Tanemi worked as a bus boy and waiter in Seattle, Washington, while he went to school to learn English. He then moved to Portland, Oregon where he worked as a salesman for the S. Ban Company.

Tanemi made many trips to Japan. On one of those trips his cousin introduced him to Miyo Ikeda Kurosawa. Miyo was born in Japan. Her older sister adopted her so she could attend school in their district. Miyo graduated from teachers college in Japan. Tanemi and Miyo were married in Seattle, Washington.

Tanemi was transferred to Denver with the S. Ban Company. He worked as a salesman and shipping clerk. The company had a dry goods department store selling silk shirts and dresses, ties and silk materials. Hand painted screens, tables and vases were displayed. Japanese food products in the back of the store. Tanemi was a supervisor.

The family lived at the Denver Buddhist Church from 1923 until 1925. Miyo was a bookkeeper and attended Emily Griffith Opportunity Center to learn English.

During the depression in the 1920's the Katagiris did not get paid for two years. Everyone in the management put their money back into the business to keep it going but when Mr. Ban passed away the business folded. Tanemi received a little merchandise for the money he had put into the company.

Emi was Tanemi and Miyo's first child. The family moved to Henderson where Tanemi bought two acres of land and started the Hazeltine Service Station south of the Hazeltine School house. He sold Conoco gas and groceries. A picture of him and his station is in the Conoco Station at the Adams County Museum.

After he moved to Hazeltine a supervisor for Continental Oil Company gave Tanemi the English name "Fred." Tanemi owned and operated the business for 44 years until his death in 1975. The station was destroyed in the 1980's.

Emi went to school in Hazeltine and then went to Brighton High School. She played the Ukelin, an instrument that is like a bass guitar. She also played the harmonica and the violin.

Emi remembers the Gypsies who came through about twice a year in packs. The women wore huge skirts and helped themselves to her father's merchandise.

Emi's mother, Miyo Katagiri was very skillful. She could sew with a thimble that looked like a ring. She displayed her Hina Matsuri dolls at several universities. From 1933 through 1938 Miyo Katagiri taught a Japanese School that was located one-half mile west of Brighton in the old Brighton Pavilion, a recreation hall west of the city. It was used as a community all purpose center for a language school, Buddhist church and entertainment center.

Every day in the summer and on Saturdays during regular school, the children went to school to learn how to read, write and understand the Japanese language. They learned the customs and culture of their ancestors. Teachers did not receive much pay. Learning the Japanese language was not easy, but many of the students who went to that school served as interpreters for the Military Intelligence Service during World War II.

Miyo visited Japan for the last time in 1938.

December 7, 1941 was a frightening day for Miyo and Tanemi Katagiri. Their mother country was at war with their adopted country. Confusion and rumors made them hide pictures of their families in Japan. They burned Japanese books and other articles. But the Japanese people in Colorado were fortunate to have Governor Ralph Carr, the only governor in nine western states who was brave enough to say that all American citizens, regardless of their ancestry had a constitutional right to live in Colorado. The Japanese did have a curfew of a 50-mile radius to travel. Emi remembers the German War Camp south of Brighton and recalled that the prisoners looked like young kids.

Since Miyo taught Japanese Language School Federal agents watched the Katagiri family and questioned them a few times. While attending the University of Colorado Emi had to report to the F.B.I. once a month in Macky Auditorium.

During World War II the Katagiris mailed out orders for Japanese food to relocation camps. Their store was a place where evacuees could come for a hot furo (deep bath) and a treat of mochi manju (dessert) and tea. Miyo Katagiri passed away in 1945.

After his wife's death Tanemi Katagiri finished raising his three daughters. After the war he went to Japan three more times. In 1971 he took Emi to see his relatives and all the things he remembered, the water well and cistern he dug as a young boy, the persimmon tree he planted in the yard and the bamboo thicket.

When people in Japan die their fingernails and hair are cut off, put in an urn and preserved in a jar. Emi's mother and father are buried in Brighton but she took their fingernails and hair back to Japan with her.

Emi was married in 1950 to John Chikuma, a dentist. The Chikuma's have three girls, two boys and four grandchildren.

Emi did volunteer work and ran school buses to Fitzsimons pool once a week. She received many awards for that work. She was on the Brighton Park Board. She was the President of the Brighton Nisei Women's Club in 1970. Emi had an aneurysm seven years ago and was forced to drop out of volunteering because of too much stress.

Emi displays old Japanese dolls at the Adams County Museum. One of those dolls belonged to her mother. Tanemi Katagiri's family crest is in the museum cultural center.