<Begin Segment 6>

TI: Okay, so this was the family house before the war.

RK: Right.

TI: And how was it kept? A lot of people had to give up their homes or they lost... it seemed like your family was able to keep the house. How did that happen?

RK: Well, most of the people, when they had to go to camp, they only had to carry one suitcase, and they lost everything. They had to move out of the homes and people just moved in. So they lost everything. They had no place to go after they got back from camp.

TI: But in your case, the family was able to retain the house.

RK: Yeah.

TI: How did that happen?

RK: Well, they were our neighbors, so my mom and dad got to know them. It was a nice neighborhood, I mean, nobody was sitting there throwing bricks at each other or anything. So when they found out that we had to go to camp, they offered to take care of the house, our place.

TI: And tell me about the family that took care of the house. Who were they and where did they live?

RK: They lived right next door to us, and they were actually a German family.

TI: That's interesting, they were a German family.

RK: So they just kept the place up. The whole neighborhood itself was a real nice neighborhood. We had, there was a German family, there was another Japanese family across the street, we had French, they had a French laundry. And on the corner there was a grocery store that was owned by two Jewish brothers. So there was a lot of nice people in the whole neighborhood.

TI: Were there any nonwhite families, like other Japanese or Chinese or African American?

RK: Well, around the corner from us was an African American apartment complex. I think there was like four families in that complex. I don't think there was any Chinese, but I know there was another Japanese family that lived across the street.

TI: When I look at the address in terms of where your house was, it looked like it was just two or three blocks away from the Presidio, and so all the park, the Presidio Park, so did you ever go there and play as a kid?

RK: To the Presidio? Oh, yeah. We used to play baseball down there, or softball. And then there was another place, another park up on Clay Street, maybe three blocks from the house. It was basically a tennis court, basketball, jungle gym, slide and then swings, I mean, it's just a little small place. So we used to go there a lot. That was about it. And then down the block from us, what they call Laurel Village right now, there used to be an empty lot. So we used to fly kites, we used to go down there and fly kites, because it gets quite windy in that area, so we'd be able to fly kites.

TI: Yeah, we were looking at pictures of that neighborhood a little bit, of your place. When you go back to that neighborhood now, how has it changed? What does it look like now versus when you were there as a kid?

RK: Well, where we used to fly kites is now what they call Laurel Village, which had two supermarkets. They've got a couple of restaurants, couple of little shops. So that whole block basically just grew with little boutiques and stuff. There used to be a big cemetery where the Fireman's Fund Building is right now. So we used to kind of cut through there when we were playing. But then after they put the Fireman's Fund Building in there, it was like what did they do with the bodies?

TI: [Laughs] Well, I was going to ask, yeah...

RK: I have no idea what they did with the bodies.

TI: The land was just, I guess, so valuable that they had to exhume...

RK: Yeah, they had to burn 'em up.

TI: Burn them all up.

RK: But we used to play there.

TI: I don't hear of too many places where they actually take over a cemetery, that's interesting.

RK: Well, that whole area changed a lot. I think Derek can remember, he used to play baseball there, a place called Laurel Hill Park. So they used to play baseball there.

TI: So you mentioned that the house, I think you said it was from your mother. Was it from the mother's family, or why did you say "mother" and not your parents or your dad? You said your mother, I was curious.

RK: Well, I'm not quite sure about that, because I know my mom had it before, it may have been with my uncle, they had that property before they even got married, my mom and dad.

TI: Yeah, just because land is so expensive in San Francisco, I'm curious. So at what point did the family sell the property on Sacramento Street?

RK: I'm not quite sure about the year, but I think it had to have been in the early '70s. Because I was married to Grace, Derek's mom, and we were living in San Bruno, I think. This was before they were born. And then after they were born, we got invited to dinner at their place, at my mom and dad's place. Well, I went to the old place because I had no idea of them selling the house and moving into the apartment. I had no idea what was going on. So I went back to the house expecting...

TI: Your parents to be there.

RK: I drove up and the place is dark, no lights, nothing. So I had to call them, "Where are you guys at?"

TI: That's interesting. And how did you feel? That was kind the house you grew up, for it to be sold...

RK: Well, you don't feel good about that because it's someplace that you grew up in, and then all of a sudden you kind of find out that she moved in to some other place. I didn't even know anything about it.

<End Segment 6> - Copyright © 2024 Densho. All Rights Reserved.