<Begin Segment 43>
TH: That's when Hiromi closed down Puget Sound too in '70. Well, actually the city got tough on the International District, but later I found out that there were places on First Hill that did not comply. I think years later there was one apartment house or house on... near someplace on First Hill that, there was a fire, somebody died, and it wasn't in compliance. I asked the owner -- I can't think of his name, but it's a fellow I went to school with -- and I asked him, I says how come you got by when we had to comply? He says, "Well, it's who you know." He was a political friend of the mayor.
ET: So in other words, the Japanese didn't know how to go about it.
TH: No, we tried.
ET: We weren't good negotiators.
TH: No, we tried. Well, Phil Hayasaka was working for the city. Was that human rights committee or something. On the surface, I guess, everybody has to comply, and we're gonna to make everybody comply, but there were a few that got away without complying.
ET: Yeah. Like Tak even, he said close me up. Naturally they didn't want to close him up.
TH: No, they didn't want to close any of the places. I mean, they told him -- like when we went down to the meeting at -- I don't know whether you went -- but with the fire chief, Hiromi went and Taniguchi went and I went, and Hiromi says will you give me one year to do it in, the fire sprinkler system, he's going put it into the Puget Sound. And he says, "Will you give me one year?" "No, thirty days is all you get."
YM: A lot of discrimination in those days, huh?
TH: I think the pressure was on the city, like you say, from the low income people.
ET: See, this began to cover houses, too, almost.
<End Segment 43> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.