<Begin Segment 17>

MN: Now, in early 1945 you left camp and you joined your brother Henry in Illinois, Elmhurst. What did you do while you were out there?

TS: Not much of anything. I was just living on 1012 North Clark Street where a lot of guys from our block lived.

MN: Were you working?

TS: No. Do you know Chicago? Well, (the area around) 1012 North Clark Street was nothing but brothels, whorehouses around there. That's where we were living. And the Toguris had a grocery store there and Tokyo Rose was a Toguri girl. The family was living there (with a) real prosperous grocery store.

MN: Did you enjoy any of the brothels there?

TS: No, I was too young. I was just right out of camp, fourteen, fifteen years old, and besides, even (if) I were older, I didn't have the money. These whores weren't cheap. In those days I think it cost fifteen dollars to go to the whorehouse.

MN: You weren't out in Chicago too long before you received a letter from your parents.

TS: (Yes).

MN: What did they want you to do?

TS: "Come back. We're going to the West Coast because the WRA got us a job in Piedmont, California." So I came back.

MN: You know, it's usually the oldest brother that shoulders the burden of looking after your, the parents, but in your case, you the youngest looked after your family.

TS: (Yes).

MN: How did, why is that so?

TS: Probably because my brother's wife, the girl that he married, I think she influenced him. (She was a very tough woman and my brother was very weak).

MN: Now, what did your parents do in Piedmont, California?

TS: My mother was a house maid and my father was an outside gardener and I was a gardener's assistant, and we lived in a servants' quarters in the back, right next to Piedmont High School.

MN: You were still a high school student and Piedmont High was near this family, family's house, but you weren't allowed to go there?

TS: No, they, the Chinese people we worked for didn't want me to go there, says, "You should go down to Oakland Technical High." So I went.

MN: Now, why did this wealthy Chinese family say that to you?

TS: Because (I think she was trying to protect her own family), she said, "Your kind, they don't go here." That offended me greatly and I told my folks that, "We're getting out of here. I don't like this."

MN: But you went to this Oakland Technical High School for a while and, and you used to walk by the fire station, and what did you overhear the firemen say?

TS: "Is he a Jap or Chinaman?"

MN: So you'd hear that all the time, when you walked by the fire --

TS: No, I didn't see 'em standing out there, but when I did see them they would make some comment.

MN: Now, at Oakland Technical High School, what was the ethnic makeup of the student population?

TS: I think it was mostly whites, but I didn't go there too long, so I don't have a big memory of that.

MN: So you weren't happy in Northern California?

TS: No.

<End Segment 17> - Copyright © 2010 Densho. All Rights Reserved.