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PW: And when you were born and you were living in Southern California, your family had a business?

RO: I think they were strawberry farmers at the time. And, of course, at that time, I know very little about that period in their lives and so on, and how they progressed, and eventually came up to the Central Valley to go ahead and start a restaurant.

PW: And where did they do that, which town?

RO: This was in Selma. In Selma at that time, the Asian businesses were all on West Front Street, and West Front Street was where then, early on, where the 99 highway would run right in front of the businesses and so on as it came through the small town of Selma. So then eventually, of course, then over the years, the highway was moved progressively to where it is today, so it's moved several times, actually.

PW: I realized I forgot to ask you what your birthdate is. When were you exactly... what date were you born?

RO: Well, I was born, like I said, this little farm near Anaheim in 1934.

PW: What date?

RO: February the 16th.

PW: February the 16th.

RO: Yeah.

PW: So how old were you when you moved to the Central Valley, to Selma?

RO: You know, I guess I must have been probably not more than about five years, four or five years old, and so on, eventually. Because as I remember then that my grandmother was living with us in this little restaurant, and then we lived behind the restaurant, and so I remember then being held my grandmother. And then that was my early memories about them being in the restaurant.

PW: Can you describe what it looked like?

RO: Oh, yeah. It was actually a restaurant that was owned by another, I think another Chinese family and so on, because initially the neon sign that was posted on front of the restaurant was "K and K Chop Suey," and so when my mother and father took over the restaurant, they left the neon sign there. And so we were always known as the K and K, but eventually K and K Café. Because a lot of other Japanese farmers would come and they would then be able to come and have udon and so on, because they wanted to change the menu, then they'll be able to go ahead in an association with the other Japanese Americans that were here.

PW: So was the menu mostly Japanese American?

RO: Well, no, it was actually, I don't know how my father learned how cook these things, but he was cooking chow mein and chop suey and things of that nature, egg fu young and so on, but it was very, very limited menu. But also in addition to that was, of course, udon and things that the other Japanese people would come and enjoy.

PW: Do you remember what that childhood house looked like or the home that you lived with your parents?

RO: All I remember was that the restaurant was in the front, and then right behind there, where the cooking area was and so on, that I remember there was a large, round oak table. And this is kind of where we kind of hung out as young people and so on. So we never, the only time that I think that I was involved in the front of the restaurant is those hours in which there was nobody there, so I would just be able to go in and hang out there and so on. Some friends would come over, and that's where we were basically, as my earliest memories were that.

PW: And did you have siblings?

RO: Yes, I had an older brother, his name was George Hiroshi, and then I had a younger brother and his name was... I'm sorry. Keijiro. I was going to say Keibo, we call, everybody called him Keibo. That was his name, and Dick was again a name that I think was adopted by him, Kejiro.

PW: Did you guys eat in the restaurant? Like is that where you would have your meals?

RO: My whole life revolved around the restaurant and so on. Everything from going to school, coming back, and home, and that's where I would go to and so on after school. It was a very important part of my life. And even though I'd barely remember things about the restaurant, you remember things like, I remember skating on the sidewalk in front of the restaurant as a young man, young boy. But other than that, it was just, not until the evacuation notice and so on, that I remember.

<End Segment 2> - Copyright © 2023 Densho. All Rights Reserved.