<Begin Segment 7>

SY: So what was Nihonmachi like?

YM: What was Nihonmachi like? Gossipy, kind, mixed up people, because they didn't have much education, you know, in Japantown, but they were always -- come to think of it, maybe there is -- I can't see that, but I think there are more people that was always taking food to somebody that's sick or giving them something, but they were very kind people, but they loved to gossip from my point of view.

SY: What stories do you remember about the gossip?

YM: Well, best not said. [Laughs]

SY: We would be gossiping. Well, I remember you talked about a time that some young boy had treated you to ice cream.

YM: Oh, yeah. That was, I had gotten off a streetcar so it must have been, I think it was, I don't know whether it was high school or middle school or something, but this boy was waiting for me and he had ice cream cone, one for himself and one for me. And as we walked up the street, and I think the street was only about one or -- no, two blocks long. By the time I got up to the house, my grandmother was waiting for me because she had already heard Yuki was eating ice cream with a boy. What a scandal there was. [Laughs] But she never said, "You mustn't do that anymore," but she said, "If you wanted ice cream so badly, I could have gotten it for you." I said, "Well, he had it for me," so I took it.

Yukiko M. Interview - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved. - <End Segment 7>