Densho Digital Archive - Kaz T. Tanemura Interview (denshovh-tkaz-01-0007)

<Begin Segment 7>

TI: So describe kind of that neighborhood. I mean, you mentioned people would say hi. What kind of shops were down there? You had the hotels, but what other shops?

KT: Well, right underneath our hotel, there was a drugstore and a bookstore there selling magazines and whatnot. There was restaurants down the block from us. Oh, like on our block, on First and Washington to First and Yesler, that was one block. There must have been Del Mar Hotel, State Hotel, one, two, three, four, five... five different hotels strung right around there.

TI: And about how many Japanese were down in that area? Were there very many other Japanese?

KT: There was a restaurant, a Japanese restaurant down below us, and the three hotels were Japanese run. And kitty corner from the street there was two more, three or four. There was quite a bit of Japanese hotel right between, on First Avenue from Yesler to Jackson Street.

TI: And so lots of kids your age down there?

KT: Yeah, uh-huh.

TI: Now, how would you compare growing up down there to sort of the, more the Nihonmachi area, like Sixth and Main around there? How did things change as you went up the hill?

KT: Well, I knew a lot of people that were living around Fifth and Main and whatnot. And after school, we would all get together and walk home together, and then I would, sometime I would stop off and play with them at their, in front of their hotel, and other times I'll come on home, depending upon what I had to do.

TI: But did your, did your neighborhood have any kind of reputation versus another place, like, was like First and Washington or First Avenue viewed as, by the other boys and girls, maybe a little more dangerous than like on Fifth or Sixth Avenue?

KT: I don't remember any real distinction like that. I mean, we were all friends, we all went to school together, and to me, it was a drop off place. We'd be walking up there and they would join us, and we all walked up to school. Coming home, we walked back together, they drop off, and we'd continue. [Laughs] It was just a normal thing to me.