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SY: So now how, so when our baachan came to Los Angeles and, our dad was already here, right? He was already settled?
PM: Yes, he was already here. He must've come in, before 1923. I was born in 1929, and in that time he had called over, I think, Uncle Kiyo and Auntie Taneko, 'cause I have a record where we lived on the west side and we all lived together, Dad and Mom and Uncle Kiyo and Auntie Taneko. There was an interesting thing there, says that he was paying fifty dollars a month for that. [Laughs]
SY: Wow. And managed to put up all those people.
PM: Right, right.
SY: So he was kind of the person in charge.
PM: Yes, yes.
SY: And he took care of his young, his siblings.
PM: Right. And they were nineteen and eighteen at the time.
SY: Oh, so they were not that young actually at the time.
PM: Right.
SY: So do you know anything about, he already had his high school education, so when he came here he just immediately started up this business?
PM: It looks like he did.
SY: And his younger siblings, did they work for him?
PM: Yes -- no. Auntie Taneko found a job as a secretary somewhere, and Uncle Kiyo, looks like he got an insurance license, so he probably was helping at the office.
SY: I see. So whatever this business that, do you remember what he did, what our dad did originally when he came here, before he started this business?
PM: No. I think he was just a high school student and...
SY: And so I imagine that when he called Baachan over to the United States --
PM: It was afterwards.
SY: It was afterwards, so she came by herself?
PM: Yes, she came by herself.
SY: Amazing. And where did she, and what happened? She lived with us, right, for many years?
PM: Right. Yeah, she came to Los Angeles in 1931, so it was two years after I was born and it's one year after Yasuko was born, so that's why -- remember? -- Betty Emiko was kind of her favorite, 'cause she was the first child born after she arrived here.
SY: I see.
<End Segment 3> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.