<Begin Segment 11>

TI: Okay, so Eiichi, we're going to get going again. We had just talked about your father, his journey to the United States, all the way up to 1941. I now want to backtrack and talk about your mother. So what we talked about earlier was how your father went to Japan and married your mother, and then they came back to Seattle. So why don't you tell me a little bit about your mother. What did she, do you know what year she came to Seattle?

EY: 1922.

TI: Okay, 1922. And what did she do when she first got here? I guess she had you. You were born the next year.

EY: Yeah.

TI: So right away she had you.

EY: Yeah, she... I think my mother, the first place that they stayed was over at the Panama Hotel.

TI: Oh, interesting, it's still there.

EY: Yeah. And there was a Manshinro Chinese restaurant place down on Jackson Street, and we used to go down there and have some Chinese food. Chinese restaurant operated by a Japanese. And at that time, it was, I think it was about the time they have... they had these prohibition of...

TI: So no alcohol.

EY: No alcohol. Well, this man, the major portion of his customers were Filipino, and they were cannery workers. So every year they'd go to Alaska during the summer, and when they finished, they'd come back, and then they'd live in Chinatown in the single room hotels, and he would, they would come to his restaurant and eat Chinese food prepared by a Japanese man.

TI: But then where does the alcohol come in? You said this was during Prohibition, so did he have alcohol there?

EY: No, he didn't. So then he said whenever his Filipino customers would come to eat his Chinese food, but this particular time, the police would come around and frisk all his Filipino customers, and they don't like to be. So they quit coming.

TI: So why... what was the police officer looking for?

EY: Hmm?

TI: Why did the police officer frisk them?

EY: Well, they wanted to, when they find liquor... and besides that, the Filipino fellows don't like to be frisked.

TI: And the police officers knew that?

EY: Yeah, certainly they did. And so a little later, the police came around, and so the owner, Mr... I forgot his name, would face the police and the police said, "Well, all you have to do is pay us so much a week and then we won't bother."

TI: Oh, so they would, by hassling the customers, they would drive them away unless the restaurant owner paid them.

EY: Yeah.

TI: How do you know this?

EY: That's what our friend told us.

TI: I see.

EY: He had a long face, you know, and there were no customers. But little by little, people would come back.

TI: But the restaurant owner had to pay the police off so they wouldn't do that.

EY: Yeah. But it was not a prohibitive amount. I think it was maybe ten dollars a week or something like that.

TI: Interesting. You mentioned staying in the Panama Hotel. Did you ever go to the bathhouse at the Panama Hotel? In the basement they had that bath.

EY: No, I never did.

TI: Okay, I was just curious. It's still there, so I was just curious if there was anything that you remember. It's kind of on the side on Maynard, the Maynard side.

EY: I've never been there.

<End Segment 11> - Copyright © 2014 Densho. All Rights Reserved.