<Begin Segment 9>

SY: And you, and the fact that you had to get accepted means that you had to have some sort of test or skill.

YM: I don't know how, how they...

SY: Decided?

YM: How they figured out which, who to, maybe they were finding it easier to have, find employment for us. I don't know. But we, I never went to the employment office 'cause I didn't intend to work right away 'cause I wanted to go to a little more, so I went to the sewing school in Japanese-town.

SY: I see.

YM: Was very popular. She had so many students.

SY: Really? What was her name, the teacher's name?

YM: Mrs. Fujii. And it was in a hotel room and people from other parts of country, room and board, they come there to study.

SY: Wow. So she must've been a really good instructor.

YM: 'Cause there were Niseis who lived on farms, their folks had farms and there'd be kind of some distance for commuting, so they would just have a board there, room there.

SY: I see. And how, how did you get into J-town? What would you do to get -- 'cause you were living in Uptown -- how did you get there?

YM: We just got there by the, not the bus, it's called a streetcar. [Laughs] In those days it was the streetcar. Yeah, we managed.

SY: And did you go to Little Tokyo often? If it, with this class how many, how often would you go?

YM: Well, when we were very young my folks went to Little Tokyo a lot because there was everything there, whether you wanted dry goods and shoes, they had florists, they had a photographer, hairdresser, restaurants, everything, complete little, little town that you could almost do all your business there. So I don't really remember when I first went to Broadway maybe on my own or something to shop, because if I was shopping with my parents it was always in Little Tokyo.

SY: And you did your food shopping there too?

YM: Well food, we had, we had some little Japanese stores in Uptown besides Safeway and Ralph's. But there were, in Uptown there were at least two complete Japanese food stores, so we were able to do that. And sometimes these stores would send out people to their home to take orders and deliver it.

SY: Really? Wow.

YM: Home delivery service. So there were some people who took advantage of that. But we always had, then we had a fish man that came around, and you could buy your tofu and your fish and whatever, and so they had a route and so if you wanted tofu you go out there with your little pan and you dig it out of the pot of water there. It wasn't packaged; it was loose. But you could get more than fish. I'm sure there were a few other things you could get from the fish man. So somehow they managed and were able to get what we, they wanted.

SY: There must've been a fairly good population of Japanese for these guys to survive.

YM: That's right. That's right. Between, it's like a one square mile, and I'm sure there are other areas in L.A. that had Japanese people there, in Boyle Heights and in the Seinan area, but we happened to be in Uptown, which was, like I say, one square mile maybe, and so I don't know how many fishermen, or different fishermen there might've been, but there was always somebody to... and then we had the helmsmen, the bakery that came around if you wanted a bakery.

SY: That was not Japanese, that wasn't Japanese owned?

YM: That wasn't Japanese, but still, you don't have to travel. If you wanted to you could be home and the ice man came, put your ice in your icebox.

SY: So do you think that the church had something to do with the population there? Did people come to that area just because of the church?

YM: Well, I don't know exactly. No, I really have no idea why people congregated there. Whoever started it, I'm sure they figured there's some Japanese there and they, because I'm sure every block practically had, from Western to Vermont, almost every block must've had some Japanese, and some blocks were like every house would be Japanese, clustered.

SY: In that area.

YM: Uh-huh.

SY: That's amazing, yeah. 'Cause you don't, you don't hear too much about Uptown really a lot today. A lot of people talk about Seinan area.

YM: Yeah, it has, actually it has become Koreatown. What Koreatown is --

SY: Today in Los Angeles.

YM: -- was, a part of it was Uptown. And it's still Uptown. We had a theater, movie theater called Uptown Theater on Western near Olympic, and we had several others, but it was Uptown.

SY: But was it Uptown to just the Japanese, or was it Uptown to everybody?

YM: No, I think it's Uptown to everybody. Like I say, there was a theater there called Uptown.

SY: So it wasn't just Japanese people, but it was a lot of --

YM: I don't think we named it or anything. It was already called Uptown.

SY: I see. Yeah, so you, when you got this job it was west of there in Beverly, considered Beverly Hills?

YM: Yes, it was, yeah, it was in Beverly Hills. I didn't even know what Rodeo Drive meant then. [Laughs]

SY: So do you remember when you started there, what, how you reacted to that sort of, it's kind of a different...

YM: It was. It was different. It was, and I didn't get to know a lot of people because you worked as a crew, like four or five people worked on one garment and there'd be another group. And so I don't really remember just staying, I remember staying with a group and doing whatever I had to do, and I don't know what else other people were doing.

SY: And what, it was designing for movie productions?

YM: Some of them were, not all of it, but apparently he did a lot for them. I didn't know that he was head of the Paramount, he was the head designer of Paramount. I didn't know it at the time, but I know he was one of the celebrity fashion designers. There was quite a few in those days.

SY: So it was kind of a prestigious position to be working there even.

YM: Right. Yeah, well I thought so. I didn't know, when I first went there I had no idea who he was or what it was. It was a job. [Laughs]

SY: But you didn't, like, make things for retail sales. He didn't have a regular clothing line. Or did he?

YM: No, I don't think so. But he had regular clients, I guess, from the industry, because he did work for them at the Hollywood companies.

SY: But you didn't come across any of those people. You were...

YM: No, no. [Laughs]

SY: And how big was his operation, the dressmaking area?

YM: I don't know exactly how big 'cause I never really went around walking. I don't know how big it was.

SY: But you were among half a dozen, four, five people all the time?

YM: That's right. We would get one garment and there's four or five of us working on one garment, parts of it. We all pitched in. And so when you're the bottom of the pile there you just do work, like covering a shoulder pad or something like that. [Laughs]

SY: So did you, do you feel like you learned a lot working there, though?

YM: Not really. It'll take a little longer than a couple of months or so to get up the ladder or whatever. We were, when you just start there it's just really not that even interesting, but at least I had a job.

SY: I see.

<End Segment 9> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.