<Begin Segment 17>

MA: What type of work did your father go into in L.A. after the war?

YA: Well first of all, first he worked in a market 'cause that was his line. And he worked also... a friend had a parking lot and he helped to manage, run that. And then he eventually went into gardening. Bought a truck and started a gardening business. He kept it up until he passed away.

MA: Who were his clients? Were they other Japanese Americans?

YA: No. No. Mainly his customers were in Downey, Downey, which is just south of Montebello.

MA: In Boyle Heights, especially around the time that you came back, did your family encounter housing discrimination or job discrimination or things like that?

YA: Yeah, for a while, for a while. You know about the restrictive covenant in real estate? You couldn't... white families could not sell to any other people except white families.

MA: This was in Los Angeles?

YA: In Los Angeles, it was all over. Some Niseis would have their friends buy it for them initially and then sell it back to them, sell it to them. But then eventually that restrictive covenant was erased. When we bought our first house in a place called Bella Vista, which is in part of east L.A., we were the second Nisei family to move in. But right away the white families started leaving. So eventually that whole area became Nisei. So we were still considered undesirable, I guess, neighbors. But when we moved to Montebello, we were welcomed.

MA: And is Montebello like a suburb, sort of, of L.A.?

YA: Of L.A., uh-huh. At the time we bought our home, it was primarily white yet. The school district was white, but it was a very good school district. It was number two in the L.A. County. And that's the reason we moved there, because of the school district. We were welcome. Our neighbors were very cordial.

<End Segment 17> - Copyright © 2008 Densho. All Rights Reserved.