Densho Digital Archive
Densho Visual History Collection
Title: Richard H. Yamamoto Interview
Narrator: Richard H. Yamamoto
Interviewer: Tom Ikeda
Location: Spokane, Washington
Date: April 27, 2006
Densho ID: denshovh-yrichard-01-0009

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TI: I wanted to go back and, you mentioned there were two Chinese bachelors that lived there, kind of on a steady basis. What kind of work did, did those two men do?

RY: Oh, my understanding is they were, they were working in those Chinese gambling places. The two, one or two, one place was down below, but two or three, two or three Chinese places were across the alley. And those were the, that was the real thing in those days. I mean, it's just like Washington State Lotto, it's about, it's built on the same principle where they have a, have a paper and divide it in two and then put numbers or something on it, and you pick so many numbers, you get so much money. And this, this was just like the Washington State Lotto now. It was a big, big thing for them. And I think, I think most, they either worked in there or in the restaurant, but most of it, most of 'em were working in the, in the lottery, lotto.

TI: And that's sort of the gambling.

RY: Gambling places.

TI: So who would be the customers at the gambling? Who would go into these places?

RY: Well, that, that I couldn't tell you too much, because I don't know, I didn't frequent the -- I didn't even know too much about how, how it ran. But most... from what I understand, there's a lot of Japanese that liked to gamble that way, and Caucasians. And yeah, I guess they made a pretty good money then. But no, I didn't, the gambling place down below my house, but I never did go in there.

TI: So I'm curious, when you were growing up, did your mother and father tell you specifically to stay away from the gambling place, or did it ever come up about, about certain places not to go?

RY: No, they didn't tell me to stay away, but like all the Isseis seemed to, to go to the card games and gambling places, and my mother would say, "Oh, they're going gambling, and they lose their money and stuff." But other than telling me to stay away, no, she didn't tell me to stay away. 'Cause my, my father liked to play, play those little card games that they had in these pool halls. And I don't know, I don't think they made, he made too much money gambling in those places, but you know, it's a pastime. And yeah, I guess a lot of Japanese played that, 'cause after, after I grew up, I found out that a lot of my friends liked to go down in those places. I didn't have, I didn't have what you might say itching to go play, play the games, because I guess it was under, underneath the hotel. I didn't care to go. But it was just like this Washington State Lotto. And, but lot of people won good, and lot of people lost good. [Laughs]

TI: Good. Okay, so earlier you talked about how one of the Chinese bachelors showed you, or cooked Chinese food for you from his kitchen and shared it with you. You know, with the Chinese and Japanese living so close to each other, how were the relationships between Japanese and Chinese?

RY: Well, it was, it was, there was no... there wasn't any, you know, like you would think that they would be between Japanese and Chinese. But no, we had, we were all friendly and well, just like they had a restaurant, there was a Chinese restaurant there that we kind of knew that what they did was, was kill the chickens and ducks. They'd take 'em in the back of, back of their restaurants, and they'd kill 'em right there in front of us. Well, people told us that they, that they'd take their blood and cook 'em in soup, and I didn't think much of it. But then, yeah, no, we got along pretty good. 'Cause, 'cause like I say, I mean, even when, after the war started, that one Chinese was still staying in one place. But after a while, I guess he got a little old, so they put him in the nursing home. But other than that, Chinese, Japanese, that didn't make any difference.

TI: Okay. When you think about your family, between your father and mother, who was the one who sort of was the disciplinarian? So that when you or your brothers or your sister did something wrong or whatever, who was the one who would be the one who would discipline you?

RY: Well, there wasn't too many times that we had to be disciplined. So I guess my mother was sort of a... watchdog. I don't know. We never, like I say, I mean, I never went to gambling places, I didn't, I didn't care for it. And as for playing, playing, we had, we would play in the alleys just east of, east of our place where I had, there was a, there was a bigger yard back there where Chinese had restaurants and Japanese had hotels. And yeah, we... but the thing is, Chinese kids didn't seem to come and play with us down there. I don't think I ever saw any Chinese kids down in that alleyway, 'cause I think they lived out someplace else. And no, there was no... no, we got along.

<End Segment 9> - Copyright © 2006 Densho. All Rights Reserved.