Densho Digital Archive
Densho Visual History Collection
Title: Lillian Sato Interview
Narrator: Lillian Sato
Interviewer: Megan Asaka
Location: Denver, Colorado
Date: July 6, 2008
Densho ID: denshovh-slillian-01-0008

<Begin Segment 8>

MA: So I'm curious about, you mentioned Sawtelle. Can you talk a little bit about that area?

LS: Well, they had more Japanese stores there, and I think they had more Japanese people there, too. But Sawtelle was a much smaller town than Santa Monica.

MA: But Sawtelle, was it, there was more of a Japantown kind of feel?

LS: Yes, I would say.

MA: Was there a Japantown in Santa Monica at all?

LS: Not that I know of. Because, see, there was a man that came with a pickup, and he had all the tofu and all the Japanese food and the vegetables, and he would go the rounds in Santa Monica to all the Japanese families, and they'd buy all the rice or whatever from him.

MA: So there was really no need to go...

LS: No, uh-uh.

MA: But if people wanted to go to Japantown, you would go to Sawtelle instead of the, L.A.'s Little Tokyo?

LS: Uh-huh. And once in a while we would go into Los Angeles, which I hated to go because I always got carsick. To us at that time, that's a long ride.

MA: How long did it take you to get to L.A.?

LS: Oh, I would say a good hour, hour and a half.

MA: That's long.

LS: And of course the traffic was slow and you didn't drive as fast.

MA: So Santa Monica compared to the, L.A., what were the differences? Was it just more, smaller?

LS: Santa Monica was a lot smaller. It was, Los Angeles was, they had a Japanese town there, and it was active there. And they had all kinds of restaurant, and we loved going to this one Chinese restaurant, and that was a treat for us.

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