examination and I have worked at the McKay-Dee Hospital for twenty years. First ten years part-time and the second ten years full-time because I have small children that time. So that’s my profession, my field. I enjoyed it very much. BW: Wonderful, the next question that we wrote down was what were your memories of Kay’s Noodle Parlor? MC: Well, when I came to Utah in Ogden, Kay Noodle Parlor was on Kiesel Avenue between 24th and 25th in downtown Ogden. You know Kiesel, just half block below Washington. That was landmark I think for Ogden because Bob’s father started it. By the time I came to Ogden in 1963 both parents already deceased. So Bob’s sister, Himeyo Kariya, took over the business. So she was running it. And she run it for about thirty years. She became 65; that’s when she retired. So continuously over sixty years at the same location. It was a successful for family business. When Himeyo retired she did not want to sell the name of Kay’s Noodle Parlor. She had three sons but no one wanted to go into the restaurant business so she just retired and closed it. So Kay’s Noodle Parlor ended after sixty years. When I first came it was a family restaurant. Many people ate there for generations. Like a grandpa took them or a father took them and then you’re taking your children for dinner. My sister-in-law knew everybody in town and she knew them by name. Everybody just loved the place and we loved it too. Food was good, they made 4 homemade noodles and made chicken broth from scratch. They were delicious and both of my sons just loved that. We used to go every week to have noodles. A lot of good memories we had there. In downstairs there’s a big basement banquet hall so you can have big parties. I understand from the pictures Bob’s father had a lot of banquets there. Like when University of Utah had won the Basketball National Championship he gave dinner to honor the players, including the Governor and the University of Utah President. He made friends with Ogden Mayor and the police chief, he knew everybody. My husband was very active in debate at University of Utah so every time they had a big victory at debate tournament, his father would have a celebration dinner, inviting the participants, coach and everybody. We also had our own family dinners there, Christmas and Thanksgiving or whatever. Lots of memories for the family members. BW: Big part of the community. MC: Yes, I think so. Especially in the same location for a long time. You know, everybody knew the Noodle Parlor. Even now I talk to people and they say, “You know we have such a good memory going over there with grandpa or parents or taking kids.” So it was sad when my sister-in-law finally closed the door. BW: When was that? MC: You know I don’t have the exact year, but I think around 1980s, mid or early ‘80s. Himeyo, my sister-in-law, died last year at age 91 and she retired when she was about 65. So maybe close to thirty years ago. LR: What were your husband’s parents’ names? 5 MC: Kenjiro Mukai is the father’s name. Mother’s name is Tomeno Mukai. Kenjiro is kind of long so he was more known as Kay by local people. They came from Wakayama, Japan. I think Kay came when he was around twenty years old as a laborer somewhere in Utah. He worked and several years later he went back to Japan and brought back his bride who is a cousin from same village. They were longtime friends. After he brought her back they started Noodle Parlor together. LR: Something you mentioned last time, he, your father-in-law, was a very prominent member of Ogden. MC: Yes. LR: After Pearl Harbor I know, from talking with other Japanese members of the community, a lot of prominent members of the Japanese community were taken and interned, but Kay wasn’t one of them. MC: Well, I think the people in the community had a lot of respect for him including police chief and mayor. He was good friends with them through his business. They knew him really well, what a good man he was and how patriotic he was to the United States. Like during the war I understand the country sold war bonds and he was first in line to buy war bonds; that shows how patriotic he was. I heard he bought 1,000 dollars’ worth of war bond which was a lot of money in those days. He also care about the community. He imported Japanese cherry blossoms which he donated to different city parks, city and county building ground and I think he also donated to capitol grounds in Salt Lake. He was very conscious about goodwill between the two countries and he contributed to that. I found a lot of letters of appreciation from governors and mayors. 