<Begin Segment 7>

MN: Now I wanted to ask you a little bit about some of the holidays. How did you spend your Fourth of July?

BS: Oh, Fourth of July was real interesting, especially because of fireworks. But still, we couldn't always get firecrackers because of the explosiveness and the safety field, I guess, in those days. So we used to go to Chinatown, which is just a block away and go find shops that could sell firecrackers for us. So that was our excitement, to go to Chinatown. But other than that, we never went to Chinatown other than Fourth of July time.

MN: Now when you were growing up, where was Chinatown?

BS: Chinatown was a block and a half, shall we say, it was east of us. So Main Street, and then the next street was Los Angeles Street, and that's where Chinatown was, Los Angeles all the way down to Alameda Street. But then I believe probably in the late '30s, they started building the Union Station, the train station there, so it took away lots of Chinatown there. And I believe it probably opened up about 1940 or so.

MN: So do you remember if all those people in the earlier Chinatown, were they evicted out of that area?

BS: I would assume so, just the construction area just took over there.

MN: And then you remember China City. Where was that?

BS: Oh, yeah, that was unique because Chinatown to me was real old, all the old buildings. But then when they built China City, just the other side of Olvera Street, which was, China City was north of Olvera Street, so a couple blocks away. But they had nice beautiful shops, Chinese shops, so it had those rooftops that curved over. So it's really, to me, a modern city. But it was all shops. But I used to go there once in a while, look for jinjimo.

MN: So when they got rid of the old Chinatown and built Union Station, did a lot of that move, the Chinatown move into China City area?

BS: Yes, I would assume that's why that became a place.

MN: Let me ask you about, now, the kenjinkai picnics. Did your parents take you to the Wakayama Kenjinkai picnics?

BS: Yes.

MN: What was that like?

BS: Oh, I always looked forward to that. Because usually it was at Griffith Park, Solano Canyon, fairly close by. But that time, we look forward to that because they always had picnics and then competition. Three-legged race, or with a spoon you carry an egg a distance and see how, first one to get across the line. Or potato sack race, get in a gunnysack and hop along. So those were activities and it was always competitive. And I always was sports-minded so I always liked that. Plus, the big bonus was unlimited number of soda water. So they always had big tubs of ice and soda water in there, you just have to go grab it and get a soda. So, oh, seemed like we drank five, six bottles of soda. We really guzzled it up that time.

MN: What kind of obento did your mother make for these picnics?

BS: So usually that was the Japanese style and the Japanese, I don't know what you call it, a Japanese box and you had three, four and the layer. So I remember that. And then they had Japanese programs, too, but didn't understand, but it looked like everyone that had a little bit to drink was able to sing up there. So that's how the entertainment was.

MN: You know the soda that you're talking about, was this the soda made by a Japanese American company?

BS: Yes, I think it was White Star soda company. I think it was right there on Jackson Street in Little Tokyo, White Star.

MN: Now your parents are both from Wakayama-ken, and there was a lot of people on Terminal Island from Wakayama-ken. Did they have friends there?

BS: Yes. Oh, that was another treat. Usually for New Year holidays we used to go over there, and one of the young fishermen, he always used to give us money. So we looked forward to going and seeing him. So I remember that to this day, Mr. Masakazu Hamaguchi, he was always generous with us.

MN: What about Brighton Beach? Did you go there quite often?

BS: Not quite often, but I know we went there. And that's when we saw lots of Japanese there, too. So I don't know if it was part of a picnic there or what, but we always saw lots of Japanese there.

MN: Now how often did you go to the San Pedro Harbor? What did you do there?

BS: Not too often, but again, I think we were able to board Japanese naval ships. They were trainees, but they came from Japan and I don't know why, they always came to San Pedro. And somehow my parents hear that, so we used to go over there and greet them. So I always looked forward to going to that, but it's not that often, but I do remember that. We see, wow, Japanese sailors.

MN: Did you throw the ribbons when they were leaving?

BS: Yes, they had that, yes. Very good.

MN: So during that era, like the late '30s, Japan started to go into China, Manchuria, people here started to help in the war effort.

BS: Yeah. Well, my dad used to do that. What it was was tin foil. And all the cigarettes came in wrapped with tin foil, and then regular paper on the outside. So we used to go along the streets to pick up discarded cigarette packs, take off the wrapper, and collect the foil. Then with the tin foil, we used to make a ball. So it got pretty heavy by the time it got this big, but then they used to send it to Japan. Hope the FBI doesn't hear about that.

MN: Now right before the war, your father leased that hotel that you showed us. What year was he able to get this hotel?

BS: That was in, I believe it was in summer of '41. Summer of '41, so we weren't there very long, just little over a half year and then we had to move.

MN: How big was this hotel? Like how many rooms were there?

BS: It was just a small... it's only on the second floor above the businesses there. So just guess about fifteen rooms, so it's a small one, and out of the fifteen rooms, I think we took two or three rooms, so there weren't too many left.

MN: But your father was doing well enough that he could actually start managing a hotel also.

BS: Yes, so I don't know how he did that.

<End Segment 7> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.