<Begin Segment 8>

MA: So then you said you moved to Montebello.

CT: Uh-huh.

MA: And that was because your grandfather had opened a nursery?

CT: Uh-huh, a flower and garden nursery.

MA: And was your father working for the nursery?

CT: And my father worked for my grandfather. And the community that, or the neighborhood that they, my family bought a house in, it was, we probably were the first minority family that moved into it. It was kind of like housing developments are, they build postwar housing. And so my parents, in very typical Japanese fashion, went to make a call on the neighbors and they introduced themselves, and they took some kind of little omiyage. [Laughs] And just kind of wanted people to know that we were, it was safe. We weren't going to sabotage, we weren't going to do anything, but we wanted to be members of the community. And so there was kind of a mixed reaction. My parents developed some friendships with some neighbors that really lasted until many years. In fact, my mother, until she passed away, kind of kept in touch with one of the neighbors. But most, I just remember it being fairly positive, and it must have been because I babysat a lot. So then I never remembered any outward hostility, but I could only judge that neighbors asked me to do the babysitting.

MA: At that point, you were in junior high school?

CT: Uh-huh, I was in junior high school.

MA: What was that like for you, I guess, transitioning from a predominantly Japanese American community to a, was it an all, pretty much, Caucasian community, Montebello?

CT: Where we lived, it was all Caucasian. But when we rode the bus into town to attend junior high school, they only had one junior high school and one high school. So when I got there, then there were a lot of Japanese Americans. Most of them were -- well, all of them actually, not most of them -- were former internees, and they came back to Montebello and settled down. And I don't remember the businesses they were in. Most all of us were in, families were in agriculture of some type. So again, I had that same growing up experience with large predominantly Japanese American friends and then Hispanics, Caucasians. So that it was a mix, I've always gone to a mixed race, and a safe school. I mean, again, you felt comfortable because not everybody was alike, but you had a wide variety of ethnic groups.

MA: So you feel like the various ethnic groups in your schools sort of got along well and there was never any tension?

CT: I don't remember any tension. I don't remember any tension. Well, in high school, there was, but it wasn't directed because you were Japanese American, it's just kids. One kid not liking another kid and they were from a different ethnic group. But I don't remember a real segregation. 'Cause when I moved back to Denver and I went to junior high and high school, again, lots of Japanese Americans.

MA: When you were in L.A. and Montebello, or Boyle Heights and Montebello, you had mentioned earlier that people didn't really talk about camp. So did you find that growing up, there was sort of no mention of camp among your peers and their parents?

CT: Yeah, and it just seemed kind of like a natural thing. Okay, it happened. And so we didn't really talk about it with the elders, with the older folks. But amongst ourselves I think we would talk about, "Oh, when I was in camp, we did this." Or, "When I was in camp, we did that." But again, you sort of just took it as a part of your life. It wasn't until I was much older and I did a lot more reading and talking to people that I became really aware of and, of the situation and became much more active in the community about it.

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