<Begin Segment 2>

MN: So you were born in 1920. Do you know when your parents moved from the hotel in Little Tokyo to Glendale?

KM: Probably in the early '20s, 1921, 1922.

MN: Do you know why they moved to Glendale?

KM: Well, I think the opportunity for work was not very good in Little Tokyo. So I guess gardening and housekeeping was very readily available, and suburb of Los Angeles, Glendale, there were more or less upper middle class people there.

MN: So what did your father, what kind of work did your father, what kind of work did he find in Glendale?

KM: He ended up being a gardener.

MN: Did he buy somebody's route?

KM: Hmm?

MN: Did he buy somebody's gardening route?

KM: Well, I don't know how he picked 'em up, but I imagine he, I guess it was word of mouth, no advertising, just pick 'em up.

MN: Do you know how your father started in gardening? Did he already have his truck and all his equipment?

KM: I don't think so. I think the initial stages was using the customer's, what do you call it, all the tools of the employer, and he just worked for 'em, he probably got around with a bicycle. I don't remember when he bought his first car, but I remember we had a Model T Ford.

MN: When did your family get a Model T Ford?

KM: I can't remember. Probably in the mid-'20s, I guess. 'Cause I had some pictures of the touring sedan that he had, which was, probably reflects, in the mid-'20s, probably.

MN: Now, the house that your family moved to in Glendale, did he purchase that? Did he own it?

KM: Well, eventually he bought the house and he used my name to register the ownership because he couldn't own it. So that probably, that house was probably purchased in the mid-'20s sometime, just before the Depression.

MN: Why couldn't your father own the house?

KM: Huh?

MN: Why couldn't your father own the house?

KM: Oh, at that time, there was no, there was a restriction against selling to Asians, so Asians couldn't -- especially Japanese -- were outlawed from owning any kind of property.

MN: And because you were American-born, you're American citizen.

KM: That's right. I remember the attorney John Mayeno is the one that did all the paperwork.

MN: John Mayeno was already an attorney at that time?

KM: That's right.

<End Segment 2> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.