<Begin Segment 13>

MA: So let's go back to, you said you started work after you had to drop out of college, at the Tokyo Cafe.

SE: Yes.

MA: And where was this cafe located?

SE: It was, it's on Jackson Street, just off Maynard Avenue.

MA: Right near your hotel.

SE: So it was just... hotel, uh-huh. So many of the same people that stayed at the hotel were restaurant, and customers.

MA: So the porters...

SE: Uh-huh. And because the porters and waiters were used to tips, I was tipped very generously. In fact, one thing I'll say about the blacks, they don't think of when the next meal is coming. So they like to flourish and they'll, if the, what they had was fifty cents for a meal, they'll say, "Keep the change," put out a dollar, and then so I'd pocket that money. And then maybe in a day or two, that fellow's broke or near broke, and so I'd give him the money.

MA: So the clientele was mostly these African American railroad workers, porters.

SE: Uh-huh, but many of them were from the streets of Seattle, you know.

MA: So it was kind of a mixture of people?

SE: Uh-huh. Now, my oldest brother worked for the China Cab.

MA: And this is...

SE: Hiroji.

MA: Hiroji.

SE: They called him Freddy.

MA: Freddy?

SE: Uh-huh. And he worked for the China Cab, and the China Cab did not have a office, and their telephone was outside of Tokyo Cafe. So...

MA: So this was a cab service in Chinatown?

SE: Uh-huh. It catered mostly to prostitutes and... yeah. So much of the time, the prostitutes would order liquor and they'd call the cab, and the cabbie would take it up there, buy it for them and get it for them.

MA: But they had, they sort of stationed in front of the Tokyo Cafe?

SE: Uh-huh, so they sat in the cab and listened to the phone, and then they just went in the cab. And so my oldest brother, after he lost his market, why, he was hanging around, so he was a cabbie, and he drove. So I felt comfortable working there, because it was, most, lot of the people I knew, and then close to Dad's hotel, and with my brother working as a cab driver right outside.

MA: So with your brother working for this cab company, how busy were they? I mean, was it constantly they were jumping in their car to go pick someone up?

SE: Uh-huh. They're, they were pretty busy. Of course, there were times when they were not, but then as a whole, they were pretty busy.

MA: And you said that they sort of, the prostitutes, kind of used the cabs a lot to get liquor.

SE: Uh-huh.

MA: Was that, were they nearby in that area? Or where, you know, where was that... where was that sort of district?

SE: Some might have been in the hotels around, and then, let's see. Where did some of them live? But they were fairly close by, I think. But they used the cab a lot to travel.

<End Segment 13> - Copyright © 2006 Densho. All Rights Reserved.