<Begin Segment 8>

[Ed. note: This transcript has been edited by the narrator]

TI: So let me get a sense of the... so King Street is one block of Jackson. And so that's where your store was.

SA: It's Maynard (and King).

TI: Right, so Maynard. And so from your store, where was the Japanese part?

SA: Center. I think they call the center about Main and... Main Street, and it would be about Seventh (Avenue), I guess.

TI: Okay, so that's about two blocks north and up the street a little bit would be the center of the Japantown.

SA: Because they extended further toward Yesler; the Chinese did not.

TI: Right. And the Chinese, you're saying, was on King going up to...

SA: King and Weller.

TI: ...Seventh and Eighth, going up that way.

SA: Uh-huh.

TI: And the Filipinos, where did they live?

SA: They really couldn't (say), they didn't have property. They were in the hotels. There were hotels all around us that were run by the Japanese. This is, even in the middle of Chinatown. The Yasudas had a hotel. But on the same block as we were, around the bend, which is Maynard, there was Adams Hotel that the Nishimuras had, and we had Freedom Hotel that (was run by) the Matsudas (...). And then over on, on the next (block), which is still on King, we had Atlas Hotel run by two families, Teradas and (...) the Mizutas (...). And then we had Aokis as you know, they had... what did they call their hotel? The name evades me. But there was an Alps Hotel. But again, you see, we had them as customers, too. But we had a lot of competition because the Japanese had (...) a lot of small mom and pop stores. There were a few that ventured out like the ones that my (father's friend), the Teshirogis (had. They) were on Twenty-fourth Avenue, which we thought was pretty far. And the Satos (...) were on John Street, they were (far) out. And the Teshirogis were far out, too. And so I don't know what the others did, I know the Kawaguchis ran one, too, on Jackson. A lot of competition. But I felt we were very fortunate in having, not exactly the bulk of it, but according to my father in the book Issei that had come out, we were making two thousand a month, and I can't believe that.

TI: Because that would have been a lot of money during that time.

SA: It was a lot of money.

<End Segment 8> - Copyright © 2008 Densho. All Rights Reserved.