<Begin Segment 22>

MA: Were there, I'm curious about the Japanese American community in Denver. Were there any housing segregation that you recall in like the '50s and early '60s? Where Japanese Americans couldn't live in certain areas? Was there any of that in Denver or surrounding areas?

NM: Oh, there might have been. Because, it seemed like the Japanese kind of grouped around one area. I know this one friend of mine, we went to school together. She and her friends were going to go to Elitches or Lakeside and then they saw a sign that says, "No J's allowed." And I don't know if this was, I don't know if it was during, no it couldn't be during the war. It was right after the war, I think. That's what she told me. I never knew that.

MA: They saw signs, like in the stores or something?

NM: No, right on the entrance of the , you know, Elitches is a, where you have rides and stuff.

MA: Right. So there was, it seems like there was some of that.

NM: Uh-huh. But I never came across it.

MA: And, so after, you said you worked with a Caucasian doctor, or dentist, I'm sorry. And you had a really great experience working there.

NM: There was only one incident, and he was a regular customer, a patient. And he was really nice, but he kinda said, "I think it was a good idea they put all the Japanese in the, in the, I mean, it was a good idea to incarcerate all the Japanese." I didn't answer him.

MA: Oh, he said that to you.

NM: Uh-huh, he said that to me. But that was the only thing that I remember. And when I went to work for these Caucasian doctor, there was the head doctor and he liked Japanese. While they were going to dental school in, I think Kansas City, he befriended the Ito brothers, who all became dentists. But he, he, and then he had taken in a new dental graduate to work in his office, and that's how I got hired, too, I think.

<End Segment 22> - Copyright © 2008 Densho. All Rights Reserved.