<Begin Segment 7>

TI: Well, going back to the hotel, you said your parents were able to get into it when it was new. Did they buy it, or did they own it, or what was the relationship they had with the...

RY: Oh, I don't know how they got it, but they rented that new. I don't know how they got into it. But it was, it was a new building, and they got into it somehow. They, they rented it until they tore it down way after the war.

TI: And so how large a hotel was this?

RY: Huh?

TI: How large was the hotel?

RY: I don't even remember how many rooms it had, but...

TI: Well, how many floors did it have?

RY: Well, you consider the floors, the main floor was the first floor and then the second floor and then the third floor. Second and third floor was, was for the hotel, and the main floor, we had three, three businesses like, well, there used to be Chinese restaurant there, there used to be... and a Chinese gambling house, you might call it, Baccape. And, well, that's how it became mostly Orientals. So it was quite a, quite a... I guess from the Caucasian standpoint, it was a pretty dangerous, dangerous alley. But, because I'd walk, I'd be walking down into this Trent Alley there to my house, I mean, to our place, and the guy, the Caucasian says, "Oh, don't go in there, it's pretty dangerous." You know like nowadays, you hear a lot of activities from the gangs and stuff, like in those days, there wasn't anything like that, I don't think. I know there wasn't. But, but there was a lot of, lot of Caucasians that drank, and they, they did, they did sit around there and tell stories. One of the stories that I, I remember is this alcoholic was sittin' there and I was talking to him, and he says, "Don't you get this way." Says, "My dad died with an enlarged heart because of too much drinking." You know, people like that were down there, but it wasn't like nowadays where you got sex offenders and things like that, they talk about. No, it wasn't that bad.

TI: So why did this person think it was dangerous? What kind of things would happen that would give that a reputation of being dangerous?

RY: Well, I guess mainly because it's, it's an alley, and I don't know why. I don't know why the Caucasians thought of it that way, but they knew there was a lot of, lot of men drinking and carousing, carousing, they just sleep it off down there or something. And other than that, there wasn't things like, you know, sex offenders. In those days, it was just Orientals.

<End Segment 7> - Copyright © 2006 Densho. All Rights Reserved.