<Begin Segment 25>

SY: By this time, after you left for Chicago, then shortly after, your parents went back to Los Angeles?

NS: Yes, went West L.A. Because my brother bought the house for them, remember I told you?

SY: So they had the, so they were able to... so you were in Chicago when they went back to Los Angeles, when they moved back?

NS: Oh, yeah, yeah, right. I was still in Chicago, yes. So then I came back to my mother's house in West L.A. My brother bought the house for them.

SY: So do you know how they managed to leave camp?

NS: Oh, well, like I said, they were able to, the government said you can go out, remember I told you? And then my brother said, okay, he took care of my parents.

SY: But had your brother been there already? He had already left camp and so he was already on the West Coast?

NS: My brother never went in camp. He was in Chicago, I told you.

SY: Oh, so he --

NS: He's the one that bought the house for my mother and father.

SY: Oh, so he left Chicago, went back to Los Angeles, bought the house, and then they moved in --

NS: Yeah. He had a job. He's a scientist, so he can't leave the job, so he just came back just to buy the house for Mom and Pop.

SY: And that was where in Los Angeles?

NS: West L.A. We still live there. I mean, none of us lives there, I'm sorry, but we lived there 'til all this time, and Mama and Papa died. I don't know who's living there, they sold the house.

SY: Now, at the time, then, your father, did he want to go back into farming after the war?

NS: No, my father was getting too old. No, he was happy that he was... and then my brother kind of took care of them, so he didn't have to work. After all, they were in their late '80s, so too old.

SY: When you got out of camp again. And did they go back to their house in Dominguez?

NS: No, no, there's no house in Dominguez Hills, no, no.

SY: But you said everything was gone.

NS: Oh, remember when I told you we went to just see it? Because we had left the house. My father built the house in Dominguez Hills, that was our house because he built it. But then when we left, it was gone. It was all torn down. Not a thing left in there.

SY: Completely gone.

NS: It was completely gone and so we were so shocked. We thought we could go back there. So that was it. Nobody told us that it was gone.

SY: So when they got to West L.A...

NS: Well, then my brother was in Chicago, the one that was in Chicago, I don't know why he went to West L.A., but he heard that there were some Japanese coming back to West L.A., he heard. So then he came to West L.A. to buy a house for Mom and Pop. And then the house that they moved into, it was open at that time. And so my brother bought that house. So then he just put a down payment on it and he started paying and then I took over and made the payment on the house. It wasn't much, eight thousand dollar for the house. Eight thousand dollar in those days. Yeah. It was a three bedroom house, it's a big house. I was shocked. Eight thousand, my brother only paid eight thousand.

SY: And the area that the house was in in West L.A, was it in that area where lots of Japanese American families were living?

NS: Yes, yes. Right now it's nothing but Japanese. They have Japanese school there, Buddhist church there, Christian church. My Methodist church is there, everything is there.

SY: How did that... was that area there before the war, too? Do you know if it was there?

NS: According to my sister-in-law, there wasn't that much, but they did have church there, small church there.

SY: Small church.

NS: Yes, yes.

SY: And do you know why people decided to pick this area?

NS: Well, like I said, in Dominguez Hills... I mean, when you say there's Japanese there, Japanese will start moving in. That's how it started, in West L.A., too, there isn't that many Japanese there. But then they slowly start moving in, and then before you know it, there's a whole town of Japanese. Right now, too. During the wartime, nobody was there. But now, it's nothing but. They have Japanese school now, I mean, everything now. Japanese store, everything. Store, restaurant. West L.A. is big now. [Laughs]

<End Segment 25> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.