<Begin Segment 26>

SY: But now, when you came back to the war and you settled in this West L.A. area...

NS: Yes. Well, like I said, I didn't know West L.A. at all because I was from Dominguez Hills, because of my brother buying the home in West L.A. Then I found all these Japanese ladies and friends I made that was so nice. Oh, I'll stay here. [Laughs]

SY: It was quite a distance, though, from Little Tokyo.

NS: Oh, yes, oh, yes. Definitely. Well, even from Dominguez Hills it was always far. It took two hours to get there.

SY: Two hours from Dominguez Hills to...

NS: Well, my father driving, yes. It took more than two hours. [Laughs]

SY: To get from there to downtown.

NS: Yeah.

SY: So Dominguez Hills at the time was a two hour drive going to the market every day?

NS: Oh, yeah.

SY: And then from West L.A. it was probably...

NS: Yeah. Well, see, Papa didn't do any more farming after the war. But he always talked about how he went to market every day, how he said he still doesn't want... he said, well, that's because he was young, yet. Said he can never do it now. "Of course not, Papa," I told him.

SY: But at the time he would do it every day?

NS: Yeah. Oh, he used to drive fast or something. He even got a ticket one time.

SY: Before the war?

NS: Yeah. He said he went too fast or something. Papa driving fast, I didn't realize that. He was a slow driver. [Laughs]

SY: So when did you end up coming back to L.A.? Do you remember the year you ended up?

NS: Well, right after the... no, 'cause I was in Chicago I told you, remember?

SY: Right. But when did you finally come back?

NS: I stayed in Chicago three, almost four years. Almost four, not quite four years. So when my brother bought the house in West L.A., that's when I came back, after four years in Chicago.

SY: So it was the late '40s.

NS: Yeah, yeah.

SY: Not quite 1950.

NS: No, no. War ended when?

SY: It was probably '44, '45?

NS: Yeah, something like that. So it must have been close to '50, I guess.

SY: You were in, 'cause you were in Chicago quite a long time.

NS: Yeah, for almost six... no, let's see. About that time. Four to five -- well, five year maybe. Not six year I don't think.

SY: So by the time you got back here, your parents were already settled.

NS: Oh, yes. Oh, yes. As soon as... the year after I got back here, my father passed away. So he wasn't well. And then so many years after that, Mama passed away. So that house was empty. And nobody wanted to live there, 'cause most of my brothers all bought their own house.

SY: So everybody by this time, almost at the time you moved back, was on their own.

NS: On their own, yes. They're on their own. They got married and have children, too, you know.

SY: And so how long did you, did you actually live with your parents for a while?

NS: Just a little while, because I was already married, getting married. I mean, I was married now at that time. I was in Chicago at that time, too. I went back to Chicago after I got married.

<End Segment 26> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.