<Begin Segment 4>

TI: So you were born in the Imperial Valley, and so let's talk about the Imperial Valley and some of your early childhood memories. What was that like?

CS: Oh, we left when I was one years old.

TI: And where did they move then?

CS: Well, as I say, when the war ended, the price of cotton just collapsed. So my father folded up the business and came to L.A.

TI: Okay, and that's when you went to, didn't you go to Boyle Heights at that time?

CS: No, they lived in (southwest) L.A. at that time. See, he went to work for the Rafu Shimpo. The reason for that is his brother, older brother, married... see, the Rafu Shimpo had two founders: (Mr.) Komai and Mr. Inouye. And the Inouyes didn't have any sons, so my father's brother went as a yoshi to the Inouye family to continue the family (name). So that's why he had the connection at Rafu Shimpo. So my father, when he came back, he went to work for the Rafu Shimpo.

TI: Okay. And he was, as a writer?

CS: No, as a bill collector. So he went all around California, up and down the coast, collecting the subscription fee from the farmers and all that, and got to know all the farmers. So first thing you know, he was selling insurance to them, that's how he became an insurance agent.

TI: Okay, so first collecting bills for the Rafu, then selling insurance.

CS: And then when the Depression came, they couldn't afford insurance, so he sold fertilizer to them. [Laughs] There was a Japanese company making fertilizer.

TI: So he was very entrepreneurial, he did lots of things. And so you were originally in west L.A., and then how long did you live there?

CS: It wasn't... no, no. From there, my mother and I went back to Japan, that's right, when I was about four years old, and came back when I was five. So when I came back, my father had moved to Boyle Heights, so we went there.

TI: Now was there a special reason for your mother and you to go back to Japan?

CS: That I never knew why she went back.

TI: Do you have any memories of Japan?

CS: Oh, yeah. I mean, nothing of importance, just certain things sticks in your mind, you know. Like I remember one time I was in kindergarten, and on the slide there I pushed a kid aside or something. And the principal called my mother, and, "Your American son is too wild," or something. [Laughs] I guess I was a troublemaker there already.

TI: And did you think that you were more aggressive than the Japanese students, or was there a difference from school in Japan?

CS: I know when I went back, I couldn't speak a word of Japanese, and when I came back, I couldn't speak a word of English.

TI: [Laughs] So you returned to the United States, your dad moves to Boyle Heights.

CS: Because that's closer to Rafu Shimpo.

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