<Begin Segment 3>

MN: And now your grandfather, you said, went back to Japan. You also mentioned your father, he didn't go into the confectionary business, but as a young man he picked grapes. Do you remember that?

AM: Yeah, he used to go, do that type of work just to get some, little income, to have a little money so he could pursue his interest in photography. So a lot of the young Issei used to do that, working just part time, doing, working for farmers and things, so he used to go to Fresno sometimes and thing like that.

MN: Did you ever have to do that?

AM: No.

MN: Now, when your father told your grandparents that he wants to go into artistic field, how did your grandparents take that?

AM: Well, they kind of knew my father's interest was in field of art and so, naturally, when my grandfather decided to go back to Japan, he had his oldest son take over the business, although, even though my father was married to his stepdaughter. So my father was always kind of more artistic type, not the business type of person, so my grandfather naturally asked my father's older son to take over the business. And so when my grandfather went back to Japan, when he became ill, he asked my father if he could come back and help because he was sick, and so he knew that his present wife would like to see his, her daughter back in Japan, too, so that's how he decided to go back to Japan and...

MN: Let's not go to Japan yet. [Laughs]

AM: Okay.

MN: Let's stay here in L.A. still. Before he went to Japan, your father went back to Japan, were, I wanted to still ask a little bit about his earlier years. How did your father decide to pick photography as his field?

AM: Well, my father was very interested in art and when he, those days, the young Isseis were really into camera, taking pictures, and so there was a great interest in photography and many of the Isseis started taking artistic photographs and, with a camera. And so my father, naturally, got interested from that, that type of work, and so he started taking a lot of pictures. And then, let's see, he... oh, there was an already existing studio in Little Tokyo. It was located in Toyo Hotel, which was where the Parker Center used to be. So he took his, was interested in purchasing this studio, so he did. And then, since his name was Toyo Miyatake, he decided to rename the studio Toyo Miyatake Studio.

MN: And so this Toyo Studio, or Toyo Hotel had no relations to your father?

AM: No.

MN: It was just named Toyo Hotel.

AM: Yeah.

MN: Now, before that, did your father take any classes, or how did he learn photography?

AM: Okay. He was interested in pictorial type of photograph and there was a man named Edward Weston. He was a very well-known photographer, even to this day, although he passed away long time ago. When he lived in Glendale he used to take lessons from him in photography, because my father liked his work so much. And then one day Edward Weston told my father, "You know, I have a exhibit and the reason I have a exhibit is so people would buy my photographs." But it was 1924 or '5 and then it was during the, kind of a recession time, so he was having a hard time selling his pictures because people were, just wouldn't buy pictures that much anymore those days. So he told that to my father and my father heard it -- this was after Edward Weston taught him photography -- so my father went back to the Little Tokyo community and told these young Issei photographers, "You know, Edward Weston wants to put on an exhibit if you would be willing to help him put on a exhibit," and they were more than happy to do it because he, he was so well known. So they had the exhibit, and quite a few photographs were bought by the Japanese people and Edward Weston was very thankful for it. And I was reading a day book that Edward Weston published and I came across this article that he wrote in his book that "these Japanese people were very appreciative of my photograph and I was very thankful for, for the people to buy all these photographs." And so it so happened that my father knew about Edward Weston because my father learned photography from him. And another person that taught him photography was a man named Mr. Harry Shigeta. When he used to live in Los Angeles he was teaching photography, so my father first got interested in photography, so he went to Harry Shigeta's class and learned photography from him. And after going to, to his class, Mr. Shigeta decided to quit this teaching and go to Chicago, and so after that my father decided to go to Mr. Edward Weston to learn photography. So my father had some nice teachers that taught photography to him.

MN: And then your father worked in Hollywood before he opened your, his own studio, is that correct?

AM: Well, no, he, when he started a studio in Little Tokyo, the kind of picture that he'd took really attracted the people in the Hollywood movie industry. They liked it so much that his, he got a reputation for taking some nice portrait for these actors and actresses, so he started getting a lot of their business.

MN: And he also became friends with James Wong Howe?

AM: Yes.

MN: The pioneer cinematographer.

AM: Yes. He was doing photography in Hollywood and then my father also assisted him, too.

MN: Oh, your father assisted him?

AM: Yeah. And then, because, because the kind of work that my father was doing, so they became friends. Yeah, James Wong Howe was very good friend with my father. I remember before he passed away he came to see my father and they were talking out front of the studio -- this is after the World War II -- and then after that conversation he had with my father James Wong Howe passed away quite a, maybe a year or two after that.

MN: Do you think he learned, James Wong Howe really revolutionized camera work in Hollywood, do you think your father picked any of that from James Wong Howe?

AM: I think he did, yes. Very much.

MN: And then after that, so your father had the studio where, you said where Parker Center is right now? LAPD's Parker Center. At that time, how competitive was it to be a Japanese American photographer?

AM: Well, there were over ten studios in that Little Tokyo and he was one of them, so it was very competitive, yes. So he continued to get a lot of work from people in the, Hollywood people, so that's how he was able to keep going.

MN: Now, was it unusual for a Japanese photographer to have Caucasian clients?

AM: Oh yes, very much. Because most of the Japanese photographers couldn't speak English that well, and my father was somehow, been able to communicate with them.

<End Segment 3> - Copyright © 2010 Densho. All Rights Reserved.