<Begin Segment 18>

TI: So let's go back to Topaz. You said you were working as a cook, and your two brothers came to the line and he talked about the eggplant.

KT: Then they left, and then I went to Ogden where my sister was. My sister got, from Tule Lake, Yukimi got married to a guy name Yonetani. He's from Japan, about the same place they grew up near. Anyway, he's a Kibei, so... and she said, "You can stay with us while I work in Utah." So I went there and I was looking around for a job, and that artist, Paul Horiuchi, he had a trailer right next to my sister and her husband. They rent a big house and part of the house was rented out to a guy named Matsu Sakagami, judo guy, and Sunao Iiwai, and who else? Some guy from Tacoma named, I think his name was Okada. But they were renting, and then in the lot next door, there was a trailer there and Paul Horiuchi and Bernadette and the kids were there, John and Paul. So Paul was working at a concrete pipe company and he said, "Come work there," so I went there to work. Of course, we were working a graveyard shift, night time. Anyway, I got to meet Paul, so when I come to Bon Odori and I see Paul, he says, "Hey, Kiyo, ano toki erakattano," he says. 'Cause we, one time we unloaded cement from the freight cars, sacks of cement. They all weigh a hundred pounds and we got, what, five cents a sack or something, and he got a couple of cents and I got -- no, he got a cent and a half and I think I got a cent and a half, and then a big Swede down below, he got two cents. [Laughs] Anyway, we unloaded that whole freight car, but Paul, he...

TI: Now, back then was he doing any artwork?

KT: Oh yeah, he was painting, from his trailer he looked in the back, back of Ogden there, some of the buildings and stuff he was painting. He was doing a lot of little paintings and stuff. I don't know what he did with those, but that was '43. And then '47 or something I was on leave and I come here, and I saw him and he said he was a body fender, '46 maybe, body fender and he's painting cars. And then I heard that he had made a painting and it won honorable mention, which had an award of sixteen thousand dollars. So I says, "When did you know that you were an artist, success as an artist and make money, making a living painting?" He said it's when, what's his name, I forget his name now, but he played The Life of Reilly, some actor, Bill Bendix or something.

TI: Yeah, I know who you, yeah.

KT: Yeah, he came up to buy several of his paintings. When these actors and people like that, they come to invest money in what you do, and he says that means you're a success.

TI: So he was getting known and people were coming just to buy his paintings.

KT: Yeah.

TI: Interesting. Now, so before, so you knew him before he was really thought of as a, as a professional artist, when you saw him at...

KT: I knew him when he, when we were eating lunch and he had a, some kind of a magazine that had a picture of "Blue Boy" in there. He's showing me the thing, and then he said, "I'd rather, I'd rather watch this than to eat," he said.

[Interruption]

TI: So he really loved his art. He just really was passionate about.

KT: Yeah, yeah. He got really famous.

<End Segment 18> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.