<Begin Segment 9>

MN: Now, during this time, your father had an office in Little Tokyo, and then your mother helped your father. Where in Little Tokyo did your father have the office?

TI: It was in the Tomiyo Building, and later it was called the Taul Building, and then, anyway...

MN: Taul being after Taul Watanabe?

TI: Uh-huh.

MN: The Tomiyo building was First and San Pedro?

TI: Yes.

MN: And what was on the ground floor of the Tomiyo Building?

TI: The Iwaki Drug Store. And I often had lunch there.

MN: And did your father have his own office, or did he share it with others?

TI: He shared it with quite a few insurance agents from various companies.

MN: And how many days did your father work? Five? Six?

TI: Usually five, but sometimes if he was really busy he would work, go down on Saturdays.

MN: Now, your father's office had this system where one of the secretaries answered all the incoming calls for one day? So what day was your father responsible for?

TI: He was responsible for Wednesday. So when I went to junior high school, I would take the streetcar and go down to Little Tokyo and I would spend my day there, do my homework from junior high school, and then help sometimes in the office stuffing envelopes or putting stamps on the envelopes or filing.

MN: And then once in a while he asked you to bring over the check and cash to the bank across the street?

TI: Yes, right.

MN: Who was the teller there?

TI: Paul Bannai. [Laughs] As a teenager, you know, I thought he was the best-looking guy I had ever seen. [Laughs]

MN: You know, after the war, did you help Paul Bannai, you know, he was running for office...

TI: No, I didn't.

MN: You didn't get involved in his campaigns?

TI: No. I never met him again, 'til just recently. He read my book and found his name.

MN: What did he say?

TI: He said... I don't know. He just said, "You wrote a very good book. [Laughs] Oh, dear.

MN: So since Wednesdays your family worked late in the office, and you had to eat in Little Tokyo sometimes, what places, what restaurants do you remember in Little Tokyo?

TI: Yeah, well, we would go to the Manseiyan Noodle restaurant and then to Sankoro sometimes and Far East sometimes, and Matsunozushi. Anyway, the various restaurants in Little Tokyo. But when it was raining, we would go downstairs to the second floor, and they had a Chinese restaurant there. I can't remember the name of it, but we would have dinner down there.

MN: Would that be like Lem's?

TI: Something like that. Yeah, it could be.

MN: Before the war, it sounds like Little Tokyo had a number of Chinese restaurants.

TI: Yes, yes.

MN: And then before the war, Far East was known as Ento Low?

TI: I think so, yeah.

MN: Now, you also mentioned while you were walking home from school, your friends would pick the loquats, the biwa?

TI: Yes.

MN: And there's not a lot of American kids these days that I know that eat loquats. Was this popular during your childhood?

TI: Well, I guess so. And most of the kids I went to school with and walked home with were Japanese.

MN: Now, on Sundays, were you attending Sunday school?

TI: I did attend the Centenary, I mean, Methodist church for a while. My father would drive us, drive me down to the Sunday school there. But it got to be quite a chore for him to make two trips, so finally when I was about eight years old or so, I asked to go to the Sunday school with the kids in the neighborhood. So I went to Hollywood Independent Church until the war came.

<End Segment 9> - Copyright © 2010 Densho. All Rights Reserved.