<Begin Segment 27>

SY: Now, did you stay in touch with people that were in camp during this time?

YY: Not, no, not really.

SY: Where were you, so where were you living when you, as you...

YY: I was living in, we were living, when we came back from Cleveland we were living in Montebello.

SY: And then you found your own place there?

YY: Then we went to live in El Monte with my wife's brother, and then from there we bought a place in Rosemead. We bought a house in Rosemead. When my, we moved because when we were in Rosemead we bought, she found another house that she liked better, so we sold that and bought another house in Rosemead.

SY: Was that the area that she, her family, she grew up in?

YY: No, no. She was, she grew up in Norwalk.

SY: But she had family members, her brother was sort of close by.

YY: Yeah, in El Monte.

SY: And in the meantime, where were your parents? Were they still in...

YY: They were in, they were in Boyle Heights.

SY: They stayed in Boyle Heights. And did they have problems adjusting after the war?

YY: I don't think so. Then my parents opened up, went to work at, in a, they rented a hotel and they were working in, working that. That was on, it was on Figueroa and, Figueroa and I think about Seventh Street or Eighth Street.

SY: So they operated it? They didn't own it, they just operated it?

YY: No, they just operated it.

SY: So your father was a fairly good businessman, then, huh?

YY: I think it was my mother that was going into the hotel business more than my father. [Laughs]

SY: But they didn't live there, they just...

YY: No, they lived there.

SY: They lived there.

YY: They lived in the hotel and they...

SY: What was the hotel?

YY: I don't know the name of it, but it was on Figueroa and Seventh Street, something around in there. I don't think the building's there now, 'cause I remember she had to move because they were gonna tear it down. Then she had a place, a hotel in front of the general hospital on, let's see...

SY: In the area that, yeah, I'm trying to think what the name of the streets are.

YY: Yeah, me too. I can't remember anything. [Laughs]

SY: General hospital area. So she, they actually had to move, they went from one hotel to the next, so they moved the whole family? Your sisters, were they living there with them?

YY: Just my youngest sister.

SY: So you don't --

YY: My other sister, she was still in, she was still there, she was still... I think she was married already.

SY: After camp.

YY: No, she came back here and got married.

SY: So she was living on her own.

YY: Yeah, she was living in New York by herself.

SY: She went to New York? She went to school in New York?

YY: No, she didn't go to school.

SY: She just relocated. So your father never wanted to open up another pharmacy?

YY: A pharmacy, no.

SY: Did he ever talk --

YY: 'Cause he always said he was too old. So then he, then he was able to get social security after that, so he was living on his social security.

SY: So they didn't, as far as you know, they didn't have any kind of financial, I mean, that whole readjusting to life after camp, was it difficult for them?

YY: Well I, if it was I couldn't, I don't remember seeing it that way.

SY: When you came back they had already started the hotel? They were already living in the hotel when you came back to L.A.?

YY: No, not that time, not at that time. I don't know what they were doing at that time. But then they just, much, well, it wasn't much later, but all I can remember is that they started a hotel on Figueroa Street. Then when they tore that down, they went to one on, near the hospital. And then after that I think they retired, after that.

SY: And they ended up staying, where did they live when they retired?

YY: They were living in Boyle Heights, and then my father passed away and then my mother went to live in Little Tokyo Towers, and she lived there 'til she passed away.

SY: She lived to be quite elderly, then.

YY: She was ninety-two.

SY: And they didn't stay, you didn't stay real close to them. In other words, they didn't depend on you for, for help.

YY: No. Well, I used to go see my mother when she was living in Little Tokyo Towers, but my youngest sister, she used to see her more than I did.

SY: And so when you moved back and they were managing these hotels, and you really didn't see them that much.

YY: No. I don't know how often I went, but it wasn't very often.

SY: So your father never really pressured you to go into pharmacy, become a pharmacy?

YY: No.

SY: I mean a pharmacist. [Laughs] He was fine with your career choice.

YY: Yeah.

<End Segment 27> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.