<Begin Segment 7>

MA: You had mentioned that there was a group of Kibei that stayed at the hotel for a while.

SE: Well, they stayed at the hotel, and there are two large rooms that have... well, one doesn't have a street entrance, but one has a street entrance there on Maynard Avenue, and so the Kibei-Nikkei clubhouse was there, and then they had a ping-pong table.

MA: So was it mostly Kibei that would hang out at this place?

SE: Oh, yes, uh-huh.

MA: Did you sense that the Kibei sort of -- I don't know, how was the relationship between maybe the Kibei and then the other Niseis in the area?

SE: Other Niseis didn't have much to do with them. They did go to the same places, and so Kibeis more or less stuck by themselves. And then through their club, they did, did good for a lot of the Kibeis to find work.

MA: Why do you think there was kind of a divide between the Niseis and the Kibeis?

SE: Well, they spoke a different language, and I suppose the Niseis kind of looked down on the Kibeis.

MA: Because they spoke Japanese?

SE: Uh-huh. And then the Niseis, you know, had their own activities, and then they had the JACL, so they were entirely different. But a lot of the Kibeis did take part in things and become just, just like the Niseis.

MA: So it sounds like your father provided some sort of social setting for them to hang out in.

SE: Oh, yes. And then, you know, the Japanese churches had a youth conference once a year.

MA: Was this the Christian churches?

SE: Uh-huh, Christian churches. And so Dad would, our busiest times are, were in the summertime when the trains are running double schedule and things like that, so we would be real busy. In fact, sometimes we'd sell the same room two or three times a day, because those people just wanted to come -- [knocking sound] that's the dog -- bathe, just to come and bathe and take a nap, and then they'd go. And then I used to do the chambermaid work, so soon as the room would open up, I would go and clean up the room, and then we'd sell it again. So in the summertime, Dad did pretty good business.

MA: So I wanted to ask you a little bit about, again, about the porters, the African American porters who would stay.

SE: Uh-huh.

MA: So you, did you notice, then, a difference between maybe the African Americans from Seattle, the Seattle community, versus the ones who came from the Midwest or California?

SE: Well, in a way they were, I think, cleaner. They seemed cleaner and more apt to watch their language when they spoke in front of us and things. And they were very respectful. Of course, even the blacks in the city, I was known as Mama-san and Papa-san's daughter. [Laughs] And then Dad befriended some young blacks, and gave them odd jobs to do around, so they were very protective of me.

<End Segment 7> - Copyright © 2006 Densho. All Rights Reserved.