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SF: One, one other issue I wanted to ask you about with regard to these small business was, you mentioned the importance of the associations, like the Hotel Keepers' Association and the grocers and so forth, in terms of regulating competition and so forth. Can you describe, you know, what was the nature of these different business groups and what they did and what their impact probably was on the Issei community at that time?

FM: Yes. The associations were developed probably for two reasons. One, to regulate or control relations among those in the business, that particular line of business, and there were associations for example for hotels, groceries, restaurants, dye work, cleaners, produce house owners, gardeners and landscape people and so on. Maybe a dozen of these that I can remember as associations. And these business associations then would regulate the business so that people would not impinge on each other, the members. For example, they should not create too much undue competition among themselves. They would try to set up conditions where they would be, minimize the competition between Japanese. The competition against whites and what not was not a major concern. The other thing however, was that these associations were also used as a means of, of defending against anti-Japanese and discriminatory kinds of practices which might arise. In the hotel business for example, if there was a protest by white people of the Japanese invading an area of business, then the business association would come into play and try to counter that type of anti-Japanese sentiment in whatever way. So the, they were a force for controlling within the community, but also a means of trying to defend against anti-Japanese discriminatory practices that might impinge on them. Alien land laws, for example, would affect people like hotel owners or people who are trying to run businesses. And various kinds of discriminatory business laws might be erected which they would try to fight.

SF: What kind of responses did they, or could they make? Like hire a lawyer to take a court case, legal approach or to do some kind of media attempt or...?

FM: I, I can't tell you, I can't think of any cases exactly. But they would use whatever means was necessary or whatever means was possible in the event of whatever attack was made upon them. I think that the associations were in a sense, because they brought together large clusters of people engaged in the same line of work, were powerful enough to do something which the proprietors individually could not have done. And I think that was the main effectiveness of these associations.

<End Segment 10> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.