Densho Digital Repository - Kathy Nishimoto Masaoka Interview I (Densho ID: ddr-densho-542-12)

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IM: You mentioned that your father started working for grocery stores that had unionized employees. Did he ever mention anything about activities within the union?

KM: No, but my father, you know, he's such a funny guy. He never had any issues with the union. I mean, I think he appreciated a lot, because he'd often say he was going into the retail clerk's office. I don't know why he went so often. He'd say, "I'm going down to the Local 77 or what is it. He was going down to the office, and then the fact that that we had health care, and I was a real sickly child, I forgot to mention that I had asthma as a child, whooping cough, which was very hard on the family, economically, again. So when he got the unionized job, they were totally happy because we had Kaiser. And I had a lot of things that I had to go to Kaiser for, a lot of stuff. No, he never complained about it. I don't even remember him being on strike, but I don't...

IM: So he never complained, but did he have anything that he shared with you about how he... did he have any positive things other than just the material things, like fun with other of his coworkers, union activities like leisure activities?

KM: You know, I don't know if they did that. He had leisure activities with the Nisei guys. Well, and then when he worked for Gelson's, because Gelson's was owned at the time by the Gelson brothers, they treated everybody like family. And Gelson's is always been to the, settle first with the union, but they always had big parties for the workers, because that's not really union. But he had a good relationship with his fellow workers, but you know those Nisei guys? I'd always wonder, my father would go in at least a half hour before, or maybe an hour. I said, "Why are you going so early?" He'd drive in, and then they would work half an hour before they would clock in, be like, "Why are they doing that?" That's what they did. They worked off the clock.

IM: Do you remember any of the particular guys that he was friends with among the grocers?

KM: Yeah. One of them was, his name was Inouye, and I can't remember his first name. He was a small guy, wiry guy. Yeah, the Inouye family, they were close friends. We'd go to the beach with them and stuff like that.