<Begin Segment 21>

SY: So, Frank, now you returned to Los Angeles and you ended up staying and you got back to your favorite business.

FK: Yes.

SY: And so what did you end up doing?

FK: Well, I told myself, I didn't tell my mother but I told myself that my mother needs help and that I should do whatever I can. But I felt that the kamaboko industry is, has a limit as far as a business and that maybe in five years that the business would slow down to a point where you could close up and then it would give me an opportunity to do what I want to do, whether it's going back in the army or doing whatever I wanted to do. But year two I started thinking business is picking up and my dad's biggest dream was to make something for the American people, the American masses rather than concentrating on Japanese. And that, just his intent, it left something obviously because I kept remembering it, that well maybe I should try that.

SY: At the time what was kamaboko business? Was it as physically strenuous or was there now new machinery?

FK: Yes, it was the era of machinery. This was the phenomenon that took place in Japan whereas before, just like what we were doing, they would sit on a table and they would have the surimi and they would form that with their knife by hand and make everything my hand whether it's kamaboko or tempura, everything was done by hand. And then I heard that in Japan someone discovered a machine where you put the kamaboko boards on one end and you put the surimi in the center and then you push a button and then boards one at a time would come out and then this surumi would be place right on top of the board very neatly, and all you do is cut it with a wet knife and then you place it. So it saved... well, what we used for of us from early morning 'til late in the evening I believe that our daily production if we worked just on that one product we could probably make about a thousand kamaboko in a day's production. This machine, you push the button and with two person you could make a thousand in one hour. So, yes, it was a big advance in the industry, and so I asked if there was anybody that would make the machine for me and of course the manufacturer said they'd be happy to make it but I didn't know how to operate it, so at that time there were always people coming... Niseis, KibeiNiseis that want to come back to the United States and we heard of one young man that wanted to come back so we asked him -- he's from Kagoshima -- we asked him to go to, I believe it was Osaka at that time, to go there and learn how to operate this machine that I'm going to buy. So he went to the factory and he learned how to operate it and he flew in and then the machine came in by ship and then we put the machinery together and we went into the twenty-first century there, from one machine. And from then on we were always looking for other machinery and we found a machine that would make tempura so we didn't have to make that by hand and then we found a machine to make chikua which we didn't have to make by hand so now it became a very proficient --

SY: And were you still one of how many kamaboko --

FK: We were one of four.

SY: One of four. So all four survived?

FK: Yes. And I was the first to bring in the equipment.

SY: You were the first.

FK: And I was the first to, in the United States, that's including Hawaii too, to package kamaboko. In those days we sold kamaboko loose, as is, we'd steam it or fry it or whatever and then we would sell it and it would be in the fish counter and it had no covering. The saran wrap came out, and so I would cut off a twelve inch square and then cut it off and then place the kamaboko in and then wrap it and now we had wrapped kamaboko, sanitary, well, a lot more sanitary than the way it was. And we sort of revolutionized the kamaboko, we took one step forward.

SY: And then you sold then to more people? You were able to sell to more people?

FK: Yes, in fact we had customers in New York as well as Chicago, and to this day I wonder what kind of condition the product reached there because we would pack it in dry ice, but dry ice would last maybe twenty-four hours or thirty hours at the most, and it took about four days to get there by train, but that was the business. Of course, wintertime was not a problem, it was the summertime that was a problem.

SY: So there's no preservative that lasted longer.

FK: No, we didn't know of any preservative.

SY: So it's very fresh still?

FK: Yes, we sold everything fresh. We didn't sell anything frozen because if you froze it and you thawed it out, it made terrible kamaboko.

SY: And you sold mainly to Japanese markets?

FK: Japanese restaurants and Japanese markets. That was ninety percent of our business, ninety-five percent.

SY: And did you do the marketing too?

FK: There's not too much of marketing there's only a few kamaboko manufacturers or they'll call you if they want and we didn't have anybody in sales.

<End Segment 21> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.