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MN: So what other activities did you do in your free time at Burbank trailers?

TN: We used to dig holes under the administration trailer, I think. Like my brother said, "We're digging to China." The other times we'd be playing, just throwing a tennis ball around, or playing marbles, that was our favorite sport, marbles. Trying to hit those little marbles out of the ring.

MN: So while you were living at Burbank, did you attend Japanese school?

TN: No.

MN: What did your father do at this time?

TN: Oh, a lot of different jobs. One time he was working at a nursery doing labor stuff, I don't know what. But then he was a gardener's assistant, stereotypical Japanese job at the time. And then he also worked downtown as a janitor, night janitor. One time he took me and my brothers along with him, so we had a lot of fun just playing with whatever those carpet sweeping things are.

MN: So when your family was living in Burbank, how often did your father go to the INS office?

TN: I don't know, I guess he went a lot, but I have no idea.

MN: I guess INS, Immigration and Naturalization Service, which we don't have anymore. You also mentioned that while you were living at Burbank, your father took you to the Linda Lea Theatre?

TN: Oh yeah.

MN: Can you share, where was the Linda Lea Theatre?

TN: It was in Little Tokyo on First Street. Must be where the Citibank is now, I think, right around there anyway. They used to show Japanese movies sometimes, and they used to show American movies, the older movies. And sometimes they would show African American movies, too, so I got to see one or two African American movies. I don't know who was in it or anything, and we got to see a lot of American movies. That's when my father would drop us off there and go next door to play shogi or mah jong or something, I don't know. Then he would come pick us up and we'd go back to Burbank. I don't know how long we stayed at Burbank, though. Then they were renovating Burbank or something so we had to move to another trailer camp in Hawthorne, which also was across the street from defense industry things. I think it was North American Airplanes or whatever you call them. Yeah, North American. And I'm not sure how long we were there, but I think we went to Hawthorne schools for a while. No, I don't remember the schools. Maybe it was summer, I'm not sure. Then I don't know how long we were there, but then got transferred to El Segundo, that's another trailer camp. And over there, I remember the first and only time I rode a pony. There was a little pony ride thing somewhere, my father took the boys, and I got to ride a pony. That was fun.

MN: Was the El Segundo trailer camp also...

TN: It was across on the other side from an aircraft plant. Might have been the same North American.

MN: It seems really ironic that all these trailer camps are across from defense industry companies.

TN: Yeah. Right across from the "enemy aliens," former "enemy aliens."

MN: So now you're in El Segundo. From El Segundo where did you go?

TN: Back to Hawthorne, I think.

MN: And then from Hawthorne?

TN: Back to Burbank.

MN: That's a lot of moving around.

TN: I know.

MN: And that's within like a year or two years?

TN: I don't know. Maybe within a year, year and a half.

MN: So you're back from all this moving around, Burbank, Hawthorne, El Segundo, Hawthorne, Burbank.

TN: Uh-huh.

MN: Okay. So from Burbank, you're back to Burbank, then where did you go?

TN: Well, first we stayed at Burbank for a while and I went to the fourth grade.

MN: You finished fourth grade at Burbank.

TN: Yeah, right.

MN: Bret Harte?

TN: Bret Harte. A lot of the kids in the class were Japanese. I don't think we were the majority, though, but there were a lot.

MN: Did you ever ditch class?

TN: I don't think so, but my little brother did. When he was about five years old and he was supposed to be going to kindergarten at Washington school, my mother would walk him to the edge of the camp and then she'd wave bye to him and go back to the babies. And my brother would just turn around and go his friend's trailer and play over there all day and then go back home. But that didn't happen for too long because I think the teachers inquired, where was he? So he got caught.

MN: So you finished the fourth grade at Bret Harte, and then what happened to your family?

TN: Then we moved to Boyle Heights. Actually, East L.A. We were about three houses away from the L.A. City line, so we were in the county in East L.A.

MN: Was there a difference between the county and city?

TN: Different governments, different services. The city had LAPD, we had the sheriffs and different garbage collection. Sometimes if we had a lot of garbage, my father would take the garbage can over to the city side, which was a few houses down, and get it picked up. Maybe they were more reliable, I don't know. Or maybe we had so much garbage we'd have two pickups.

<End Segment 10> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.