Densho Digital Archive
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Title: Hiroko Nakashima Interview
Narrator: Hiroko Nakashima
Interviewer: Tracy Lai
Location: Seattle, Washington
Date: October 15, 1999
Densho ID: denshovh-nhiroko-01-0002

<Begin Segment 2>

TL: I'm wondering if you could describe some of your memories of Spokane when you were a young girl? For example, could you describe where your family lived and what that was like?

HN: Well, we lived in a hotel, the Saranek Hotel. But the restaurant was in, on Bernard and Main, so we had to walk down to the restaurant, which was about four blocks away. And we spent most of the time at the restaurant. So we ate and stayed there until the, my mother was finished working because she worked as a waitress. Then we walked back to the hotel and sleep there. Then we'd come back in the morning, we'd go down to the restaurant, eat breakfast, then we would go to school from there.

TL: Were there many other Japanese families that lived in this hotel?

HN: Yes. It was owned by a Japanese family. I can't quite remember their name, but I think it's still in Spokane. And there's another hotel across the street that was owned by a Japanese. It was, it was more like a Japantown, I think, where Saranek Hotel was and where we lived, I mean, where we had the restaurant. There was quite a few Japanese restaurants and laundry, barbershop, hotels. So it was more like Japantown.

TL: Did it seem like families who had those businesses -- the restaurants or the barbershop -- did they also live in the hotel, too, or did some of them live above their businesses? I'm trying to imagine what it looked like.

HN: I think quite a few, like the ones that owned a laundry or the tailor or the barber shop, they lived there in the back, and some owned homes and then some lived in hotels.

TL: For the people who lived, who owned their homes, was that very far away?

HN: I think it was walking distance. It wasn't too far.

TL: You've mentioned that the community in Spokane was kind of small.

HN: Uh-huh.

TL: Do you remember approximately how big or how small?

HN: I think they said there were only about 300 Japanese (people) there, back in the '30s.

TL: So in this hotel did you rent several rooms or one big room or --

HN: We had two rooms, and we had to go across the hall to go to the bathroom.

<End Segment 2> - Copyright © 1999 Densho. All Rights Reserved.