<Begin Segment 27>

FO: So I was out of a job. So I heard Aratani was going real good with Mikasa chinaware.

SY: Uh-huh, George Aratani.

FO: Yeah, so I went to see George, and he says, "I can't use you, Frank," he says, "but I know some people who can." He says, "I'm going to take you to Sumitomo Bank of California." I said, "Hey, wait a minute. I fought against these guys, I don't want to work under them." He says, "Be quiet and come on." He says, "I'll protect you." George knew the board of director members of Sumitomo Bank of Japan, and he was real popular with them. So he took me to Sumitomo Bank L.A. So I sat down and talked with these people, and they scratched their head, but George says to, "Hire him, 'cause he's a good man." So they hired me.

SY: Now, at the time, this was, at the time, Sumitomo Bank was just coming to...

FO: No, they were, it was right before we built the Kajima Building.

SY: Which was the Sumitomo Bank building before. So it was a big changeover in Little Tokyo when that building...

FO: Came up.

SY: ...came up. And there were other Japanese?

FO: Yeah, they had the Bank of Tokyo across the street, but there was nobody else, just us.

SY: So Sumitomo Bank was probably, was it the biggest bank in Japan or one of the biggest banks in Japan?

FO: Well, it was at one time one of the bigger banks in Japan.

SY: At that time it was probably pretty...

FO: It was pretty large at that time. So they were hard to live with. [Laughs]

SY: It was a difficult company? Being a Japanese company, it must have been tough, right?

FO: It was. But I had a lot of fun.

SY: So you started out working just as a bank clerk?

FO: Yeah, I started working as a teller, 'cause I didn't know anything about banks. Then I went to banking school at night.

SY: Oh, so you actually went to school.

FO: School, you have to learn how to do the banking and what kind of problems we have. It's a good thing I went.

SY: And that was through City College?

FO: No, no. That's after that. And it was held downtown, the banking community set up this banking school. So they gave out degrees and stuff like that. I went to see what it was like, and I got to know a lot of people there. And at first, I went to the Federal Reserve Bank to see if I can get a job, and they told me no.

SY: This was before you got the job at Sumitomo?

FO: Yeah. So after that I went to see George.

SY: Oh. So you kind of wanted to get into the banking business.

FO: No, there was nothing else that... you know, you don't have to have much education, just a lot of common sense, I figured.

SY: But had you graduated from UCLA?

FO: Yeah. But it wasn't in business.

SY: I see.

FO: And then this one manager from Japan, he took a liking to me. And we used to go out together to all these various places, 'cause he wanted to know a lot of things about the United States. And he's the one that went up the tower in city hall. Have you ever been to the top of the city hall?

SY: No, no.

FO: Well, go up there. And you look down, and it's interesting. That's one of the first things he did when he came, he said he went up there. And then he went to the school of architecture at USC. And he says, "I think we ought to rebuild Little Tokyo. I want some plans made."

SY: So he was involved in the whole redevelopment.

FO: Yeah. He was the beginning of it all, I think.

SY: So this is before you actually joined the bank?

FO: No, I was with the bank at that time.

SY: So were you involved in any of those...

FO: Well, no, but...

SY: Local businessmen?

FO: Yeah, well, I used to know most of the local businessmen.

SY: Uh-huh. And were they in favor of this?

FO: Yeah. You know Kats Kunitsugu's husband? He was...

SY: He was the editor...

FO: ...he was involved in all these --

SY: The Little Tokyo redevelopment.

FO: Yeah, redevelopment stuff.

SY: Yeah. So you were friends with him? Kango, I think.

FO: Kango, yeah.

SY: And you knew a lot of these people, and did you get in discussions with them about the whole idea?

FO: Well, yeah. We used to discuss it, but I was never totally involved like the way these guys were. Because my thing was in the banking, and I had to build up the L.A. office. At that time the L.A. office, and we had one in Gardena, and we had a branch in Crenshaw.

<End Segment 27> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.