<Begin Segment 26>

[Showing photographs]

MN: Where is that photo taken?

BS: This photo was taken in the late 1930s when I was going to Maryknoll school in downtown Los Angeles. And this is Brother Paul. It was a Catholic school, so all the men were called brothers or fathers, and the female either were sisters or nuns. And happened to be a group of us here, and this happened to be one of our classmate called Junzo Ohara. Next to him is myself, Bill Shishima, and then my older brother Tak Shishima. And then another classmate in the back is Conrad... forgot his last name, sorry. And then I don't know who that girl is on this side. So this is one of my few early days pictures at Maryknoll school.

MN: How about the Heart Mountain photo?

BS: In Heart Mountain, we didn't have any pictures, but during the war, my uncle, who was living in Salt Lake City, came up and visited us and he took the family picture because we didn't have a camera then. So this is my whole family, as I mentioned earlier, my kid brother was born in camp, so there he is about one or two years old. And then it's unique that his name was Noboru. In Japanese, noboru means to climb. So my dad said he named him Noboru because he's going to climb Heart Mountain. So these are my brothers and this is a picture of myself right here. So my dad, my mom, my two sisters, my older brother, and one younger brother. So camp pictures are very scarce for us because initially we turned our cameras into the government when we first got relocated in May of 1942.

MN: You have a cover of a phone book.

BS: Oh, this is a little bit history. This happened to be a Los Angeles public telephone directory, and on here, we have my dad's hotel. My dad's hotel is here, it was first built way back in 1883. This is called the Garnier Building or Plaza Hotel. So today this is the home of the L.A. Art and Culture Center.

MN: Then I think earlier you had shown us the Garnier Hotel, what it looks like, or the building, what it looks like now.

BS: This too shiny? So this is what the Plaza Hotel looks like. Plaza Hotel was just only on the second floor. The first floor was business, so it was a very small hotel approximately fifteen rooms. And then our family of six at that time, we probably took two or three of those rooms.

MN: I think you have some photos of different angles of your father's store. Did we show those photos?

BS: I don't think so.

MN: From, I think from Main Street.

BS: Is that glare too much or should I remove it? Okay, initially, my dad's grocery store was right here where my finger is pointing to. And then eventually moved to the corner where it's Mercado Plaza. And this is a different view of the same street. Here's Mercado Plaza in the corner, and then the other store was over here.

MN: And there is next to your father's Mercado Plaza is...

BS: Golondrina. Next door to my father's Mercado Plaza store was a restaurant called Golondrina. Today, it's one of the major restaurants on Olvera Street.

MN: And the post office building is still there. Do you have that recent shot that you have of this, the current shot?

BS: These two are basically same view except no buildings. So on the lower right-hand corner is where Mercado Plaza was. But you could see by the setting of the post office and the city hall, where Mercado Plaza used to be.

MN: Now I guess in the stop photo, the current photo that you took in 2002, I guess the freeway goes under there.

BS: Yes, the freeway is right here.

MN: But the post office building really hasn't changed that much.

BS: No, didn't change at all.

MN: But you saw it go up.

BS: Yes. So I assume it's about 1940 it was built.

MN: And did we look at all your photos of your stores, the inside?

BS: I think so.

MN: Did we look at that one you have right there on top?

BS: No.

MN: You don't know who these people are in these photos?

BS: No. Just the one that's carrying the baby is Mr. Tanaka.

MN: And this is your father's first store.

BS: Yes. So Mr. Tanaka worked for my dad, but he made money in the stock market, so he went back to Japan prior to World War II.

MN: Is that baby in his arms, is that you?

BS: I don't know. I don't think so, but I don't know what baby it could be. [Laughs]

MN: Did we cover all the photos?

BS: I think so.

MN: Oh, great. Thank you for bringing the photos in. It's nice to see a visual of the store.

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