<Begin Segment 4>

TI: So at the laundry we talked about earlier when it was hand washing. When you got the machines it sounds like you started to have people work at the laundry?

RH: Not at the beginning. I think it was around '34, 1934, '35 just right around in there we made the transition to the new laundry. You know my sister keeps changing the year that she was born, but when she was born I remember my dad making the phone calls from the new laundry. So it must have been just before that, '34 or something like that when we moved.

TI: And so this was when he bought some land, built a new building, laundry and did all that. Now when he did that, did he own the laundry, the business, the land and everything?

RH: Yeah, well, you see, Japanese could not own property at that time, well 'til fifty something. Anyway, my mom was born in Hawaii so she says she was an American so I guess they took for granted or she was able to prove that at the time. And so she was able to buy property so it was under my mom's name.

TI: Okay, so that's how they got, you got around that by having it under your mom?

RH: That's right, or they might have used my name or my brother's name, something like that because we were American citizens at the time.

TI: And then you said after you got to the new place, it was a bigger place and then that's when your parents started hiring people?

RH: Oh, yeah.

TI: So how big a operation was this?

RH: Let's see he had one guy in the laundry section and about six in the ironing. I call it ironing but they had these machines that ironed the shirts and pants and so forth. And then he used to get these college kids, we had a junior college in Modesto, and so where the guys were from was Livingston, California there was no junior college so they used to come up to Modesto to get a job and my dad picked them up, paid them room and board plus I think it was a dollar a day and then they went to school during the day.

TI: So your dad had a place for these guys to sleep?

RH: Yeah.

TI: Was that in your house or is it nearby?

RH: He built like a second story building and then the sleeping quarters are up there. So they ate downstairs and they slept upstairs, just a room to stay.

TI: And then downstairs was where the family lived?

RH: No, the kitchen was downstairs, the sleeping quarters were all upstairs.

TI: Including the family's.

RH: Yeah.

TI: And this happened year round and they were there year round? The Livingston?

RH: Yeah.

TI: So it was a pretty big operation?

RH: It was good, yeah.

TI: And was it pretty successful, lucrative, did your father make money doing this?

RH: Yes.

TI: And when they expanded like this, who were the customers? Was it more commercial at this point or still more families doing things?

RH: It was the people that, mostly the white people that lived around there. And a lot of them would drop and then pick up in the evenings, stuff like that.

TI: And the workers were they all, you said Nisei so were they all Japanese?

RH: The Niseis were friends of ours that lived in the area and they would come and go, come in the morning and leave at night, stuff like that.

TI: And then the students that were from Livingston, were they Japanese American?

RH: Yeah.

TI: So any interesting stories or anything about the laundry business back then in the 30s?

RH: Just, we picked up a few things from them but mostly it was just run of the mill things, they came, and they ate, and they worked, and they studied and stuff like that, that's about it.

TI: So with your father making money, did he have things like a car?

RH: Yeah, he had a thing with Dodge brothers, there was brothers that owned a Dodge business and my dad washed their coveralls and things like that and pressed them. And that would be free, I mean, he would do it for them for two years and then he would get a car.

TI: Oh, interesting, so every two years he'd get a car by providing free laundry service to Dodge brothers which was kind of like the dealer I guess, the car dealer?

RH: We called it Dodge brothers, I don't know the name of the place, I don't remember.

TI: So a form of barter I guess.

RH: Yeah.

TI: Laundries for a car. And so was that unusual for a Japanese to get a new car every two years?

RH: I guess, I don't know. I was a little kid at the time so I really don't remember. But I remember when the war broke out, though, we just got the car, no it was a '39 Dodge and as soon as the war broke out, man, they just came after the car.

TI: The Dodge brothers did.

RH: Yeah.

TI: Because it was more like a lease or a loaner.

RH: Well, there wasn't much we could do because it was between my dad and the Dodge brothers, and when the war broke out the FBI came in and took my dad.

TI: Okay, so we'll get back to that later. So what did your dad do with the money he made?

RH: I guess he stashed it someplace, put it in the bank. It wasn't a lot, but he made money.

TI: Would he ever take trips back to Japan?

RH: No, not at that time.

<End Segment 4> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.