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SY: And this was predominantly... maybe we should back up and talk a little bit about the Seinan area, it was predominantly Japanese American?

PS: It was black and Japanese American.

SY: And what part of Los Angeles was that?

PS: That was Normandie and close to Normandie between Jefferson Street and Exposition.

SY: And Seinan is translated as?

PS: Seinan means, I believe, I found this out fairly recently, "Southwest."

SY: So it's just a geographical --

PS: Geographical, I found out there's a Seinan in Japan. It's just the area but there's a certain esprit de corps that developed for people who lived in that area and people stay in touch even today. I remember on Thirty-fifth Place and Normandie there was a Methodist church that continued to be there until even after the war for several years before it moved down to little Tokyo on I think about Third and Alameda. And then my dad had a gas station for about two years right after the war and that was on the corner of Thirty-sixth Place and Normandie. I remember right across the street was John Naka, a well-known bonsai expert and then right up the street was the Senshin Buddhist church and on the other side of that was the elementary school I went to, Thirty-seventh Street School. And then going back west from Normandie was the judo dojo where I took judo for about six months.

SY: So it was really predominantly Japanese American?

PS: And then farther down on Thirty-sixth Place was Twin Cleaners that was run by a well-known brothers, well-known twins, Lyle and Lane Nakano.

SY: Oh, that was why it was called Twin Cleaners, how funny.

PS: They used to, I remember seeing them come around in their van to pick up cleaning. They provided that service at that time.

SY: 'Cause now it's really predominantly African American, black, that whole area.

PS: Yeah, it's Latino, black.

SY: Completely, Latino, black. And maybe a few Japanese families left there.

PS: I don't think many. Most of them moved out towards Crenshaw, the Crenshaw area.

SY: So it's a little bit --

PS: Yeah, farther west.

SY: West.

PS: Yeah, right. Not too many.

<End Segment 3> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.