<Begin Segment 19>

MA: What did you end up doing after your farm was sold to the state?

SO: Then I worked in a gas station, an automotive repair shop for, off and on for about fifteen years. Yeah, about fifteen years. Then I worked for a retail firm there, it was one of the elite department stores in Spokane. I worked there for twenty years and retired.

MA: What did you do at this department store?

SO: I had no title, but I had a lot of responsibilities. But actually, I guess I was... they called me everything under the sun. Receiving room manager, I guess would be closest thing. But that wasn't all, and I had to do everything.

MA: Were most of the other people that you worked with, were they Caucasians?

SO: They were all hakujins.

MA: What was that like?

SO: Oh, I had no problems, I had no problems. I treated all of 'em -- the worst problem I had was trying to keep about sixty-eight or seventy women happy, that was the biggest problem. You know, you can't show... "Oh, I'll do this for you, but you do your own," you couldn't do that. I mean, if somebody had to do something, you had to do it equally, and that was the hardest part, trying to keep everybody happy. I did, though, I guess. I'll show you something when you get through here, I got it down there, you could look at it. But I enjoyed it.

MA: So it sounds like, then, from what you had said about during the war with your, your father's hotel and the customers were very nice, and then your experiences in the retail business...

SO: Nice, no problems.

MA: It seems like you've had positive experiences with the...

SO: Uh-huh, all positive. I've never had any negative experience.

MA: Did you ever witness any sort of discrimination?

SO: Well, I had one bad one, just during, right after the war started. A friend of mine said, "Let's go out for a cup of coffee," and I never, usually made my own coffee, but he wanted to go out, so I said, "Okay, let's go." So we went to a... what was the name of it, I can't even think of the name of the restaurant, it's a long, (just) a small restaurant. We went in there, minding our own business, we ordered our coffee, and (sat) in the booth there and sipping our coffee, here comes a couple sailors. And (they) said something, I don't know what exactly (they) said, but (they) said something to this fellow I was with. And he said, and then the last thing I heard (was), "Well, let's go outside." Went out, he had both of 'em flat on the darn cement. [Laughs] He was an amateur boxer, you know, so he knocked 'em out. I guess (they) said, said something bad or something, I don't know. He said, "You stay here, don't come outside, now." So I stayed in there and sipped my coffee, and he (came) in a couple minutes later. "What happened?" (I asked). "Oh," he said, "I took care of it." [Laughs] That was all. And (I) looked out the window there, flat on the sidewalk (were) two sailors. That was the thing, that's the only thing I remember that I didn't, you know, kind of felt bad. I had nothing to do with it, I was just a witness -- I wasn't even a witness, I didn't even see it. Other than that, no problem.

MA: And this was, sorry, this was your friend who was the amateur boxer?

SO: Good friend, yeah, he was, he was Spady Koyama's older brother, Jack. He was a good friend of mine, and I used to pal around with him all the time. That's the only bad experience I had, if you want to call it bad.

MA: What about during the war when, what were the interactions like with the Chinese?

SO: No problem. I never had any problem, anyway, but... and Chinese, hakujins, blacks, it didn't make any difference. We got along real well. I never had any run-ins with anyone of any nationality. Maybe I was lucky, I don't know, but I didn't have any problems.

MA: What about the shops and restaurants? Were you able to, were they sort of segregated at all during the war? Like, were Japanese allowed?

SO: I don't think so, I don't think so. We ate pretty much where we wanted to eat. Well, you know, the funny part of it is I think the one company that sort of segregated, had segregation was the store that I worked for. That was just like Macy's, it was a store like that. And I heard that -- I never ate there before, but they had a restaurant on the sixth or seventh floor, and I guess some people went up there to eat and they wouldn't serve them or something like that. Now, that's what I heard, but I don't know.

MA: These are Niseis that went?

SO: Yes. But as far as going in there and shopping and everything, I guess (they) didn't have any problems. Yeah, they said they wouldn't serve 'em or something like that. Now, there again, I can't verify that, because that's just what I heard, so it may not even be the truth. 'Cause that's the company I worked for for twenty years, and I was treated more than fair.

<End Segment 19> - Copyright © 2006 Densho. All Rights Reserved.