Densho Digital Archive
Densho Visual History Collection
Title: Grace Sugita Hawley Interview
Narrator: Grace Sugita Hawley
Interviewer: Megan Asaka
Location: Honolulu, Hawaii
Date: June 3, 2009
Densho ID: denshovh-hgrace-01-0014

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MA: And can you tell me a little bit about the restaurant? Who was the, who did the cooking?

GH: My mother. My mother did the cooking, my father would... I don't know what he did. He helped, I guess, a little bit, but he would talk to the customers and he likes to do those things. And then my one sister who graduated in Heart Mountain, my oldest sister Lillian, she graduated early. She had enough credits so she graduated a year early, and she was out of high school. So she worked in a restaurant and we went to school, and after school we would come home and help. So we practically lived at the restaurant. There was a big basement downstairs. I guess the old buildings, that's how they were. And they had the furnace downstairs, and the heat comes up into the restaurant. So that's where we had hot water for the bath and everything. And we used to do our homework downstairs, we had a bed to lay down on and do our homework. And so we just practically lived there. But one of the Kibeis that was in camp with us didn't have anywhere to go, so he said he wants to come to St. Paul. So he was, I think, one of the last ones because he was still in camp. [Coughs] Excuse me. So I still remember we went to the railroad station to meet him, and then he came to live with us and my dad put him to work as a dishwasher. So he was with us until we left.

MA: And the food that you served in restaurant was primarily Japanese food?

GH: Japanese food.

MA: Was there any type of Hawaiian influence at all?

GH: No, not Hawaiian. It's entirely different. Restaurants with Hawaiian mix, you can't mix Hawaiian and Japanese. It's different food. So it was strictly Japanese food, and my mother knew Japanese cooking, so she did.

MA: And then the customers were primarily, then, the language school Japanese American students?

GH: Uh-huh, yeah. And so the word got around so they would come out. And the bus was right there, the bus came right to the corner. They call it Seven Corners in St. Paul. Seven Corners because that's where all the... it was like a huge intersection. And the buses from out of town all coming through there. And so that's how they came, and all they do is walk over one block to our restaurant, so it was really convenient. But they would just stand in line there.

MA: You must have done a good business.

GH: Oh, yes. He did really, really well. So it was a good way to kill some time, you know, until we could go back. But St. Paul was cold, too. It was cold, cold, cold. I mean, Heart Mountain, it couldn't be anything worse than Heart Mountain. Because in Heart Mountain you walk everywhere. You don't catch the bus, you don't ride the car. So blizzard and all, we had to walk to school. So that's really like the pioneering days. So that was different. But in St. Paul, it was cold. It was cold, but we were able to ride the streetcars and all that. I remember once a week I would go to Minneapolis to get the produce from our friend. I would go and it's... are you familiar with St. Paul/Minneapolis?

MA: Not really, no.

GH: It's the Twin Cities. They call it Twin Cities because it's only divided by Mississippi River. So I would catch the streetcar and go across. When I come to Minneapolis, then I'd catch, transfer again to the restaurant, and then I would get the produce. I don't know why I was the one who had to do that. And so it was an all-day thing because I would go there and then stop and visit his wife at the apartment.

MA: This is your family friend?

GH: Uh-huh. And then she would feed me lunch, and then I would get all the bags of stuff home and bring it home. He would buy it for us because he had all the contacts. He was there before us. So that's how we did it. Every week, I remember, I used to do that.

<End Segment 14> - Copyright © 2009 Densho. All Rights Reserved.