<Begin Segment 8>

MN: So I'm gonna go back to the South Bay and ask you a little bit about that.

TY: Okay.

MN: When you were living in the west Hawthorne area, was there a Japantown nearby?

TY: No. The only Japantown nearby was Moneta, Gardena. Moneta, yeah.

MN: So this, in Moneta, Gardena, what was the main road that had all the Japanese businesses?

TY: Western Avenue.

MN: What store, what kind of stores were lining Western Avenue at that time?

TY: Well, you asked me that once before, but then I was thinking about it and thinking about it, then I came up a few more. There was a barbershop there, and there was a tofuya there, and there was a grocery store there, and there was a Kurata Shoten, Kurata Dry Goods Store, then there was, I think there was a Japanese restaurant over there, come to think about it, a little Japanese, little small, what do you call that, the small eating place over there. I can't remember what the name of it was. We used to eat over there before we went home. And there was a Yamato Hall, I think it was Yamato Hall, where they had the big gatherings. Oh yeah, and then there was a Nihonjinkai over there someplace. There was a Nihonjinkai on Western Avenue also. I can't remember where it was. Anyway, all the community people used to meet over there to do different things, to develop Japanese school or why can't we do this or regular community meeting, like Ken Nakaoka used to have. You remember, you know Ken Nakaoka, right? So something like that. And then when World War II started those were the, those were the first people that they gathered for some reason why.

MN: When the Japanese navy used to visit from --

TY: Japan.

MN: -- San Pedro, did they come to the Western area? Did you folks have parades for them?

TY: They used to have a big thing about it. Oh yeah, they used to have, as I can remember, I didn't care to go to those things. My dad used to say, come on, let's go see and so-and-so, let's go see so-and-so, then people from Kagoshima was on the boat so then we'd go meet 'em, this and that. They used to have a big parade, yeah. What did they call that? I think one time the emperor's son came or something. Then my dad wanted to go see him too, and so he really wanted us to go see him too. I forgot his name, but anyway, some imperial personnel came and that was a big, big event. I can remember that. Then they used to have, every time, they'd call the ship Renshuu Kantai, training, training military ship or something like that. And we used to go to the parties. Dad used to go to the party 'cause Dad liked things like that. So anyway...

MN: Now, you mentioned also the Yamato Hall and you said they had all kinds of shiai and, and showed movies. What kind of movies did they show?

TY: Well, as I can remember, we used to see Mito Komon, Mito Komon, I think it was Mito Komon, Sarutobi Sasuke. And there used to be... the main one. I can't think of it. Maybe you, maybe you know a few of 'em.

MN: You mentioned Saigo Takamori.

TY: Saigo Takamori, yeah. Saigo Takamori, and they had Mito Komon and Sarutobi Sasuke. It was all about the warrior, you know, katana, protecting the woman here, and so I really couldn't understand it those days but it was fun to go see. So those, what'd they call it, the, fighting for the girl with a katana and bogeki, the peasants fighting the samurais all the time for the women, and that's what they call the bogeki and they used to be fun to watch so parents go, would go too. [Laughs] And then, I didn't know too much at that time, but as I was, around 1950 or something like that my friend and I used to go wrestling at the Olympic Stadium, the Olympic auditorium, or stadium, and then the promoter, I don't know if I told you this or not, but the promoter asked us if we know bogeki, and I had no idea that bogeki, we used to watch bogeki at the, in the olden days at the Miyamoto Hall, and then we told him that we don't know nothing about it. So then he said, "You guys study up on it and then put a, perform a skit for me," and then, so okay. And month or month and a half later, after we studied it, and then I got to thinking, well, it's the same thing with that picture we saw at Yamato Hall, warrior against the peasants, so that's the skit we put on in the '50s. I was on TV on the Art Baker Show. I was on Art Baker Show two or three times, and we were on Art Baker Show about three times, I think, and then we were on the Olympic Auditorium, a skit there one time. And then in '51, I think, the Art Baker program, I was on Art Baker program twice, Olympic Stadium twice, then, then the promoters from Las Vegas asked us if we want to put a skit on their wrestling, wrestling stadium when they have their professional wrestling matches, so then we couldn't say no, so we said okay. So then they flew us up to Las Vegas on the airplane, Western Airlines it was, and they, prior to that they picked us up in a limousine, put us on an airplane, and after we got to McCarran Airport they would have a limousine waiting, took us to Showboat Casino, then we put on a skit over there and we got paid. And we got brought back home through taxi and airplane, taxi to my car, this and that. And then somebody, about a year or two later, asked, Art Baker Show asking to put the show on again. So then they said, "Well, you can stay home and watch it, we just want your permission to put it on." So they said they'll pay us a hundred and fifty dollars at that time, then so I called my buddy up, my partner, and then we said, well, okay then. We sat home and watched ourselves a couple times, it was so funny, on television. [Laughs]

MN: Now, so you performed in these skits?

TY: Yes.

MN: And did you, you're talking about pro wrestling also, so did you work with, like, Kimon Kudo or Mr., was it Mr. Moto?

TY: No, I worked with, he wrestled as pro, but I worked with my friend. My friend was a wrestler, so then he was an amateur wrestler and then I worked with him.

MN: And is that how you got hooked up into doing this, through him?

TY: Yeah. So it was amazing. And then, what's his name in New York, Ed Sullivan, they wanted us to come over there and put the skit on. I would say, "No, we got a job over here. We can't leave our job," so then we turned them down. And then that ended our career. It was fun while it lasted. [Laughs]

<End Segment 8> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.