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PW: So your family, I know that your father eventually had a business in San Francisco Japantown, but was that the only, do you know if he did other work in San Francisco?

HS: He started out as a houseboy, domestic, and he learned how to cook. So every Christmas and Thanksgiving, he (would) roast the turkeys, but he would not cook any other time. Then he went to work on the farms, and so he apparently went to Winters, and that's another story I can tell you that has some relation to Wayne Collins. You want me to tell you now?

PW: Sure.

HS: Okay. With the alien land law, which existed at that time, Asian aliens could not own land. So my father worked for a man named Yamamoto, his name was George. His wife was Alice Yamamoto, and they were prominent (farmers) in Winters, California, which is north of here. And when... Mr. Yamamoto ran a very productive apricot and peach farm. My brothers used to go up there for summer and cut the peaches for dried fruit. And I remember going up there once, and the peach fuzz was very itchy. And it was a Sunday, they served chicken, roast chicken, it was awful. (...)

PW: So where did your parents get married? Like in Japantown?

HS: I don't know that for sure, but I'm sure it was Japantown.

PW: And what neighborhood did you grow up in once you were born?

HS: Well, it exists even today as Japantown, on Post Street. My father started a grocery store on Geary Street, and Japantown was a very confined, close community, and probably the Japantown, the greater Japantown was about twenty to thirty blocks from Geary to Pine, and from Octavia to Fillmore. And the original Japantown started in South Park, that was south of Market Street. But the Japanese followed the Jews, and the Jews would leave as each community became more affluent as they... what is the term? Well, anyway, it has different meanings. Each would leave, so the Jews would leave to go lower, Pacific Heights, and Fillmore Street and beyond west. And so even today, the temple, the Jewish temple was on Pine and Laguna, then they left to build theirs on Fillmore and California, I believe, and then the larger temple on California, Presidio. So everybody's following each other as they earn or their income increases.

PW: What was the name of your father's store?

HS: It was called Uoki, "uwo" for "fish," and "ki" for Kitaichi.

PW: Describe the store for me. Do you have memories of when you were a child?

HS: I don't know much about Geary Street, because Japantown started on Geary Street, and they moved on to Post Street. And all the homes were Victorians, and they were jacked up, they were two-story homes, and there were never spaces between homes and stores. And the homes were raised to three floors, and the base floor, first floor, became the store. They would screw it, use jack screws to bring it. So those homes were well-built, because they used prime redwood, first grade redwood. And that home, during the renovation of Japantown, where they renovated homes, that home still exists. It was moved to Fillmore Street, I've never seen it.

PW: Did the kids all have to work at the grocery store?

HS: Yeah. We all did, everybody did, and it was Chie, Tamotsu's Chie would be sure to always, during the summer, invite all the relatives and all the children of good customers, and hire them for summer vacation. She's very good about that.

PW: And did your mother work as well, or was she mostly at home? That's nine chidren.

HS: She was always at home with her nine children, she had to. At some time, she would wait in the store, she learned how to use the meat slicer. In fact, that was always my lunch. I had two pieces of bread and one slice of ham, that's all I ever had for lunch. And first she would get up at five and go to bed at midnight with all the children, she was a hard worker. Never complained, never seen her cry.

PW: Did you and your siblings play well together?

HS: With mother and father?

PW: Well, yeah, let's start with your mother and father. What was their relationship like?

HS: Well, my parents both spoke only Japanese. And my father spoke a little English, so there was hardly any communication. My sisters actually brought me up, and so they used to play with me as  a child as though I was a doll or something. So when I was in grammar school, they would dress me in Peter Pan collars, and short pants, and I just hated it. But they loved to take care of me. And my father, after he was able to retire, he retired quite early, because he had several employees. And Eiji, my brother, of course, Tamotsu, the older brother, they all worked in the store and they had a manager (who) embezzled all the money, all the family money. So my sister, all my sisters had to go to work to try to regain (the family fortunte), because he was quite in debt because he owned a third of the block. He had a five-unit apartment on Bush Street and a twenty-unit housing unit on Geary Street. He held on to the five-unit apartment on Bush Street, and the family still owns it. And he lost the Geary Street, but he kept the store and the family house, but he lost the other properties on Post Street. He was doing well, though. They went through the Depression, I still remember the Depression when he was in trouble, I had to go answer the door and say, "No one's home."

PW: Why do you think he was in trouble?

HS: Well, because of the Great Depression, that was, began about 1928 and worse in 1930. But came out of the Depression slowly enough to support nine children.

<End Segment 2> - Copyright © 2019 Densho. All Rights Reserved.