<Begin Segment 31>

SY: And so had camp not happened, do you think your life would've been much better?

YY: I don't know about much better, but it would've been much different. It would've been real different.

SY: What do you think you would've done, finished school?

YY: I would've finished school. And then my wife, she was a go-getter, so I wouldn't have met her. She was one that always liked to go out and see if she could make more money. [Laughs] So when we were living in Rosemead she comes, she says, "We're moving." I said, "Why?" Says, "I bought a place, seven unit apartment. We're gonna move there." And then we were living in that apartment for a while, and then she says, "You know," she says, "I found a place and it's only four hundred fifty thousand dollars." And I says, "Four hundred fifty thousand? That's almost half a million." And then those places were selling, like we paid only about a hundred thousand for that apartment, and she's talking about four hundred fifty thousand. I said, "Where're we gonna get the money?" So we finally bought it, but I don't know, if it wasn't for her we wouldn't be living like we were.

SY: So she kept you...

YY: Yeah, she kept us, she kept us with some money.

SY: And she never worked when you came back from...

YY: No, she worked. She went to work for, she went to work for the county too, and then she ended up working for the computer, what do they call it? Anyway, it was with the department that had all the computers.

SY: Tech, the technical?

YY: No, it was, what's another thing for computers? (Data processing.)

SY: [Laughs] I don't know. That's good. She retired from the county as well?

YY: Uh-huh.

SY: So you also mentioned that you were on the board of the JACS. Maybe you could talk a little bit about JACS and what, the work that JACS does?

YY: Well, I was asked to join by one of the fellows, one of the members there. He was at, it was because he was, wanted to retire from it and he wanted me to take his place. So they said okay, so I joined. And I met a lot of nice people. They were real nice people.

SY: And what kind of work does, it's Japanese American Community Services.

YY: Well, they give money to get started. They loan you money to get started, different organizations. Even like the Little Tokyo Service Center, we helped, JACS helped them get started. They give out, the old Shonien, you remember the Shonien?

SY: That's the orphanage.

YY: Yeah.

SY: That's how it started.

YY: That started, uh-huh. They got the money from there.

SY: And they continue to collect money from membership?

YY: Well, no, they don't collect money from the membership, but then they, they invest the money, they got a lot of money invested in different things. And they get money from that, and then they, I don't know if they did fundraising. I can't remember.

SY: So you served on that committee, or served on the board, for how long?

YY: About fifteen years, I think.

SY: And that was a religious, originally it was a religious based organization, right?

YY: Religious based? I don't think so. I don't know.

SY: Okay, so it didn't --

YY: I don't know. I'm sorry.

SY: Yeah, so you never stayed very religious through the years?

YY: No.

SY: I mean, after, just the Evergreen, that was your only experience. So in JACS, that was not an issue either, camp, talking about camp?

YY: No.

SY: No. You never, they never...

YY: No, it was mostly about different organizations that wanted money, that...

SY: Needed it.

YY: We would discuss about who we could loan it to and where we could get...

SY: So we're actually at the very end, we're running out of time. I just wanted, want to thank you for doing this. I mean, I maybe would like to ask if there's anything that you would like to say in terms of your life, having gone through camp, becoming, working for the county for so many years, and the work you're, you've done, what stands out or what we didn't talk about even?

YY: I don't think so. I don't think I, I've forgotten everything that I was, I'm supposed to say. At this age, I'm glad I'm still living. [Laughs] No, I don't think so.

SY: Any highlights of your life that...

YY: No. I was glad I was able to travel like I did. I went to quite a few different places, and I'm glad I was able to do it before I got to a, got to be like this where I can't...

SY: You're still playing golf, though, right?

YY: Right, yeah.

SY: That's, that's pretty active. Yeah, that's great. Well okay, thank you so much, Mr. Yamamoto.

YY: You're welcome.

SY: This has been a very enlightening discussion of what, of your life, and I appreciate you taking the time like this.

YY: Okay.

<End Segment 31> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.