<Begin Segment 24>

SY: And then you all this time were developing the business.

PM: Yes.

SY: From 1950, and how, so when was it that --

PM: We started the travel bureau in 1957.

SY: '57, so it was only a few years before Daddy died, right?

PM: Right, two years.

SY: Two years. So he --

PM: He was with us two and a half years and then he died, so I just took over because we needed to, I wanted to continue it. And many people told me that it's not gonna be worthwhile for you to continue so you should stop now, but I am, being, I am the oldest and I'm stubborn, so I decided I wanted to continue it. And we didn't have much money. I sometimes had to borrow money from my mother, who didn't have much money, so the day after I borrowed it she'd be back saying, "Where's the money?" [Laughs] So it was difficult, but somehow I continued, and now we've been in business for fifty-four years.

SY: Amazing. In this, not in the same place but in Little Tokyo.

PM: Right, in Little Tokyo.

SY: Fifty-four years, wow. So can you, I mean, why was it that our dad died so young?

PM: He had heart problems.

SY: Heart problems. It was congenital in his family. So how did he finally die?

PM: He might have had a heart attack and then... he didn't really take care of himself as well as he should.

SY: I see. I see. And in the meantime his brother was also in Little Tokyo, right?

PM: Harry?

SY: Kiyo.

PM: Oh, Kiyo, yes.

SY: And what did, what was he doing?

PM: He was doing insurance agency. But also he was teaching driving lessons so those people that didn't have a chance to study, he would teach them, take them into the Motor Vehicles and help them pass their tests, and he had a business doing that too.

SY: So he was providing kind of a service as well.

PM: Right. Right.

SY: In Little Tokyo. And what about the other siblings? What were they doing?

PM: Harry, I think, moved to Utah, and George, Uncle George did as well. So Auntie Taneko, of course, stayed in Los Angeles.

SY: And what did she end up doing? She was...

PM: She was working for the government.

SY: I see. For many years. But she was also, wasn't she also taking care of...

PM: Her in-laws.

SY: Her in-laws. Her in-laws. Yeah, because, now what happened with -- so Kiyo, his younger brother Kiyo's wife passed away very young.

PM: Yes.

SY: And then she had, they had how many children?

PM: They had four. She was forty-two.

SY: So their, so who ended up taking care of their children? It was...

PM: They had a caretaker, and then Uncle Kiyo got married again.

<End Segment 24> - Copyright &copy; 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.