<Begin Segment 19>

MA: So you had, you had mentioned this sort of cold attitude from the Spokane Japanese community...

SE: Oh, yes.

MA: ...when people first started coming over.

SE: Uh-huh.

MA: When did that start to change? When did that sort of attitude start to change?

SE: I'm not sure just when. It was a gradual thing, but it was interesting, you know, because they had known me and seen me many times, so they would right in front of me, me and my sister, they would say, "It's terrible, all these people coming from Seattle." [Laughs] Forgetting that I was one of them.

MA: What did you say when people would say this to you?

SE: "Well, they have no place else to go," you know. Some of them took jobs and went clear over to Chicago and things, but it's hard when there's no other Japanese, somebody that you know. Some did have friends, and they'd go over.

MA: And you think a lot of that attitude was because they were maybe afraid that more Japanese coming over would attract more attention to them?

SE: Oh, yes, I think so. 'Cause they did, they did resent us. But I think I came enough ahead.

MA: How long did your, your mother and father stay in Spokane?

SE: Dad lived at the Clem Hotel, but he wanted to have a business here in Spokane. And so he had us... let's see. He had Mr. Blair, who was an attorney, have a meeting with the people from the city council in Spokane, to see if Dad could have, find some business here in Spokane. And one of the commissioners, safety commissioner, of course, spoke up and he said, "We don't want any more Jap money in downtown Spokane." So Dad said, "This discrimination here is because the city is too small, so I'm going to go where it's bigger, and you could get lost in the crowd." So almost overnight he made up his mind he was going to go to Chicago. I guess he had a distant cousin over there, and so he said, "I'm going to go to Chicago," he just up and left by himself. I don't think my brother went with him.

MA: So your mother was still in Spokane.

SE: Oh, yes. They had to run the hotel here, yet.

MA: Oh, they had to run the hotel in Seattle?

SE: Let's see. I'm trying to remember, get it straight. He had a hotel here, wasn't it? Yeah, he had a hotel here. He just had a little hotel that was... I'm trying to think of the name of the hotel, Globe Hotel.

MA: And that was in --

SE: No, that wasn't the Globe. It wasn't the Globe. But anyway...

MA: So he operated a small hotel...

SE: A small hotel.

MA: ...in Spokane?

SE: Uh-huh.

MA: After he came over.

SE: Yeah, it was right above the Union Gospel Mission, I think. No, that wasn't it either. Well, whatever. [Laughs] I can't, some things are kind of vague now.

MA: I see. So your mother stayed in Spokane to deal with the hotel, and your father left for Chicago.

SE: Uh-huh. It was after my brother had got out of service and come to Spokane. I had a brother that was in the service.

MA: Which, which brother was in the service?

SE: Hiromi.

MA: Hiromi.

SE: Uh-huh. He was in the service, and they, he was discharged in San Francisco, I think. Then he came up here.

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