<Begin Segment 19>

MN: Now, you're going to this University High, and what kind of work were your parents doing?

BS: At that time, they first opened up a restaurant in Little Tokyo, downtown Los Angeles. So that was a good distance. But on weekends, I was able to go and wash dishes for them.

MN: What was the restaurant called?

BS: M&S. Yes, M&S Cafe. It was partnership with Miyauchi family, so Miyauchi was the M, and S for Shishima. M&S. It was a small restaurant, probably only about ten to twelve seats on the counter, and two small booths, maybe four or six people could eat there. It was a very small restaurant.

MN: And when you were, you would go and help out there, were there still a lot of African Americans in Little Tokyo at that time?

BS: Yes. It was just sort of transitioning from Little Tokyo to Bronzeville, which was the black community. Then the Japanese started coming back in 1945, so it started changing again. So it was lots of black people in Little Tokyo yet. Then right after that, my dad started a hotel business, so that was over there by skid row or Fifth Street. So lots of them were black community, so I got adjusted to the black community real fast.

MN: So these hotels that your father started to manage, who were his mostly the clients? Were they African Americans?

BS: Yes, mostly. A few Hispanics.

MN: Did you have to help out there?

BS: Yes, we had to use the vacuum cleaner on the hallways, sometimes help make the beds and change the sheets. I had to do lots of odds and ends. Sometimes we had to paint the rooms, so we had to do that.

MN: So while you're cleaning these hotel rooms, what did you find out about a lot of the people who were staying there?

BS: Oh, that was really an eye-opener for me. Sometimes just browse on, look at on the dresser, pictures, and I would see this man, he's dressed up in a woman's outfit and his makeup is beautiful. I thought, "Wow, that's him." I couldn't believe that. So it was the first time I was exposed to people dressing like women. And at that time, too, I was now in high school, and I found out that they had a place in San Francisco that was all men but they dressed like women and act like women there. So that was my first exposure living right outside of my... in skid row, actually.

MN: What did you think about these transvestites? And they were African American transvestites, right?

BS: Yes. I just couldn't believe how beautiful they could be. Other than that, I thought they were a little bit different, I don't know. I said, "Why would they want to be dressed like a woman and act like a woman?" But that was the extent of my experience with them. But they, on the surface they looked like normal people to me.

MN: Did you also see a lot of prostitution in these hotels?

BS: Oh, yes. And as I mentioned, I was high school age then. And oftentimes the street ladies, they walk in, and then some of them would try to solicit me. And then the other prostitutes would tell them, "No, no, that's Papa's boy, so don't mess with him." So yeah, that's another exposure to life. I never knew about prostitutes, what they do, but I sure found out quick.

MN: So when they say, "That's Papa's boy," does that mean that your father was very popular among the prostitutes?

BS: Well, I don't know popular, but business-wise, he rented out the rooms to them, so he knew them, some of them by name. But he was called, referred to as Papa. So they never bothered him on the streets, and sometimes the new ones would bother me or him because they're new, they don't know us.

MN: But he got along with them.

BS: Yes.

MN: Did the LAPD ever harass your family?

BS: No, not that I know of. They patrolled the streets sometimes, but they just say hi to the prostitutes and go by, too. So unless they see them in the act, I guess, they don't bother them.

MN: So there's prostitution going on, did your father rent out the rooms by the hour?

BS: Well, no, by the period of time, that's all. As soon as they leave, that's it, they can't come back in, so they have to rent it again.

MN: And you used to catch your father doing sketching on his free time. What was he sketching?

BS: Yeah. I was puzzled about that, and he used to watch the office and just sit out there, he used to read sometimes, but other times he's sketching, usually buildings. So I always wondered how come, and I didn't find out 'til later that he graduated USC as an architect. So I guess I thought maybe he was a frustrated architect. He never got to practice his profession, but twenty, thirty years later, he's still sketching.

MN: Do you still have those sketches?

BS: No. I wish I had 'em.

<End Segment 19> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.