<Begin Segment 4>

TI: So you talked about your early childhood growing up at the Panama Hotel. What are some early memories of the Panama Hotel?

HN: I don't have memories. I can't remember. I lived there five years, too young. I don't have memories, except for pictures of the Panama Hotel. You know, the biographical sketch of my father in the Hiroshima photo album, in Japanese, of course.

TI: Then after the Panama Hotel, where did you move?

HN: I think we went to Coast Hotel, which is on Weller Street and Tenth Avenue, I think. Then from there, we went to Twelfth Avenue and King Street, just a couple blocks from Bailey Gatzert, the historical Bailey Gatzert, the present Indian Center now. That's where eighty, ninety percent of the Japanese kids went to, right?

TI: But after the Coast Hotel, was there another hotel that you --

HN: No, we went to the grocery store. He had a grocery store at Twelfth and King, just above the present Nisei Vets Hall.

TI: Okay, good. And so when did you start remembering -- did you remember the Coast Hotel very much?

HN: A little bit, very little.

TI: Then let's talk about the grocery store, growing up there. What was that like?

HN: [Laughs] Yeah. Now, I was into first grade and second grade. I remember... of course, my father was driving, delivering groceries, this and that. My mother just stayed in the store. We had a young Nisei, older than me, working in the store. So my mother was just sitting there. But we had this young lady, Nisei, older, working there. She did most of the... in that sense, my mother really, and later when we had the apartment house, and of course, she would at least open the door and receive the rental from the renters or answer the phone, I suppose. But she didn't really... well, by that time... so my mother didn't really work. I didn't... another reason was she was handicapped. She fell and hurt her arm, and then elbow got fused, and she couldn't bend it. She spent time and went to Japan, but anyway... she lived like a lady.

TI: But let me go back to your life. When you think back, being the first and second grader, what would be a typical day in terms of waking up, getting ready? Why don't you describe a day when you would go to school, and what you did after school, just so I can get a sense of an everyday life for Hiro back in the second grade.

HN: Well, I don't think I really liked school. I don't think I really enjoyed school. I don't think I really cared to study.

<End Segment 4> - Copyright © 2009 Densho. All Rights Reserved.