<Begin Segment 18>

SY: So the employment agency, though, for a while, when you first came back -- this was in what year? Nineteen...

PM: '55, when I came back.

SY: When you came back, so he came back a little earlier and started this office. And where was the office?

PM: In Little Tokyo.

SY: So he just leased space and opened up --

PM: It was at 312 East First Street, and right on the corner of First and San Pedro. And he opened up and he found an office on the second floor. He always liked being on a high, higher floor because since the Japanese are so curious, if they come to an office on the first floor and somebody else sees them, "What are you doing there? Oh, you're looking for a job?" But it's also the same for travel. He didn't want it on the ground floor because people would say, "Oh, you're going somewhere?" And it was just too nosy.

SY: He wanted it to be a little more private.

PM: Right. Because Japanese worry about giving some money for them for the trip -- it's called sendetsu -- and things like that. So if it's in a building and they go a higher floor, nobody knows where you're going, right? And people...

SY: Interesting.

PM: Lots of things like that. He put up a neon sign on the second floor, Yamato Employment Agency, the first neon sign inside of a building.

SY: Really?

PM: And he was always thinking of things, always a purpose for whatever he did.

SY: I see. Because of, and that building at the time was owned by Taul Watanabe?

PM: Right.

SY: So he was, and did you remember anything about him?

PM: Not too much, no.

SY: But he, Dad didn't have much to do with him.

PM: No, we just paid the rent.

SY: Even though he owned this building, right?

PM: I'm not sure that it was he that owned it at that time, but I know he owned it later.

SY: That's right.

PM: And then Mr. Ueda owned it after that.

SY: That's right.

PM: Then the earthquake damaged it, so it's been rebuilt.

SY: Right. Yeah, for many years it was the Taul Building, though, right?

PM: That's right, that's right.

SY: And so he, but that wasn't the reason he came here and just opened up on that second floor.

PM: He always wanted to be in Little Tokyo.

SY: He did?

PM: Yes. He just wanted to be in Little Tokyo. That's why I've continued to be in Little Tokyo.

SY: And do you remember, I mean, he just felt closer to the people there?

PM: Right. He wanted to serve the Japanese.

SY: I see.

PM: So that's why.

<End Segment 18> - Copyright &copy; 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.