6 He had seven children. Some of them died young, but he made sure the children spoke very good English. He did not speak Japanese at home and just encouraged children to speak good English. As a result they don’t speak very good Japanese. They excelled in school, every one of them. BW: Do you think that his emphasis on language, having his children speak the English language and his community involvement helped the family not face as much potential discrimination? MC: Probably, I think my husband’s family all integrated to community and school very well. I don’t think they had any discrimination or what you call it nowadays? Bullying, that kind of thing. I don’t think they ever experienced those things. BW: The Noodle Parlor began in the twenties? MC: Yes, and lasted for some sixty years. BW: Did you hear any stories about going through the Great Depression with the business? MC: I’m sure they experienced it like anybody else, but no I haven’t. I heard that he was always charitable and I heard that at Thanksgiving time they gave free real turkey dinner to the homeless or those who were in need. Just have them come and eat free on Thanksgiving. I am sure they had some economic depression too, but I haven’t heard. BW: What are some of your memories of the Japanese community in Ogden? MC: Ogden—you know when I came, my husband was LDS so I was immediately connected to LDS community. Not so much Japanese. I think Japanese get together as the Buddhists. The Buddhist church is the center of their social and 7 religious activities. I did not attend Buddhist church except when somebody I knew died; most of the time they have funerals at the church. That’s when I got to see them, had dinner together afterwards and visit. So I knew many people, but only memory I have with them is the funerals and dinners afterwards. Even now you see people you normally don’t see, you see them at funerals. I did have few friends who came from Japan, contemporary my age that I worked with like at the Japanese program or whenever communities needs some kind of a Japanese cultural programs. A few of us would get together and plan the program. Eiko Kishimoto, Shizue Marumoto and I played koto, which is a six-foot string instrument. One friend, Yuko Aoki, did the tea ceremony, and another friend, Kiyomo Kishimoto did a Japanese dance. So we got together and they gave those programs to elementary schools, church groups, and some community groups whenever requests came to us. I used to attend Buddhist Festival where they have bazaars and we enjoyed their good Japanese dinners and confections. LR: Where were those festivals held? MC: Normally at the Ogden Buddhist church. When I first came, Buddhist church was on Lincoln Avenue right in downtown and they then moved close to Harrisville when they rebuilt a new building. The new church building is a bigger, really beautiful building. Now the older population died, and less and less younger generation Buddhists. They used to have their own minister but now a minister from Salt Lake or somewhere goes there to perform funerals. BW: The cultural programs, was that mostly organized through the Buddhist church? 8 MC: They have that every year. BW: And how did they connect with you? MC: Connect with me? BW: Yes, because you participated in some of the cultural programs. MC: Well I don’t participate. You know I just go and enjoy whatever they have on their program. When I was living in Ogden I have more information about what and when, but since I live here I don’t have any information unless I talk to somebody that belong to the church. I like to go to their bazaar because a lot of farmers bring their products and sell them. Ladies make Japanese food and sell them too. It is a treat to get them. BW: But you do get the sense there was some sort of a community celebration of heritage that was going on. MC: Yeah, it is a good gathering place for Japanese community and friends. For me it was a special time to see my old friends who still live in Ogden. BW: Yes, well maybe we can talk a little bit more about your time at Weber State, your teaching, how that came about and go from there. MC: Well it started because I was student there, after I moved there in 1963. My husband got a one year contract with Weber State as head debate coach. He was attorney, but he was a champion debater when he was a student at the University of Utah. Debate coach at the University of Utah at that time was George Adamson and he was twenty or thirty years long-time coach at the U. Bob was his favorite student and he wanted Bob to take over his program at the U. At that time he was helping him in like a half-day a week while he was 9 practicing law. He did enjoy teaching too. So George Adamson asked him to take over his program and he decided to do that. He already had the contract with the U the year before, for that job when we were still living in Ogden. Weber State heard about him going to University of Utah, and came over to him and said, “Would you teach just one year at Weber State as a head debate coach before you accept the U Job?” So he decided to do that and that’s when he got in a terrible automobile accident and was killed along with the two of his students coming back from debate tournament held at the University of Nevada, Reno. They were his best students: Mary Clark and Clifford Hughes. I was going to school as professor’s spouse and I could take five credits a quarter free. That was a spouse benefit. I was taking classes, and after my husband passed away I just keep taking classes to fill up my credits for my major, microbiology. Because my children were small, I just took a five credit course a quarter until I graduated in 1972 and I did the internship for medical technology 1972 to 1973. I