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BN: You were very young at the time, but did you have to help out at the family business?

KS: No. So when we went into camp in 1942, I was eight years old. But my second sister was, in 1942 she was... what would that be, about fourteen years old or something like that. So then she would take the streetcar, make a transfer and stuff like that, go from home to the market, and then she would be a saleslady. So my mother always marveled at my second sister, that she would be standing behind the stand and then when a customer was walking by, she would go up to the customer and try to get them to buy the produce and stuff like that. So I had a feeling that my father and mother would stand behind the counter there while my sister would run up to the people walking on the street to try to get them to buy things. But I was still eight years old, so I didn't go work at the store yet.

BN: Any, as a kid, were you involved in things like Scouting or sports?

KS: Okay. Now, over there on Dewey, I don't know if anybody was in Scouts. The only stuff that we used to play was battle. So we had what you call rubber guns, and these were all homemade. So you get the inner tube... before, they used to have inner tube for a tire, and they cut them in strips and then you attach them to a gun. And the gun was all homemade. So you had a rifle or you had a pistol, so you had a homemade gun. Now, I was eight years old or younger, so my father did not make my gun. The neighborhood boy that lived next-next door, he would make my gun. So he would make my gun, and then he'll also get the inner tube and make me the rubber bands for the gun. So that was how it was, I think. The job of the older boy was to look after the younger boy, so that if I needed a gun, then I have to go ask him to make me a gun. So we used to play that almost every day.

BN: So in that scenario, who was the good guys and who was the bad guys? Was it a cowboy and Indian thing?

KS: I'm not sure if it's cowboy, Indian, or Japan against China, or Japan against U.S. or something like that.

BN: In that scenario, would Japan be the good guys or the bad guys?

KS: I think Japan might be the good guys. And we used to have a gun battle almost every day in the front yard. You know, some of the front yards didn't have walls, went from one front yard to another in a battle. I went to look at the front yards about five years ago, and I realized these front yards are so tiny. Once upon a time it was a great place to have battles, but when you look at it now, it's such tiny front yards that they had.

BN: Are the buildings still there?

KS: Some of them, yeah, they're still there. But the yards are so tiny. And then the neighborhood is really run down now.

BN: Did your family go the Little Tokyo very often?

KS: Yeah, we went there infrequently, and then we also used go to Broadway, where they have shopping. So then all the stores were on Broadway, so Mother used to take us.

BN: Did you have a car?

KS: My father had a state truck, and then we had a passenger car. So then the passenger car would sit in the garage six days, and only Sunday, bring it out. Meanwhile, the whole week, would be driving the state truck to the market and stuff like that.

BN: So the produce stand was open every day except Sunday.

KS: Right.

BN: So Sunday was a day off.

KS: Right.

BN: And did the family go to church?

KS: Yeah, we went to the St. Mary's Episcopal Church. So then my...

BN: This was, I'm assuming, a Japanese church?

KS: Yeah, it was a Japanese church. It was a Japanese church, and their minister was John Yamasaki, who was well-known. So then they used to have, I guess, the equivalent of Fujinkai, and they have PTA and stuff like that. So then my mother would go to those quite a bit. And then my father didn't go to church too much, but then finally realized that my father was Presbyterian, and this is an Episcopal church. And a lot people don't think there's too much difference, but I guess, for him, Episcopal and Presbyterian is different.

<End Segment 5> - Copyright © 2018 Densho. All Rights Reserved.