<Begin Segment 22>

AI: Well, so then you were saying that then your family decided that you would move out to Chicago.

AS: Uh-huh.

AI: And when you first got to Chicago, what did you do there? Where did you go?

AS: Oh, Chicago, I, you mean... I went to work. I went to work at a... well, somebody, one of my father's friends was working at this place where they used to make carbon paper. And so I got a job there and I worked in the warehouse. And we had to, we had to take the paper, unload, unload it from trucks and, whenever they came, or load the trucks after they, they finished the carbon paper, making the carbon paper. And so, and then we had to feed the machines. We had to put the paper, you know.

AI: How did that work, feeding machines, and what did the machines do?

AS: Well, I, we, I actually didn't feed the machines. We just take the paper to the machine and they had a guy, the person running the machine would feed the machine.

AI: Boy, it's hard to believe, but now very few people use carbon paper.

AS: Yeah.

AI: But there you had --

AS: In those days...

AI: -- a whole company.

AS: Yeah, really, because they had a, I think they had about six or eight machines making it. And some of the paper weighed three, four hundred pounds.

AI: Well, were you the only Japanese, person of Japanese descent working there, or were there other Japanese Americans, or...

AS: No, in fact, they were all Japanese Americans. Just bosses were hakujins.

AI: Oh, that's interesting.

AS: Yeah, come to think of it, oh yeah, they were all Japanese.

AI: So it sounds --

AS: Niseis.

AI: -- maybe similar to Seabrook, where the company sponsored people or perhaps they had, they had recruiters recruiting Japanese Americans. So was this 1949 then, that you were, you were --

AS: Yes, '49.

AI: -- first moved to Chicago and you worked at the carbon paper plant?

AS: Uh-huh.

AI: And where was your family living then? Where, where did you live?

AS: We, well, first, when we got there, we lived in a... the neighborhood wasn't too, too good because it was near the African Americans' neighborhood. But then we were there around six months to a year. And then we moved up north --

AI: Well...

AS: -- to a better neighborhood.

AI: So, when you first moved to Chicago and you were, of course, you had to find a place that was affordable, well, had you ever worked with, or lived so close to African Americans before? Was this a new experience for you?

AS: New experience, yeah. In fact, this was the first time. 'Cause there no, no African Americans in camp and... well, in Seabrook they had some, but not working there at the plant or... but they, we seen some at the farms picking, picking vegetables or whatever.

AI: So, there in Chicago, that must've been the first time that you saw large numbers of African Americans?

AS: Uh-huh.

AI: And did you have any friction at all, or any experience any prejudice at that time when you were living in that neighborhood?

AS: No.

AI: Because they, the African Americans might have, not have any experience with --

AS: Japanese.

AI: -- Japanese people either.

AS: Well, I think that we, yeah, but they might've had some before because Japanese Americans were there.

AI: Right.

AS: But with us, I didn't, we had, we didn't have any friction with us, no.

<End Segment 22> - Copyright © 2003 Densho. All Rights Reserved.