<Begin Segment 24>

TI: And so while you worked for, for the military, were you being paid as a U.S. citizen in dollars?

JM: No, in yen.

TI: In yen. So did they treat you as, as a Japanese national or as a U.S. citizen?

JM: No, U.S. citizen.

TI: And they paid you in yen, not, not dollars?

JM: No, not dollars.

TI: Why was, I thought you were supposed to be paid in dollars if you were...

JM: Well, I guess maybe I was too young or something, but no, everything was all in yen.

TI: But then, you, you're able to get supplies and things?

JM: Oh yeah.

TI: You mentioned the black market. Do you have any stories about the black market and how that worked?

JM: It's really hard to explain, but like, for instance, a GI would go out and then sell a cigarette and from there some other ladies, they'll buy it from the other people and it goes on through certain people, but as they go through second, third people they raise the price up and then the black market starts, so the GIs, they used to bring out candies, cigarettes, and later on the clothing, too, but they took time for that, but everything.

TI: Okay, so that, so they would sell it to, first one person, and then they would then be able to sell it for a little bit more.

JM: Yeah. More and more, yeah. It would go to second, third, fourth party, so wherever that is, you'd see all big crowd over there. That's the black market place.

TI: And you mentioned, what, cigarettes, candy, what were the high demand items besides...

JM: Everything. Shoes, combat boots and everything. Combat boots too, I don't know why, how they start sellin', but they put that under the table, so the MPs won't see it, but they'll start selling everything.

TI: Okay.

<End Segment 24> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.