<Begin Segment 4>

DH: The grocery store had some other parts to it, a gas station?

JH: Yes, there was a gas station. We had one of the first full-fledged gas stations on Bainbridge Island. The roads at that time were mostly oiled gravel roads, and there was huge pot holes in the roads all the time. And you have to remember in those days they either had steel tires, or hard rubber tires, and invariably it was a very, very bumpy trip when you rode on those roads.

DH: Explain about Zenhichi and his truck.

JH: Oh. My uncle and my father bought one of the first trucks on Bainbridge Island, and you'll see classic pictures of it being decorated for a summer festival. If you look on the license plate, I think it says 1923, and it was one of the first trucks on Bainbridge.

DH: Back to the business a little bit, who shopped at the grocery store? Was it mostly the Japanese community or the entire island?

JH: The entire island did, yes. In those days there were a lot of grocery stores. In every little community there was a grocery store, because people didn't traverse in cars like they do today; and so every little shopping community, or little... small communities had just a little grocery store and usually along with it was a little post office. And so it was kind of a community meeting place, with the potbelly stove in the middle; and people would learn about each other around the potbelly stove and the cup of coffee or tea, or whatever it may be, and the little post offices, they came in and picked up their mail every day.

DH: Who worked there besides your parents?

JH: Well, my parents hired several Nisei, young Nisei people, to work for them. Of course, they were very important because of their ability to communicate with the rest of the population. And so we have Fuji Sakuma and Matsushita girls that worked there and several others that I didn't really know, but they were a integral part of running the operation of Bainbridge Gardens.

<End Segment 4> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.