<Begin Segment 37>

YM: Heat, I think. (Narr. note: At the Welcome Hotel, we had gas plates in every room with which they could cook, but in the winter they were used to warm the place up any time they wanted to. It was a no-win situation.)

TH: And then the heat, you had to comply with being able to --

YM: (Two times tenants) sued me. (Narr. note: The first time, we went to court and the judge let me off. My lawyer said he knew the judge well and my war record helped. The second time, my landlord went to bat for me and due to his efforts we won.)

ET: Too cold, huh?

YM: You can't keep the heat on 24 hours, (but if you don't, you get in trouble. It was a very tough situation.)

TH: That was a problem that came about well, say in the '20s and '30s, I think.

YM: No, no. This was in (1947 for me.)

TH: But still, no it's the hakujins that complained, but that ordinance was already in existence in the early part before the housing code went into effect. And it's the hakujin people, even the apartment houses when we were running apartment house, you rented to a hakujin couple, the woman could just be in a thin blouse in the wintertime, and then they complain about heat. If they could just put on a sweater or something. It's hard when you have a central heating plant to get all rooms up to a certain temperature. Some rooms would be too hot and others would be cold and still some of these persons would just complain to the city and then the health inspector would come around with a thermometer and go into the room, feel, and take the temperature. And if you're not complying, they cite you for that.

YM: That was a big item, though, the heat. You sure get a lot of complaints. [Laughs]

DG: Well, were the Japanese owners pretty willing to accommodate these people, or they are able to work with them pretty good?

TH: I believe so, yes.

DG: Because you maintained the businesses and you didn't hear about the complaints outside that much.

TH: Well, like I was reading the old minutes and during the 1920s a lot of problem was the fire alarm and the fire extinguishers. They had to have so many fire extinguishers, and they had to have a fire alarm that went off. And a lot of these operators forget to change batteries, and they don't ring when the inspector come around.

DG: You mean they had fire alarms, battery operated, back then?

TH: Oh, yes. It was all battery operated because if it was on electrical current and the electricity failed, it won't work.

<End Segment 37> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.