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TI: And so you've talked about some of the things that Jim Sakamoto did, and what's hard for me to understand is, so here you have this ex-boxer who's blind, who starts a newspaper that becomes successful. What was he like as a person? What was it about him that allowed him to be so successful, even though he was blind, to do a successful newspaper?

AA: Well, he was quite independent. He used to go around, travel around the community, he used to take the streetcar on his own, and I used to see him in his office. He used to type all the editorials by himself, he'd sit on the typewriter and type things out. But that business was not very successful. He was always in debt. And he was a hand-to-mouth kind of operation. And I remember at the end of the athletic season, they used to have what they call a mixer up at Collins Playfield where all the athletes, the teams used to get, have a get-together after the season, and they have a dance there. And for the refreshments, they'd come and ask my dad to order all those things, like they used to have hot dogs and buns and potato chips and all the things like that. He didn't have any funds to pay for those, but my dad ordered the things, and I remember having to deliver all that stuff down to the Collins Playfield, and I think they used to charge admission of twenty-five cents. And long afterwards, they finally got enough funds to reimburse my dad. They got it from my dad's wholesale.

TI: So how did your dad feel about Jim Sakamoto? Because here you mentioned, so your dad is a hard-working businessman, has a store, and then his brother-in-law, he probably will help out, but how did he feel about it?

AA: Well, I don't recall any ill feelings.

[Interruption]

TI: And so was your dad in the family kind of... what's the right word? Kind of the, like, I was going to say, like a foundation or someone that people went to when they needed help?

AA: Yeah, my sister was the oldest, or my mother was the oldest sister, so the rest of the family kind of, she was kind of a mother to the younger ones when they were in trouble.

TI: Even the younger ones, I mean, the, kind of the second wave? That they would go to your mother sometimes for help?

AA: Yeah, I think so.

TI: Okay, good.

<End Segment 14> - Copyright © 2008 Densho. All Rights Reserved.