<Begin Segment 19>

MN: Can we, let me ask you a little bit about the California Hardware, which had a huge store in Little Tokyo at the time, and you said it was on the corner of First and --

AM: Alameda Street.

MN: Alameda. And then, now how did your father help this gentleman?

AM: Okay, when my father started the business in Little Tokyo there were about ten, ten other photography studios, so the competition was very, pretty, pretty high. So this California Hardware company happened to find out my father was real good at taking merchandise pictures, so they started giving him a lot of, giving him a lot of work from the hardware company, which helped my father a great deal at the very beginning. But this hardware company decided, well, they got so much work, so they decided to make their own place, photo department, so my father, instead of ignoring them, he went to help them set up the photo department. And it so happened that this man that my father helped make the photo department in California Hardware was the same man that used to come to Manzanar when my father, when the whole Japanese was put into internment camp, and they had a contract with the WRA, War Relocation Authority. So this hardware company got the contract from the WRA to furnish the hardware and this man that my father helped build a studio, a photography department in hardware company, happened to be the same man that my father helped came every month to take order from the WRA people. So when my father found that out he right away asked if he, if he would get something for him, and this man was very cooperative because my father helped him so much making this photo department, so he said, "Sure, anytime you want anything let me know." So my father got a hold of him when he needed the film and things and so my father gave him the address, the dealer where he could get the things, because my father dealt with this man for so many years that he was very cooperative in giving him the films and things, because there was already a ration to each studio, whatever they could get. Well, this man was, dealer was nice enough to take little bit from all the other studio business that he had and give it to my father, and so that's how my father was able to get the film supply.

MN: Now, your father was still undercover. Nobody knew, well the administration didn't know he was taking photos, so how did your father get the film and the chemical from this man? How did they exchange it?

AM: Okay, this photographer that the, that my father had to have take pictures because he was a Caucasian because Japanese, he couldn't take it himself, had to go every now and then to Los Angeles to buy the film supplies or any other supply that he needed for the studio. So my father told him the dealer that he could go to because my father had dealing with him, so he gave him the address and things and, and my father would place the order with this dealer and this Caucasian fellow that was a photographer for my father would go to Los Angeles and pick up these things. So that's how he was able to get the film supply. Otherwise he would've never been able to get the film.

MN: But that was after he talked to Ralph Merritt. Now I'm asking you, before he talked to Ralph Merritt and he was still doing this undercover and this California Hardware man was coming in, how was your father able to get the film? He wasn't openly giving it to your father?

AM: Oh. No, he had to be very careful how he got the film to my father, so whenever he had to get something for my father he told my father he will have his coat hanging in the hallway when he takes the order from the WRA people, so he will have it in his pocket, so while he's taking order, my father was instructed by him to take the things out of his pocket and whenever a thing was delivered too big, he would leave his trunk of the car ajar and he'll leave it there. The only way my father could get these things was to have one of the policemen -- and these policemen were all Japanese internees -- and so he knew a few of them, so he would ask them if he would go to the administration building and there's a coat hanging in the hallway, so, "There's things in there for me, so if you could, if this thing can be brought to me." So this policeman would be very cooperative for my father and would get these things, and then if it's in the trunk of the car they would get, go to the car and get the thing out of his trunk and put it into the police car and then take it to my father. So that's how he was getting his film supply.

MN: How was your father paying this man?

AM: He would tell him how much these items were and my, he would tell my father how much it is and so my father would somehow pay him. I don't know how he did it, but he was paying him for it.

MN: Now, your early photographs, did your father have people in it and why not?

AM: Well, the early photographs, before the studio was open he would take pictures early in the morning or, or during the time when people were eating, because we all had to eat in our own mess hall, so there'd be hardly anybody around. And he would go around taking pictures of the camp site and things like that, and then whenever there was people he would take pictures from a distance so, well, I guess they didn't know he was a photographer, so it was okay, but some of 'em began to know he was a photographer, so he was very careful how he did it. But a lot of the people knew that it was, camera was illegal, so when they had picture taken they would keep it quiet so they could have a picture. My father would give it to them. So that way he was able to keep it a secret.

<End Segment 19> - Copyright © 2010 Densho. All Rights Reserved.