<Begin Segment 4>

MA: Where did you live as a, as a child at this point?

SO: We lived on Fourth Avenue, on West Fourth Avenue. And the freeway is going through it now, but we lived, we lived near a Jewish temple there on Fourth Avenue.

MA: How far is that from the downtown area where a lot of the Japanese business were...

SO: Oh, well, let me see. I'd say about... could be about ten or twelve blocks, I think it is, uh-huh.

MA: And why did your family decide to move into that area?

SO: I really don't know. I guess since we had a big family, we had to, he had to find a big house. [Laughs] I don't know the reason why he moved to that area, but I know most of the, lot of the Japanese were, they were barbers and tailors and laundry people, so of course, they were downtown.

MA: Who, I guess, in your neighborhood growing up, were there many other Japanese American families there?

SO: Well, there was one family that was close by, the Migaki family, and then across the street, it was a Japanese family, and that was about it. There were more Jewish families, I don't know why, but it was close to my dad's workplace, too, maybe that's why they found this house.

MA: Did you interact much with the Jewish families or their children?

SO: Not very much. There were a couple of Jewish families in our block, so we did, we got to know them quite well.

MA: I guess at that time, I'm curious, were the, was the Jewish community kind of separate than the other Caucasians, or did it seem like it was more...

SO: Oh, I don't think it was -- there was a Jewish temple right on the corner from where we lived, so... but I don't think there were, you wouldn't call it a Jewish community right around there, I think. There were a couple, three Jewish people that lived around there, but I don't think there were that many.

MA: So they had sort of a temple that they would go to, but otherwise it seemed like they sort of...

SO: Yeah, mingled with everyone else, uh-huh.

MA: Were there many businesses in your neighborhood, in your area?

SO: No, uh-uh. There was one, the Ball & Dodd Funeral Home was across the street -- [laughs] -- and then there was, there's a hamburger place there. That was the best; they sold hamburgers for ten cents, and it was so good. We couldn't get a whole hamburger, we had to cut it in half, 'cause there were so many of us in the family. [Laughs] But let me see. I guess there might have been a dry cleaning place there, but otherwise there weren't any. It was kind of a residential area, I think.

<End Segment 4> - Copyright © 2006 Densho. All Rights Reserved.