<Begin Segment 2>

SF: You mentioned the Japanese stores and hotels in Seattle -- the Japanese area at that time -- can you describe a little bit about what Seattle's Japantown looked like in those days?

AH: Most of these stores were out in the outlying areas that delivered all through Seattle area. And as I mentioned, hotels were mostly down in what we call "skid row" area, Occidental Avenue, Second Avenue, and around that area. There was a lot of hotels in First Avenue as you go up the street. I still remember we used to double-park and block the traffic when we were delivering up to the hotels. Every so often the police would come by, but somehow or other, having Rainier Beer emblem on the truck and everything, they just joked and walked away. So that was my job. I'd say... the Japanese -- there was a lot of taverns, the Japanese owned quite a few taverns right in the skid row area and up Yesler Way. We delivered to all of those people.

SF: Who were the customers of these Japanese taverns? Were they mostly other Japanese, or white folks, mixed?

AH: The customers, I think, were pretty well mixed. I don't remember seeing too many Japanese hanging around. They probably were bachelors if they were.

SF: You mentioned that there were a lot of Japanese hotels. Why were there so many hotels that were run by Japanese?

AH: I don't know. These hotels were for bachelors and people like that. It wasn't a regular first-class hotel. But they were -- what would you call them? Resident hotels? Where people rented a room by the month and stayed there. And up on First Avenue there must have about eight or ten hotels.

SF: How would you describe the, sort of the lifestyle of the people who ran these hotels? Was is, was the whole family always working, and were they working long hours?

AH: Most of them were family-run. And my wife was from one of those hotels down on First Avenue and Washington Street. And they had a bunch of drunkards and a bunch of senior men, mostly men, and they gave them a place to live and they became, well, not families, but they got to know each other and took care of their residents.

SF: Were the Japanese hotel keepers sort of organized into some kind of hotel keepers...

AH: They had an association, Japanese hotel owners association. I think it was hotels and apartment owners association, because a number of Japanese owned apartments also. And these were more up on the hill and they were regular apartments, they had families living there and they had an association. I think right now, it's sort of dead, association, because at a number of funeral sodans I've been to, they always wonder if they were former hotel owners and would want one of their members to come and represent the association at the funeral. And we always have a pro and con on this and we left it up to the family. And if they did then there were people who were on who were officers of the association, and they would come and represent the association at the funeral. As an organization, I think it's pretty well dissolved now.

SF: Since there were so many of these Japanese-run hotels, did they compete against each other, or did they basically help each other out? How would you describe that relationship?

AH: Well, I don't know. Because I myself was never really associated with it. My parents worked outside of the Japanese-run businesses. And the only reason I know about them is that I used to deliver to them and then my wife's family was from them. And I would say there must have been some kind of a competition. But the clientele that the hotels had were not the kind that you would think of as the Olympic Hotel or one of those major hotels kind of a feeling. Their front desk was a little apartment that the family had up in the second floor somewhere. And they just knocked on the door if they wanted any business.

SF: For example, for the wife of the hotel owner, was her life very hard? I mean, does she constantly have to handle the customers...

AH: I would say so. It must have been hard for them, because they had to run around and make beds, clean up -- some of them weren't very clean clients -- and I think the wives had a fairly hard time.

<End Segment 2> - Copyright © 1997 Densho. All Rights Reserved.