<Begin Segment 16>

TS: They used to have a deal where the Japanese businesspeople, they had a pot where they would put in so much --

YM: Tanomoshiis?

TS: Tanomoshii? Yeah. Put money in. And then somebody wants to borrow it, to start a business...

YM: (Yes).

TS: Or something.

SF: So did any of your parents belong to a tanomoshii?

YM: I think my folks, (yes).

CK: I think my folks did.

YM: (Yes), my folks did. They used to...

CK: Because somebody used to...

YM: Come collecting.

CK: Yeah. Come collecting...

YM: Come collecting down the store.

CK: Every week.

YM: (Yes).

SF: So when -- did your folks ever get the -- well, they must've gotten the pot once in a while, right? Or the money?

CK: I don't think so, my folks.

TS: You get interest back?

CK: I don't, I don't know.

YM: I never did ask --

CK: Oh, yeah.

YM: My dad, anything on that.

CK: You just see this one guy...

YM: Yeah, coming for

CK: Coming every week.

YM: Collecting for every month, or whatever.

CK: Yeah.

YM: And --

CK: They never told you what it's for.

TS: Boy, that kind of reminds me of Hideji's father. He used to go out every night. You remember Hideji?

YM: (Yes). I don't remember his dad.

TS: He used -- well, his foster dad.

YM: (Yes).

TS: And what do you call those Chinese things where you mark up?

YM: Bakape.

CK: Bakape.

TS: Yeah. Used to go around...

CK: It's a Chinese...

TS: Collect --

CK: Lotto.

TS: Yeah. Money on that.

CK: Or --

YM: They used to gamble and bring it down to Chinatown, and --

TS: There's a central place that collected it, I guess. And they made a drawing or something or...

YM: Yeah.

TS: Somebody won.

CK: They'd have a drawing and then --

SF: Was that mostly an Issei thing or a Nisei...

YM: Issei, no.

CK: That was --

TS: Nisei wasn't involved...

YM: No, not too much.

CK: No.

TS: Period. It was Issei.

YM: We were too young to be...

TS: But --

YM: Doing stuff like that.

TS: Yeah.

CK: That was basically the business of the Chinese, I thought.

TS: It was a Chinese business.

CK: Yeah.

TS: But the Japanese would gamble a lot.

CK: Yeah. Yeah, they would gamble what -- it's just like the Chinese gambling places. You find Japanese people there.

TS: Yeah. Well, there again --

CK: They'll let you in because of the fact that you're...

TS: Yeah.

CK: Oriental.

YM: Well, Chinese and Japanese, well it's, they were in the same --

TS: General area.

YM: General area there.

TS: Yeah.

YM: In fact, after King Street, it was mostly Chinese, wasn't it?

CK: After King Street? How do you mean?

YM: Yeah. I mean, around King Street, it was Chinatown.

CK: Oh, yeah, well...

TS: Except south of --

CK: Above Maynard Avenue, yeah.

YM: Yeah.

TS: Yeah.

CK: Because there were very few people, Chinese people, below Maynard.

TS: Oh.

CK: As far as I know.

<End Segment 16> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.