don’t even know how I got started teaching. I think they asked me if I would teach Japanese because I don’t remember applying or I didn’t even turn in application. There was no Japanese program in 1973, I started teaching two evenings a week, third year Japanese classes. There are always demand for such classes because there are many returned missionaries on campus who came back from serving missions in Japan, loved Japan and wished to continue studying Japanese. When the students are eager to learn it is fun for a teacher to teach. Many classes students attend because they are required but this class they came because they enjoy it. So it was a pleasure for 10 me to teach. At the end of each semester I used to give them a sukiyaki dinner at my house. I think some students took my class just for the dinner. It was just fun so I just kept doing and I think I taught for seventeen years. That was just a tremendous blessing because I met so many wonderful—mostly boys—people. I still stay good friends with some of them who really enriched my life. I must have taught several hundred people so even now I walk in town and sometimes they remember me and come talk to me. So that was just a really enriching experience. I did all that while I was working at McKay-Dee as a medical technologist during the day. I worked as an adjunct instructor and did not get paid very much but that paid my sons’ and my ticket to visit Japan regularly. In this article of the Weber State paper shows my friend, Kazuko Monobe, another Japanese teacher who came aboard in the program, and I sponsored Japan Festival at Union Building for many years so that the student body get acquainted with Japanese food and culture through music, dance, and cultural programs, and community can also come and participate. For several years we used the ballroom stage at the Union Building. On other years our students cooked Japanese food and sold to students at the Union Building also. Another thing we did was Japanese Speech Contest. That involved other universities in the state. Besides Weber State, Japanese language students representing Utah State, BYU, and University of Utah. We took turn hosting each year. We did that for several years so we hosted at least two or three times and we went different universities for other years. We had judges and gave the winners of different levels different prizes. It was quite competitive and exciting. 11 BW: What else can you tell us about the festivals? What kinds of things were performed there? MC: We tried to involve friends from community and we used to have Japanese dance by Kiyomi Kishimoto, tea ceremony by Yuko Aoki and Eiko Kishimoto and Shizue Marumoto played the koto. I even tried joining and playing the koto. Koto is a six-foot long, string, ancient musical instrument. We had origami, art of folding papers, teaching students to fold colorful papers into different objects. We also had the calligraphy, Japanese characters written with special brush. Then we did the food. Different kind like yakisoba, sushi and others. We made little plates and sold it for fifty cents or something to student body. Our students got really involved in that and had lots of fun. BW: It sounds wonderful. MC: It was fun. LR: How do you think those programs helped the Weber State community and the Ogden community come to know the Japanese community a little better? How do you think those helped? MC: Well I hope that we did some good. We also went to church groups, elementary schools, and civic groups. LR: Okay, so maybe opening up their eyes a little bit? MC: Yes, you know there are enough interest Japan in the community especially among the returned missionaries who are interested in Japan, its culture and food. That’s why it was so successful having people come to those things. LR: Do you have any other questions Brian? 12 MC: Oh, about this debate trophy case that President Rodney Brady built for debate program especially in memory of Bob. President Brady and Bob were good friends, debated together at the University of Utah. When President Brady became the president of Weber State, I understand that he used his own fund and built this huge trophy case against the wall of the second floor of the Browning Theatre. Weber State had and I am sure still has a very good program, a long standing debate program. He invited all of Bob’s friends, family and anybody that knew Bob well. We got together and had a dedication ceremony and luncheon afterwards at the Union Building Dining Room. So that’s a picture of that. LR: What year was that? MC: It was May 25, 1979, but I don’t know when they remodeled Browning Building. When was that? Four or five years ago? LR: I’m not sure. MC: Okay they took down the trophy case when they remodeled but I did not know that until later. I really would like to have that framed picture of Bob etched on metal, nobody knows what happened to it. It’s sad. If you see in the library or somewhere, I would think it in the archives or somewhere in the library I would love have it for family. LR: Absolutely, I can understand that. MC: So that was very special. There were so many people that think of Bob so highly, such