<Begin Segment 47>

TI: So Barbara, we're past two. Do you have any last questions you want to ask? Frank, this was an amazing interview. I mean, thank you so much.

FS: No more?

TI: Well, we have lots of questions, but it's...

FS: Oh, I know one thing you forgot to ask me. What did I accomplish in my life up to now?

TI: Yeah, okay. [Laughs]

FS: Okay, two things. You know what a Mason is?

TI: A Mason? Yes.

FS: I'm a Mason. How many Japanese you know are Masons?

TI: I don't know very many.

FS: There ain't none, only one or two. Bruce Kaji? You've heard of him, he's a Mason. Dr. Hara and Dr. Benjamin Kondo is a Mason. And I'm a licensed contractor, State of California. I'm retired. (...) See my license number? It's very, very low. 1957. I was a licensed contractor since 1957. (License #179824.)

BT: Not bad for a guy that didn't finish high school.

FS: Yeah, yeah. I know a lot of people that went to try to get a contractor's license and failed. I got mine first (time). I'm not saying I'm smart, but...

TI: So being a Mason and being a licensed contractor were some of the key achievements that you really...

FS: Well, a lot of job, inspectors are all Masons. Either make it hard or make it easy. So you got to judge the inspector. If he's a hard man, you work hard. And if he's an easy guy, you can cheat, and he'll look this way. No, but a lot of times they help you, inspectors. They don't, they don't bother you, they don't make it hard. Even the hard inspectors will make it easy. I never had a bad inspector that was a Mason yet. All good. But, see, my brother, I made my brother a Mason, for him to be a Mason. But he became a thirty-second degree Mason, and he was a Shriner. I didn't go the other way, I only went one way.

TI: That's good.

FS: But, you know, Japanese people don't know too much about Mason, but when you go among white people and they see that you're a Mason, they have different outlook. I met a lot of high -- I met a Chinese Mason in Phoenix, and he told me, he says, "Frank, outside of murder, you get in trouble, you call me up. I'll give you my card." Outside of murder.

TI: So it's really like a brotherhood in some ways.

FS: And then there was, I met a guy named Casey when I was working up north, he gave me a pin, a silver pin, dollar size, and the was the original founder of this particular lodge, and he gave that to me. He says, "When you come to the lodge, just show it and you get in. No ritual, this is it." But you know, there's a lot of good in it.

TI: That's good. So Frank, again, thank you so much for the interview.

<End Segment 47> - Copyright © 2009 Densho. All Rights Reserved.