<Begin Segment 13>

SY: So when you were toward the end, you were in camp, how long was the family in camp?

PM: I think about two and a half years.

SY: Two and a half years, so they left a little bit early.

PM: Yes, just a bit early. But Dad had left a little earlier than that, maybe after about a year, and he went out to Denver and he found that Japanese Americans were having a very hard time finding jobs. So instead of doing insurance service or accounting he decided to open up the Yamato Employment Agency to help Japanese people find jobs. And he did that for several years, and of course I had to work for him as well, so after so many years he decided to go back to Los Angeles and he started the Yamato Employment Agency in Los Angeles. Because by that time Uncle Kiyo was doing insurance, so he didn't want to do the same thing.

SY: So how is it that he ended up going to Denver after?

PM: It's just one of the cities that became available for him to go to.

SY: Did it have anything to do with the rest of his siblings? That they were...

PM: This I don't remember.

SY: Do you remember, like, his --

PM: I think Uncle George and Uncle Kiyo, some of them were in Utah. I don't think they were in Denver, but that's one part that's kind of a blur.

SY: But when you, when you moved to Denver -- he went first.

PM: Yes.

SY: And then Mom and Baachan gathered --

PM: All of us went.

SY: -- gathered all of you, the rest of you to go all at once to Denver.

PM: Yes.

SY: So you took a train out of camp?

PM: I believe so. We would've had to.

SY: So there was a big, pretty big age difference then between the siblings, so you really did, you were ten, eleven, twelve years older than the ones that were born in camp, so you really did have to take care of them, huh?

PM: Maybe, but it just becomes natural, so you don't really think about it as a chore. It's just something you do.

SY: So you remember when you, where you first settled when you got to Denver?

PM: I'm pretty sure that we were near, on Lafayette Street, 2918 Lafayette Street. It was a big home and it was near the Manual High School.

SY: I see.

PM: So we walked there.

SY: Is that kind of downtown Denver?

PM: No. It's...

SY: Suburb.

PM: Uh-huh.

SY: I see. And he had already gotten, leased a, rented a house by the time you got there, and you all stayed together while you went to high school. And then was that when Mom started going to work?

PM: Yes.

SY: So she started working right after camp?

PM: This I don't remember, but I think so because Dad probably needed help. But I was working there too after a while.

SY: Right. And there were, I guess, quite a few Japanese Americans who went to Denver, is that --

PM: Yes.

SY: So you, so then you were among other Japanese Americans then. And that was, was that something that you remember being in a little community, or how would you describe Denver?

PM: Well, there was an area that was like a Japanese-town, and it's near Larimer and Lawrence and Nineteenth and Twentieth Street, and all of the Japanese were kind of clustered around there. So there were restaurants, there were hotels, there were markets. And some of them are still there, but there aren't as many Japanese there as there used to be.

SY: So did our dad become a part of that community like he did in Little Tokyo before the war?

PM: Yes, yes.

SY: So he knew a lot of the people who were... Denver was kind of a place where there was a lot of controversy during the war because of the editor of the newspaper there. Do you remember any of that?

PM: No. Which editor?

SY: He was, Rocky Shimpo was the name of the paper.

PM: Oh, I see.

SY: But you don't remember that?

PM: You mean, let's see, what was his name?

SY: Now you've got me.

<End Segment 13> - Copyright &copy; 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.