good friends. You know President Brady is still around and we see him from time to time. 13 LR: So in this picture are those your two boys with you? MC: Yes, 1979 so that’s been… LR: It’s been a few years. MC: A few years. Yes these boys were probably around early teens or so. My youngest son, Kevin, maybe about 13 and Rob 15 years old. It’s been about thirty-five years. BW: It sounds like your husband was pretty well known in the community. MC: Yes, he was. BW: What other kind of events do you remember, important city events or civic events do you remember? MC: There’s a Japanese American organization called, JACL, Japanese American Citizens League. Its national organization is in Washington, D.C. and there are chapters—two chapters in Utah, one in Salt Lake and the other is in Ogden. When I came here Bob was president of the JACL in Salt Lake chapter. So through that organization I got to know a lot of Japanese Americans and their activities such as picnics and bazaars. Just several years ago the Minority Lawyers Association of Utah honored fifty minority lawyers. I have a plaque right there and they honored Bob posthumously at the Grand America Hotel. Before he started practicing law in Salt Lake after he got his bar he was employed by National Educational Association back in Washington, D.C. He worked there for two, three I don’t know many years before he came back to open practice in Salt Lake. He graduated from the University of Utah law school in 1958. BW: He went back east before you were married to him? 14 MC: Yes, he was back here practicing law when I met him. BW: For the national organization you were talking about he was the president of, do you recall where that organization met? MC: In Salt Lake, it’s the Japanese American Citizens League and they have chapters all over America and he was the president of one in Salt Lake. BW: Do you remember where the chapter was? Like what building it was in or anything? MC: I don’t think they had a building or anything but their credit union. JACL Credit Union has an office in Salt Lake so they might have met there sometimes. They had organized activities every year, a few times a year. At least officers met every month. BW: I understand. MC: Bob also served active duty in Army and then in Army Reserves in the Judge Advocate [General] Corps. LR: Oh yeah. MC: JAG? LR: JAG. MC: Lawyer’s unit. He belonged there all the time I was married to him. In the University, he was in ROTC and became lieutenant when he graduated. He was sent to Germany. Is that during the Korean War? Some of his friends went to Japan and Korea but he was sent to Germany. So he spent a year or two over there. Then he became reserve so when I married him he was in JAG. LR: Sounds like he did everything. 15 MC: He was. Oh by the way, he was very active in student government at the University of Utah when he was student. He ran for student body officer, vice president, business vice president. He did excel in everything and he was inducted in a lot of honor societies, like Beehive Society where only a handful of seniors are inducted, and the Skull and Bones and many others. I have his bracelet over there with all the charms from different honor societies and organizations he was inducted into. BW: I can only imagine, and sorry for being sensitive, but I can only imagine that his death caused some shockwaves through the community. MC: Yes, it was terrible tragic. Yes he was so young. He was only 36, just the prime of life. Left me with my oldest son, Robert, who was 2 ½, and my youngest son, Kevin, I was pregnant with him, so that was just a very, very difficult time. BW: And you had to work and you were taking classes. MC: Yes, at that time I wasn’t graduate from college so I had to continue school. I’m glad that I got into the profession that I had. That was just the perfect fit for me to work in the medical field. Fortunately I did not have to work until my children started school. BW: Certainly had some incredible experiences. MC: My life has been continuously very, very adventurous after I married to Vern Call twenty-three years ago after I was a widow for twenty-six years. We lived in Hawaii for two years right after we got married. We then lived in Japan for eighteen months on a LDS mission to Hiroshima, Japan. Then we lived one year in Nanjing, China, to teach school there. My husband has a Ph.D., so he was 16 professor there and I taught also at the Nanjing Forestry University. So we have interesting experiences and made friends in different parts of the world. BW: What was he teaching in China? MC: In China he was teaching like English Literature and Culture, all that kind of thing. He had a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology. He had all his life in education field. He was with Ogden School District. He was actually a principal in two junior high schools in Ogden. One in Mound Fort and one in Mount Ogden by Weber State. Also he was the Director of Education K-12, in Ogden School District. BW: Do you have anything further? LR: Unless there’s anything else you’d like to add. I’m fine, I’m happy. MC: Okay, good. LR: Thank you very much for your time. We appreciate it.