<Begin Segment 22>
DG: So, tell me a little bit about helping the people and who you helped and...
AM: Most all the people that came back, they dropped in. So we were feeding now army.
MM: Of course we were boarded up. We were still boarded up.
AM: Uh-huh.
MM: 'Cause my dad, shinda kara, sugu, we didn't take the board down. So lot of people come knocking at our door. So naturally, well, we couldn't open the store. We had too many people coming and going. But eventually we -- we got the boards all down and...
DG: So when did you open the store?
MM: How many days after? What day? I'm sure we got it written down somewheres.
AM: And we had lots of food stored -- we had sacks of rice and sugar and everything. We didn't know whether, what would happen through the war. But I told Mama, Papa, I (said), "You know, in wartime, oil and sugar is always needed in the wartime. So that'll fall short. So let's be ready with some, ano, sugar (...) and salt (and etc.)
MM: I, I remember Chiyo Ogo. She says -- I, we had forgotten when -- she (said), "I went to, to see how you folks were," and she says, "Aya cooked miso salmon. Was it good" She mentioned that. [Laughs]
DG: Now the war was still going on.
MM: Yeah.
AM: Yeah.
DG: At that time.
MM: Uh-huh.
DG: So tell me about helping somebody start a restaurant?
MM: Yo, Egashiras...
AM: Next door.
MM: Jackson Cafe. She did a lot of running around for her, for him.
AM: He, he wanted to open the Paramount Cafe again.
MM: Across the street. Under the Bush Hotel.
AM: But the lawyer said, "I do not mind him taking it over but there might be some other crazy people that might have queer ideas. So I can't very well rent it out." So that was (that), my mother and I had discussions. Mother mo, "This is the time to help other people, so what shall we do?" So we decided to...
MM: Rent out.
AM: Have the old book, old bookstore changed into a restaurant. And so we, I helped 'em. He didn't know what to do first. So I said, "Well, maybe you'll have to fix your place to open for a store." I mean, restaurant. So, I looked up all the...
MM: Restaurant supplies.
AM: And the engineers and restaurant operators. And I found out a man who could help and start a restaurant. So...
MM: You remember, Nils Mortenson.
AM: He made a, I mean, $4,000 in just a short period.
MM: Got his expenses back in four, in a few months.
AM: Three months.
DG: The restaurant.
AM: Next door.
MM: Right next door. Used to be Jackson Cafe. And the man that came to fix the place was a Swede, I think. Nils Mortensen is a big company. And he was really nice. Ano, and I think he understood what we went through, what the Egashiras went through.
DG: And then you did this despite the fact that you, your mother had said...
MM: She really -- the restaurant is really not a good tenant, lot of bugs and everything. But she said, "Well, this is the time to help them." (But) that across the street no people owners (would not rent to the Egashiras.)
AM: Used to be Paramount Cafe. Many years ago.
DG: And then... the other tenants?
MM: They all, like Dr. Shigaya, had a practice in, in Spokane during the wartime. But he decided he wanted to come back, so he came back. And Dr. Fukuda, of course, came back. Mr. Watanabe, most of them all came back. They all wanted to come back.
<End Segment 22> - Copyright © 1997 Densho. All Rights Reserved.