<Begin Segment 12>

MN: Now from Sanger, where did you go?

KY: My parents still hadn't decided where they wanted to live, so they sent me to live with my, one of my other older sisters in Gardena. So I moved in with her, her husband, and their two young daughters, and I went to Gardena High in 1947. Then my parents told me I could come home, so I joined them in Los Angeles sometime between 1947 school year and the 1948 school year, and I finished high school in Los Angeles.

MN: Which high school did you go in Los Angeles?

KY: John H. Francis Polytechnic, which was located at Washington and Grand in L.A.

MN: At that time, what was the ethnic makeup of Polytechnic?

KY: There were a lot of Japanese Americans there, and I think we were essentially running the school, because many of us were Student Body Officers. And I was Student Body Treasurer, and I also worked in the student store.

MN: How did you do in high school?

KY: I did very well. I was Ephebian, CSF, again, because of the emphasis to be a good boy and study hard, and I did that.

MN: CSF was California Scholastic Federation?

KY: Something like that, yes.

MN: What year did you graduate from high school?

KY: Summer of 1949.

MN: So how old were you when you graduated from high school?

KY: I think I had just turned seventeen.

MN: So you were younger than a lot of the others.

KY: Yeah, I think I skipped a grade when I was a kid, you know, in lower elementary.

MN: Before we continue with that part of your life, I want to go back a little bit. Your parents are now in Los Angeles, they had moved from Sanger. What were they doing in Los Angeles?

KY: They bought a transient hotel, which meant we rented our rooms by the week. And my mother did the cleaning, I think she washed the sheets and cleaned the place, and my father did all the routine maintenance like carpentry and painting, and I think a little electrical, but not too much. Because I think that was, some of it was beyond his capability. He did do the plumbing.

MN: And did you have to help out in the hotel also?

KY: No, I was very lucky that only when my dad needed some help, he asked me to help him. But again, because of my size, there were a lot of things that I couldn't help him with.

MN: What sort of people stayed at your parents' hotel?

KY: Poor people. We probably rented the rooms for like fifty cents a day or something like that. And so these were unskilled people. But as long as they paid the rent, that was all that mattered to us.

MN: Were they Asian, Caucasian, African Americans?

KY: There were no African Americans. I don't think there were any Mexican Americans. I think they were all essentially Caucasians. And there were no Asians.

MN: How long did your parents run this hotel?

KY: Probably close to ten years.

MN: And after that, did they retire?

KY: Well, we bought a house in Boyle Heights in December of 1957, and moved there, and my father died in April of '58. So my mother and I lived in Boyle Heights together until she passed in 1976. I had graduated from college in 1963, so I was working as a professional since probably September or October of 1963.

MN: Now going back to your schooling, judo, right after the, shortly after the war, you took some judo classes.

KY: My father made me go take judo. I was still much smaller than the other participants, so I competed against kids who were my size but much younger than me. And I kept that up until my dad said I didn't have to anymore.

MN: Which judo dojo did you go to?

KY: I think it was in Little Tokyo but I don't remember.

MN: And you said until your dad told you to take it, but how long did you take judo? One year, two years?

KY: Not too long. I probably got one or two colored belts, but I was not geared for that sport.

<End Segment 12> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.