<Begin Segment 7>
YM: Was there any black kids?
TS: There (were) no black kids.
YM: Black kids.
TS: There weren't that...
CK: I can't remember.
TS: ...many blacks around.
CK: No.
TS: They were just up around 12th Avenue. A few of 'em.
YM: There was a few.
CK: Yeah, around -- yeah. And --
TS: They used to have a drinking place up there.
CK: They used to have a few at Garfield High School.
TS: Yeah.
CK: Homer Harris and those guys.
YM: I had one in my --
TS: Homer Harris?
CK: Quentin Booker.
YM: Quentin Booker. That's --
CK: Yeah. But...
YM: He stuck around the Japanese kids --
TS: Yeah.
CK: You could practically count on your fingers the number of black kids that were in Seattle during that time. And now...
YM: It's after the war.
CK: Look at the population, it's really --
TS: Yeah, the wartime, yeah.
YM: I think after the war, they migrated...
CK: Yeah.
YM: Up north more.
TS: When I went to Broadway, there was one black kid outta 2,000 students, I remember.
CK: Well, that -- you know the guy named -- his parents ran the Coast Hotel on 8th and King? Remember that Coast Hotel, where all the redcaps and the conductors on the railroads were black, so they used to stay there in between. And Willard Jackson, that's it.
TS: Oh.
CK: Don't you remember Willard Jackson?
TS: Not really.
CK: Great big -- but he was a clumsy guy, so not very many guys wanted him for their team.
TS: Okay. Poor guy.
CK: But as far as playing football for us, he was a massive guy. So he played for us, I remember.
YM: The King Street Station was within the perimeter of Japanese Town.
CK: Yeah.
YM: That's why -- and then some of the Isseis were redcaps, too.
TS: Oh, they made good money those days.
YM: Yeah.
CK: Yeah.
SF: So --
CK: I wonder if it lists the Coast Hotel here.
TS: Mas (Masao, "Chick") Shigemura. Remember him?
YM: Yeah. Mas's dad.
TS: He got a brand-new car.
YM: He was an only boy, so --
CK: Yeah.
YM: Well, so were you, but then, he got everything.
CK: Yeah.
TS: His dad had a nice job.
CK: They used to go to that -- on Jackson...
YM: On Jackson and --
TS: On the white hill. (Governor Apartments)
CK: Yeah. White apartment building.
TS: Right up...
YM: It was at..
TS: (On the west side of) 6th Avenue South (between Jackson and Main Street).
YM: Oh, that was...
CK: What is that?
YM: What was that hotel?
TS: It's right here where, Hanover Drug, it says. It's that's --
YM: The other, other --
TS: It should've been here.
YM: It's on Jackson Street.
TS: Right across from...
CK: Yeah.
TS: Hashidate, and a little bit down.
CK: Yeah, it's a wonder they didn't list that, huh?
TS: They didn't list it.
CK: Or that old school building?
TS: Oh, yeah. The Sea...
YM: Or the first --
TS: The old Seattle School. (Building is still there and occupied now by an engineering firm. It was used as a Chinese restaurant, "China Peasant" from prewar years through the war years and after for many years.)
CK: Yeah.
YM: First Seattle School was a...
TS: Right here.
YM: Half a block down from my dad's store.
TS: Yeah.
CK: Is it listed there?
YM: No.
CK: It isn't, right?
YM: No.
TS: Yeah. About right here.
YM: It's, it's a histori --
TS: Where it says "Panama Drug."
CK: Yeah. Right below Izui's.
YM: Yeah, uh-huh.
TS: Yeah.
YM: It's a historical building now. Who occupies that? Some --
TS: I don't know. Somebody's --
YM: Some --
TS: Then they had that Chinese restaurant there.
YM: Yeah. At -- when, in our days, it was a...
CK: In the -- yeah.
YM: Chinese restaurant. It got to be.
TS: And look at what it says about Chiba Drug.
YM: Where does that, Chiba?
TS: It's up, next to where Mitsuwado was. They were down below.
CK: Yeah, one below.
TS: Yeah.
CK: Well, it does show it one below.
TS: No, no. They had the Sagamiya, Mitsuwado, and they had that Hamada place --
YM: Ten-cent store. Hamada ten-cent store.
TS: And then Hideji's place, and then Main Drug.
CK: Oh, down below.
TS: Which was Chiba (the father ran it, then son, Bain, after the war, except he moved the drug store up next to the old Sagamiya location.). Then the alley was there. Then Tenyoshi (a Japanese restaurant). Tenyoshi's not on there.
CK: No. No, Gyokoken. Yeah. Tenyoshi was downstairs.
TS: Yeah, downstairs.
CK: Yeah, yeah.
YM: Yeah, and Gyokoken was upstairs.
TS: But the, they've got the alley in the wrong place.
CK: Yeah.
TS: Yeah, well. That was --
CK: A long time ago.
YM: Our childhood, really.
CK: Yeah.
<End Segment 7> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.