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GH: I used to have a, people who used to be visiting at the nursing home. She's the mother of the girl I was dating from time to time. I didn't date anybody regular. And she, she was there visiting, and I had seen her at her home. And she was visiting the nursing home that... when I was -- when the Quakers were asked if they knew of any Japanese family that could run a rest home, because we've got some people -- hospital cases, we've already transferred them. And there are, but there those who need some assistance, and we don't have any place to put them. We should have some Japanese home for this handful. They had about fifteen. And so the Quakers asked -- I came out of prison about that time, in September. And so, they asked me first of all 'cause, well I'm one of the, aside from Aki Kurose, we're about the only Quakers. And so they asked if my parents were interested. I said, "Well I don't think so, but I'll ask them. We're gonna see them, so, I'll ask them." And they were, interested.

BF: This is, this is right after the war...?

GH: Yeah.

BF: ...or right during, right at the very end?

GH: Right after the war, and I had just come out, and they were already in Spokane.

BF: Back from Weiser?

GH: Yeah, down in...

BF: Idaho.

GH: ...Snake River Valley. And they had come up in the... and hopefully if some opening came to return to Seattle area. And, they said, "Well sure, we'd be interested. "We've done that sort of things all our lives, while on the farm, within our own circle we were doing it..."

BF: Assisting other families...?

GH: Yeah, yeah. "That's part of our outlook, and we'd be glad to do it, except we can't, we don't have any money to buy a home or buy equipment. And there are a lot of business aspects that we don't know that maybe we're not qualified. We don't know that, but, we're, we have an interest." I said, "Okay." That's the beginning. [Laughs] And so, I said, "We'll talk more about it when we get over there." And we borrow, I borrowed this small car and we took the twins -- Jay wasn't born yet -- so we took the twins and went out to Spokane. Then it was decided that she would come back with us.

BF: Your mom?

GH: Yeah. And, explore what's possible, and she can answer questions directly when they're asked, what they were willing to do. And it turned out that if, if money or support could be sufficient to get started, they would be willing to do it. And then WRA, War Relocation Authority said, "We'll assist with all kinds of supplies, bunk beds, blankets, sheets, we've got mountains of those...

BF: Right.

GH: ...that we're gonna have to do something with. So they, all that was in the picture. With all of my involvement they figured they knew enough about our background that they could, they, if they're interested they would be willing to... and then that means that there's the Quaker tie to it, 'cause the Quaker group would be behind it. So, I came out, and, well for support I went to the guy that was chair and treasurer of my support group. Whenever there was any bail money we needed...

BF: Oh, your legal support group.

GH: ...or something. Yeah, and expenses and so on. He was raising the funds and putting up stuff, pocket money out of his own pocket. And Shop of China, is that still on the avenue? Is there a gift store like beyond 50th?

BF: Yeah.

GH: Right around 50th there.

BF: Shiga's Imports?

GH: Anyway, when their kids weren't interested, they put it up for sale, and somebody bought it. And, I don't know. The only gift store I know, is a colleague of mine, Shiga's.

BF: Uh-huh.

TI: That's still there.

BF: Right, that's the only one.

GH: Yeah, I saw that there. I didn't go in 'cause I was too busy then. But, they, I went over to talk to them. I talked to him, because I knew him better.

BF: The owners of the store?

GH: Yeah, he was treasurer for the student Y, too, so I knew him that way. And he's also, he's also a pacifist, and I was, so we had some mutual grounding to follow up. And he said, "Well, I'd be all for that myself, but when it comes to funding, you got to talk to my wife 'cause she runs this business here. I just help her." [Laughs] He was the Y, he was the YMCA field worker in China. That's where he, that's where they got this idea to bring, to start a gift store. And I talked to her for awhile, and then she said, "Well" -- she was looking at it from a business angle -- she said, "Well, if I loaned you down payment..." See, that nursing home was, I'm talking about nineteen, forty-five dollars, in house rates and so on. It was being advertised for sale for about $12,000, something like that. But in, that would be like 200 percent higher now.

BF: At least.

GH: It would be like $240,000 or something. It was a beautiful house. I knew the house when it was owned by a businessman, Japanese import-export person from Japan. He had it running that store and he had that house. It was double lot, and he had improved the house and yard quite a bit. And so, I said -- when we looked around, that house was for sale. And it was for sale for $12,000. And so we figured the down payment would be around $3,000 or $3,500. And she said, "I could, I could make a loan like that." And, and I said, "I would pay, I would pay what you would've gotten by keeping it in the bank, would be 3 or 4 percent interest at the time. And so I didn't, so you wouldn't lose money." But she said, "If I did that, I would have second mortgage. Whoever, the bank or whoever had the rest of it would get first mortgage on any sale, and so I'd be, I'd be holding the bag." She said, "What if, what if I loaned you $10,000? You could give 'em $10,000 cash." She said, "As a business, I know that when cash is available, you could, you got some bargaining grounds. I could give you $10,000 and you say, 'Making you an offer, $10,000, take it or leave it.'" She said, "We got a good chance to get it." I said, "Well, that sounds good. I'm willing to try if you are." She says, "I'd rather, I'd rather have that $10,000, and I take first mortgage, then second mortgage for $3,000 or $3,500, whatever." So we took that. And they had this up for sale for some time, you know. So when we offered $10,000 cash, they took it, almost instantly. And so, we then owed them and our job was to pay them back. And in the meantime, pay them at least what the bank was offering. And, and that would be okay with them. So, that went through. And that's how we started it. And then...

<End Segment 24> - Copyright © 1999 Densho. All Rights Reserved.