<Begin Segment 7>

SY: So when you, when you were very young what memories do you have of Daddy and his business and what he did in, while we were living in Boyle Heights?

PM: He, I was the firstborn, so he used to take me into town and kind of show me off. I remember that. [Laughs]

SY: Really?

PM: Yes. And take me into restaurants. He actually had a partnership in a restaurant, so I remember that as well, on East First Street. But he took me into his office. Actually, we didn't go that much, but he was a very good father because he used to take us to the beach, remember?

SY: Uh-huh.

PM: And Mom used to make obento. And we also made friends with some of the people who were connected with his business, like the Bliss family, because he was with the Internal Revenue, and he also made friends with lawyers because they were critical for his business.

SY: I see.

PM: He was quite a salesman, so we got to be friends and we'd take outings with them.

SY: Yeah, I am curious about this relationship with the Bliss family. They were a Caucasian family that really became very close.

PM: Right.

SY: We were very close to their family. And it was just a business acquaintance?

PM: It started out that way, because he was either with, I think he was Internal Revenue and Daddy had a lot of dealings with them to help the Japanese people, so somehow they just got to become friends and so we used to then go on outings. We have pictures, right, that show that we were together?

SY: Yeah. They were, it was amazing for a non-Japanese family to become close to --

PM: In those days.

SY: Right. And then he was, do you remember what he did in his business? Did he, he was actually helping a lot of Japanese that came into the country? Was that kind of the nature of his business?

PM: Not too much coming into the country, but more just Japanese Americans coming from Hawaii or even locally that didn't have enough English capability, so he would help them because he was fluent in Japanese and English. And he had learned that in school, so that was really good. For being a Nisei that was unusual. Not all Nisei learned Japanese and could be bilingual.

SY: So he, I didn't realize that. So that's what made him...

PM: So he did accounting, he did insurance, he did income tax, and he went to the courts for getting green cards, anything that needed to be done for the Japanese.

SY: I see.

PM: He liked to do it.

SY: Yeah, interesting. And then what was our mom doing at that time?

PM: She was busy having babies. [Laughs] And taking care of them at home.

SY: [Laughs] She stayed home then?

PM: She stayed home.

SY: She stayed home, and our grandmother was living with us too.

PM: She came later, yes.

SY: She came later and she helped take care of --

PM: She helped a lot. In fact, because she was there Mom was able to have so many children, I believe, because she had the Japanese where they say that you shouldn't do anything for maybe, was it forty-nine days, or I'm not quite sure, so Mom didn't do anything and Baachan did everything. So she stayed healthy. Nowadays people get up so soon and it's not good for the health. That's what the Japanese say.

SY: I see.

PM: So Baachan made sure that she didn't do anything for all that time.

SY: She cooked, she cooked and cleaned.

PM: Right.

SY: Now, was there any friction, though, between our mom and Baachan?

PM: After a while there was, but I think it was kind of natural because Baachan worked very hard and she sometimes complained, and Mom got tired of hearing it, so that's where the friction came in.

SY: Right. And of course she was Dad's, our dad was very close to his mom, right?

PM: Right.

<End Segment 7> - Copyright &copy; 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.