Densho Digital Archive - Jack Y. Kunitomi Interview I (denshovh-kyoshisuke-03-0014)

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MN: Now, you're active in a lot of things. You graduate from City College. Now, had your father passed away before you graduated?

JK: Yes.

MN: What year did he pass away?

JK: Oh... way back in the '30s. I know it was originally at Koyasan. It was still on Central Avenue.

MN: What happened to your father?

JK: Well, he was on his way home from work on a Saturday because he had to deliver flowers to a funeral in San Fernando. Because he had just a few floral wreaths, he had taken a small pickup. He had a pickup and a smaller truck. Anyway, unfortunately, his car had a flat tire, and those days, inner tubes had air for the tire. Well, when the inner tube blows up, you're out of whack. You're in trouble. So tube blow, he just went across into the wrong lane. So hit a truck, and he never regained consciousness. So I was working at Grand Central. My friend came to tell me, so put on my jacket and ran to the Japanese hospital in Boyle Heights, ran up there, too late. So it was... yeah.

MN: So your father never regained consciousness.

JK: No.

MN: So did Frank take over as the head of the household after?

JK: No. My younger brother did. I had a regular market job.

MN: Is your father buried at Evergreen?

JK: Yeah.

MN: So now once your father passed away, your mother had to also bring in some income. What did she do?

JK: Well, in the meantime, we had moved to another spot closer to Fukuis, well, around the block. We had been close to Fukuis for the longest time. Yeah, so the son, Shoichi, was now... was he in charge? I know the girls were his sister's friends, so they weren't afraid of dead bodies. So, yeah, they were all playmates running around the funeral halls. Shame on them. [Laughs]

MN: So your family had moved again, and that's on Gary Street, right? And then once your father passed away, then you were at Gary Street and you were living with your mother and Sue at the time and Midori?

JK: Yes.

MN: And did you have to help out in the business now, bringing in the income?

JK: Yeah. Then just before the war, a neighbor who ran the store, they decided to go back to Japan. So we'd been neighbors, we bought the store. My sister Sue, well, she was out of high school. I was working wholesale, bringing home hard vegetables. Worked out well until Pearl Harbor.