<Begin Segment 25>

SY: And then you ended up with Rick coming back to Los Angeles together? Or did you --

YM: Yes. We came back together, and at the time his father had a Japanese newspaper here in Los Angeles, so we worked for him for a while.

SY: And what was the newspaper called?

YM: It was called the New Japanese American News, or Shin Nichi Bei, and he had a, he had a newspaper before the war, in the '30s, and this was, he was trying it again. But he decided to publish a directory, and so actually when we were still in Cleveland Rick had come to L.A. to help his dad, and he came back in time for us to move back to L.A. So when we came back then we worked for his dad for a while because of this directory that needed a lot of hands.

SY: And his dad really had started the newspaper in, somewhere else?

YM: Yeah, he had a newspaper, he's been in newspaper business two, three times as a business, and he was a good journalist I think. But when they decided to make this, publish this directory he had to travel to Colorado and Denver, I mean, Denver, Arizona, Texas to get all these Japanese people that were all that way farming, get ads and whatever for the directory, so he wanted Rick to come. So he came, Rick came here and he was here for several months, and he came back to Cleveland, then we moved back together here and worked for the dad.

SY: I see, so it was just, by then it was just this directory. The newspaper was --

YM: No, the directory, it was still, the newspaper was still going, but he took time off to make this directory. And eventually he sold the business, and after that Rick took some classes in linotyping and so he did that kind of work, something, everything in the printing business the rest of his life too.

SY: And what happened to his father's newspaper? He, it just dissolved?

YM: He sold it to somebody.

SY: So someone bought it and kept it going for a while.

YM: Right, for a while. [Laughs] For a little while.

SY: Just a short time.

YM: [Laughs] Short time, yes.

SY: Because there were probably only three, well, there were three newspapers at the time.

YM: Exactly. There was the Kashu Mainichi and the Rafu Shimpo, and then just about that time I think Crossroads, was that the little newspaper?

SY: Yeah, there was a Crossroads.

YM: Yeah, that came out too. That was all English. Yeah, I think that came out too, so it was just flooded with papers.

SY: Things, yeah. And so Rick was, during the war when, he was at Topaz with his parents?

YM: Yes.

SY: And his, did his dad, was his dad involved in the newspaper business during the war?

YM: Not, no. Not...

SY: I mean, did he do anything at Topaz?

YM: Well, his father was never in Topaz 'cause he was taken the, right after Pearl Harbor.

SY: Because of his newspaper business.

YM: Yeah, he was, yeah.

SY: So he was in one of the other camps that were for --

YM: Right. And he went to several camps, actually. They shifted him around several camps. So he did go to Topaz, his father did go to Topaz because his, Rick's mother passed away in Topaz and he was allowed to come with two bodyguards to the funeral, so his, 'cause Rick's mother passed away in January of '43.

SY: Soon, fairly early on.

YM: Very early.

SY: And did Rick have siblings who were in --

YM: Yes, he had, he was one of four. He was the oldest of four boys. And so after that all the boys, couple of 'em went to Salt Lake City and the youngest one eventually went, was in the army, so they were all scattered and so they were never a family after that. Each one went his own way. They were old enough. It was a sad day for them.

SY: Right.

YM: So the father was in at least several. I don't know why they, what the method was, but they shifted him from one camp to another. And recently, I don't know if you heard of Miss Wegars, she published a book on Kooskia, Kooskia camp in Idaho, and Rick's dad had been there so we were talking, we were in touch with Miss Wegars for, while she was writing the book.

SY: Working on the book. So did she remember Rick's dad? I mean, did she do research on --

YM: Yes. She went through the archives and she gave us a stack of information, everything that pertained, so we have a whole stack at home, everything she did all the research for. She did a lot of research for that. It's a little camp there that hardly anybody heard about until she wrote about it.

SY: And how did Rick's dad pass away?

YM: He passed away, he was eighty-four. He wasn't well.

SY: And he, by then he was out of the newspaper business completely.

YM: Yeah. He was, he was in some, let's see, he had bought a restaurant sometime around when he was eighty-five or eighty-six, and I don't know what he did with it. I think he probably sold it again, but he was always into something. [Laughs]

SY: Adventurous.

<End Segment 25> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.