<Begin Segment 4>

BN: What sort of house was it? Do you remember much?

RO: What are the alternatives?

BN: Just the size, bedrooms.

RO: It was probably two bedrooms. It was pretty small, obviously. But for us it was fine. We didn't know what the alternatives were.

BN: You were a fairly small family for that time. Was it your sense that, look back, that your family was fairly well-off or somewhere in the middle, or do you have a sense of that?

RO: Well, I would say in the middle because he had his own business. And we weren't hurting for money or anything.

BN: In the business, I assume, would he have owned trucks?

RO: He had three.

BN: Uh-huh, because that's kind of a necessity for what he's doing.

RO: Yeah, 'cause he's hauling.

BN: And he must have had a crew of people working.

RO: He had three people.

BN: Were they all Japanese also?

RO: No. In fact, when we went into the camp, he kept one of the trucks and then he sold one, and he gave one to one of the workers who was white and said that he could use it until the war ended and then he never saw that guy again, so he lost out on that.

BN: And then you mentioned the house was rented, because, of course, Issei were prohibited from buying... although your mom was Nisei, so theoretically...

RO: I never inquired as to why.

BN: Okay. And then you mentioned earlier that your dad came with a brother. Did you kind of then have extended family that you would see?

RO: That was about as extended on his side. It was just his brother. On my mother's side, there were four or so siblings around with their families. So we would spend more time on her side. At least one of them had kids my age, so we would (play with them). One of the big things was going to the beach together. And their father was a... what do you call the person who takes care of the house?

BN: Gardener?

RO: Gardener. He was a gardener so I would sometimes go with him. So we got to know that family very well.

BN: Did they live nearby?

RO: Yeah, but I don't remember where exactly, but close enough.

BN: Do you remember what beach you went to? Because I know a lot of the beaches were kind of segregated. Was there like a designated Japanese beach?

RO: I don't think so, not where we went.

BN: But Gardena, it's not too far, just straight west. I know after the war there was a specific area that all the Gardena people, beach that the Japanese from Gardena would go to. But again, you were very young at that time.

<End Segment 4> - Copyright © 2021 Densho. All Rights Reserved.