<Begin Segment 50>

AI: So you had a place to stay, and then what was the first job that you had there in Chicago?

PB: Well, this Jewish man always came to the rescue and he says, "I'll find you a job." He even drove me downtown, and he said there was an opening in a dime store where I could -- at that time, these painting of photographs or what they call tinting in the dime store. I could get a job there, but I said, "No way do I want to go to downtown." I hated crowds and going on the Elevated or taking a streetcar or anything down there. I just didn't want to go downtown. I said, "I couldn't do that, I couldn't make a trip downtown every day and back and forth," so I refused to take that job. But he did get us a packaging job, and that's how we got started. We both started working, and of course, I was trying to get Pat to go back to school, but she wouldn't go because they demoted her because of the camp school. They said she didn't have enough credits, and then she refused to go to school. So I had no way of... I didn't have the money, but finally I borrowed enough money from a friend that I met and enrolled her in a private school. But it was a lot of paperwork, and by the time got everything settled, my daughter says, "Oh, I'd rather go to work than go to school." And I wanted her to finish school, I said, "I didn't have a chance to finish school, and I want you to finish high school at least. You have to finish high school." Well, she just wouldn't listen, she said, "No, I'm not going to school." She says, "I'm going to go to work." So she worked right alongside with me, we did the same type of work, and she just wouldn't go to school. At least I had a job, very, I think we were getting fifty cents an hour, I think it was.

AI: What kind of workplace was it? Were there other Japanese American workers there or, was it...

PB: No, I don't think there were any Japanese. There were, about half of 'em were black, black girls. There was a Mexican girl and some Caucasians. And oh, I think, I don't remember any Japanese girls, I think we were the only Japanese. There were Japanese boys working there, in the, where they packed the big things, but I don't think there were any Japanese girls. Later on, when we went into the toy factory, the Japanese girls came in. But I don't, I don't remember them being in the, where we were sealing. We had little irons and we sealed the packages that were being sent overseas.

AI: So then as you were working at this job, and you had your small apartment with Pat, what were you thinking that you would, you would be doing? How, did you have any thought for what your future would be? It sounds like it was hard just to make a living at that point.

PB: Yes, it was, but then we thought as long as we were working, we could make ends meet somehow. And, 'course, being in a big city like Chicago, I never had any idea what we could do or what kind of opportunities we would get. So we took whatever we could at whatever price that they offered us. But fortunately, as I was working in this factory, then they offered me, they asked me if I could type, and then I got an office job. Then from the office job -- they were phasing out as war was ending, everything was phasing out, so they were going into another business. So they were going into this Ark, Ark and its occupants. [Laughs] So then they asked me if I would like to train for a supervisory job.

AI: So then it was being transitioned into a toy manufacturing factory.

PB: Uh-huh.

AI: And so then did you decide then to take the supervisory position?

PB: Yes. I thought that was a wonderful opportunity, so I took the job as a supervisor, but I had to stay and make a lot of tests, dye-dipping and mixing dyes and everything. And I was a non-smoker so there's no problem there, and then I had to hire girls, but they told me, "Don't hire black girls," because they were always in a fight with something, about certain things, that they wanted to smoke in certain areas, or they wanted to rest in certain areas or something always going on. There was arguments, so they said, "Don't hire the black girl." But it was hard to determine whether they were black or not because this one girl who was black said she was a mixture Indian blood or something, but she was a nice-looking girl and quite fair. And there was a Mexican girl and there was a number of Japanese girls, mostly Japanese. And then for the packaging part, we hired older women, Japanese women that were looking for jobs. But they couldn't stand the fumes, so they quit. They just worked one day and quit. So anyhow, we had this Ark going for a while, but I guess there wasn't enough sales for that or something happened, and that went out.

<End Segment 50> - Copyright © 2004 Densho. All Rights Reserved.