<Begin Segment 11>

MN: So what year did you move into East L.A.?

TN: I think it was 1947.

MN: Why couldn't your family live outside of East L.A.?

TN: There were a lot of housing restrictions then against not only Japanese but all non-whites. Blacks, Mexicans, Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, whatever. So obviously we couldn't go live in, buy a house in Burbank or somewhere, or even Pasadena probably, except certain parts of Pasadena. Not Gardena back then except on the farms. Not west L.A. So we had to live where the non-whites lived.

MN: So when you moved into East L.A., which grammar school did you attend?

TN: Malabar Street school, which was in the city of L.A. by about a block.

MN: And how long did you live at this house?

TN: Until 1951 about, January or February.

MN: And then before we go on, what was the housing situation like at this house? Did you have to share this --

TN: It was like an apartment house. The first floor was this Jewish family, or the woman and her son anyway, and the second floor was the landlord's son. The landlord was a Greek guy. And then I guess there was a third floor, we had a two bedroom and den apartment for my father and mother and seven kids. So the boys all lived in the den, we had two bunk beds, and the girls had one bedroom, three little girls in one bed. And my parents had the other bedroom. We put up with that for three and a half years.

MN: And I think you said it was... three and a half years, '51? It was 1951?

TN: Yes... yeah, three and a half.

MN: And then from this East L.A. house, where did you go?

TN: Little bit further into East L.A., near Stevenson junior high. We stayed there for... from February until about... I don't know, sometime in the summer of the same year. And then the owner said his daughter wanted to live there so we had to get out, so then we moved to Boyle Heights.

MN: Now during this time also, you started junior school.

TN: Right. No, I was already in junior high when I was at that other place on Winter Street.

MN: And so that junior high school...

TN: Belvedere junior high.

MN: How long were you at Belvedere?

TN: Seventh grade and the first semester of eighth grade, so three semesters.

MN: And then you said you moved closer to Stevenson.

TN: Stevenson, so one semester there.

MN: Then you had to move again.

TN: To Boyle Heights, to Fourth and Breed Streets. So I and two of my brothers went to Hollenbeck junior high, and my youngest brother and my sisters went to Breed Street School, elementary school.

MN: So you're moving around so much, how did it affect your ability to study and also to make friends?

TN: I don't remember studying, but I must have. I passed. And I don't know, just made friends, that's all. Besides, I always had my brothers and sisters.

<End Segment 11> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.