<Begin Segment 17>

SY: So how did your parents feel when you told them that you were gonna leave to go to Minnesota?

HS: Mom just goes... like that, never said a word. [Laughs]

SY: And your brother, was he, did he stay in camp when you left? Your older brother.

HS: Yeah, he worked in... in Gila what did he do? I don't really remember too much what he did, 'cause I never saw him that much. I was with my friends.

SY: So you were the first to leave in the family?

HS: Yeah. There were six boys that were leaving. They took the job in a summer resort in north, northern Minnesota. It's called Edgewater. No, it's called... I forget what it was. All I remember it was a summer resort job. I didn't even know what it was. But it's called the Edgewater Beach Hotel.

SY: Did you know where Minnesota was?

HS: Pardon?

SY: Did you know where Minnesota was?

HS: No. [Laughs] I just took it, they gave you a... the first one, the oldest one, would get fifty dollars, and the second one in the family would get twenty-five dollars, and railroad fare, one way. And so I think I got the fifty dollars 'cause I was the first to leave, and so they gave me the railroad ticket and it was northern Minnesota. I forget the name of the town, but I remember it was the Edgewater Beach Hotel, and it was right on the lake there. So there was six of us leaving from our block, so there was fifteen of us total running the kitchen in this summer resort. It was only open from, what, July and August was the main time. It must've been, I remember I left camp June 7th, so it opened a few days after that. And so then I remember September it closed, and so then, 'cause Tok had left two days before and had found a room, so he wrote back and told us. And then, so my roommate and Suk Tanaka and I, first thing we did, we got into Minneapolis seven o'clock in the morning, so we knew where the Lou Hotel that Tok had, and his roommate, had, was within walking distance, about six blocks from the railroad station. We walked up there and knocked and woke him up, packed our luggage, then said, nine o'clock, okay, let's go look for a job. Then we went to a hotel and restaurant association, they had a convention, seminar or something at that Edgewater while we were there, so they told the waiters, they said, "Well, if you, one of you boys come to Minneapolis, why, look us up," and he left a card. So when we came, got in, the first thing we did at nine o'clock, we went to the hotel and restaurant. Then they sent us to a cafeteria. We didn't like it, so we came back, then second time they sent us to the Radisson Hotel, and so me and Suk and Tok went there.

The chef came and, in the kitchen, he came to talk to us, and then the first thing he told me was, he says, "Hy," he says, "I'm a Russian and I'm a Communist, but I believe in the Communist principle that all people are created equal, so I'd like to give you boys a chance." And so he put me in the cool meat station, and the one I worked with was a guy that was born in Czechoslovakia, but he was, he came, so he spoke perfect English and everything. But Tok, he was given the job of being the second cook's helper, and so he had, his uncle had a coffee shop so he had a little cooking experience beforehand. And Suk was put in the dishwashing section, and his, thirty-five cents an hour, I got seventy-five cents and Tok got seventy-five cents an hour. And then we thought, well, it's a lot better than ten, twelve dollars a month. So I found out that the fry cook that had been there -- he was Greek -- that worked just opposite me on the other side of the counter, why, he had been there fifteen years and his pay was eighty-seven and a half cents an hour. So I thought, jeez, seventy-five cents is pretty good, and the dishwashers are gettin' thirty-five cents an hour and yet they're all seem, people seem like they were dressed fairly nice and had their own homes. Wonder how they did that.

SY: So when you first got there, were you concerned that there was gonna be a hard time getting a job because you were Japanese?

HS: No, 'cause, well, the hotel and restaurant association sent us, nine o'clock, we went to the first interview and we didn't like it, then we went back. But I guess it was around ten, eleven o'clock when we went to the Radisson Hotel. We got hired the very first day, so we thought, boy...

<End Segment 17> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.