<Begin Segment 25>

TI: So you returned to Los Angeles, to the house, you had a house there. And where in Los Angeles was that?

BI: In Boyle Heights where there were a lot of Japanese.

TI: Okay. So how was that?

BI: Well, it was okay, and my neighbor, two neighbors were Japanese. And Ken was busy, he was studying for his bar exam, he said, well, it may be six months or longer before he gets his license. But fortunately he got it much sooner. I put the children in a nursery school -- well, yeah, it was a nursery school, and I went to work in a sewing factory. And did that for a while until he got established. We were there about two years, and then he had a big case and was able to build a house. So we looked for a house to buy, but didn't see anything. I wanted to, I wanted to move where there weren't too many Japanese. I said, "I've had enough of Japanese, I want to get away from them." You know, they're very gossipy and urusai. So I said I wanted to go where there aren't too many Japanese. So we moved to Alhambra (in 1950), there was only one Japanese family there. (I have no regrets moving to Alhambra.) But we had looked in West L.A., and I just, I just didn't like it. So we looked for a house to buy out in Alhambra and around, but they wouldn't sell it to a Japanese. And so we decided, well, if we can find a lot, we'll build. And we found a lot, but they wouldn't sell to Japanese. So we had our contractor buy the property, and then the contractor, bought the property from the contractor and built the house. And then when the neighbors found out Japanese were going to, "Japs" were going to occupy the house, they got up a petition to keep us out. And so there was, it was in the Pasadena newspaper about this petition, and they called me and asked me if I had changed my mind about moving there. And I said, "Absolutely not." I said, "I have a right to live where I want to live, " and they said, "Oh." They hung up. [Laughs] (Narr. note: Another reason for not wanting to live among Japanese: three years or more living so close to them and never feeling really comfortable; didn't make any close friends in Tule Lake. In Minidoka, Jack and Dorothy Yamaguchi were my closest friends. Saw Chika Takahashi, Charles T. Takahashi's wife, but she was in another block. Other people were usually from the same community so they felt comfortable with them. In both Tule Lake and Minidoka we lived at the very end. It was 1 mile to the administration building and 1 mile to my parents' barrack. Mother walked to my barrack when I was pregnant and in the hospital. Ken made a stroller for Ayleen, but it was too cold, too hot, too dusty or too windy to walk with her very far. When I was pregnant in Minidoka, the administration picked me up in a truck to go to the hospital, and Ken made a tray for me in the mess hall and brought it to me to eat in the barrack.)

TI: And so after you moved in, how did the neighbors treat you?

BI: Some of the neighbors were very kind, they were very nice. Others... the instigator didn't talk to us for a while, but years later, I was, had taken the kids to school and was walking back, and I saw Mrs. Seymour at my front door. I thought, "Oh, gee, I wonder what she wants," because she's never come to our house before. So when I got into the house I called her and asked -- she had gone back -- so I called her, she lived across the street so I called her and I said, "I saw you leaving my house. Was there something I could do for you?" And she said, "No, Mrs. Ito. This morning I woke up and decided it was time for me to apologize," for what she had done to start the petition. So I said, "Oh, well, that's very kind of you, but don't worry about it. We've been friends, we've, there is no hard feelings."

TI: But how did that make you feel when you got that phone call and talked to her? Or you, you called her and talked to her?

BI: Nothing. You know, those things didn't bother me.

TI: In a similar vein, did anyone from the Japanese community ever, years later, talk about maybe apologizing for not supporting you during the trial or anything like that?

BI: No.

TI: During all this time, so your husband established a successful practice. Did he ever reminisce about the trial or talk about that?

BI: We never talked about it; we never talked about it.

TI: Do you, do you sense that the trial, though, stayed with him in some ways?

BI: I'm sure, I'm sure.

TI: And how, how do you think it stayed with him? What do you think, how did the trial affect him?

BI: You know, there were times when it became very quiet. And, and I wondered if he was thinking about... well, at first I thought it was something I did, that he was unhappy about something. But I realized that he must have, some flashback must have occurred, and became quiet and acted sort of depressed. One time we had an argument and I said to him, "Well, they say jailbirds never..." I can't think of the word. Well, "they never reform." [Laughs] He kind of laughed, but that's the only time we ever talked about his experience. (Narr. note: At times he became very quiet and looked depressed. I'm sure when things weren't going as well as he wanted -- he must have thought of his past and that dream he was not able to attain. When Ayleen was doing a paper on him for school and was asking him questions, he started pacing the floor and actually turned pale.)

<End Segment 25> - Copyright © 2006 Densho. All Rights Reserved.