<Begin Segment 10>

TI: Okay. So we talked a little bit about the Chinese and Japanese areas, now you want to talk about the white? Where did the whites live?

LW: Whites lived right like I told you, like across the river, in the mostly residential, and they have this Ford company, Chevrolet company. And they had one grocery store. But they had a bank and a big hotel on the other side of the Chinatown. You remember there's, coming in, it's the back there. And that was run by the white people there.

TI: Now, in terms of population size, how large was the white population compared to the Japanese?

LW: I don't recall, but it's quite a few. Because we didn't go to "White school," so we don't even know, have any idea, see. Because that, "White school's building was pretty big building."

TI: Yeah, that's why I'm trying to get a sense, so were there more whites than Japanese, though?

LW: The time we came in, yeah. But then, see, there was a lot of people that lives in that area, too, that's mostly all whites. It was a business place.

TI: Now, were there any whites that lived on your side of the river in the, on the Japanese and Chinese side?

LW: No, there's hardly any white people living in the Japanese area.

TI: So when you say "hardly," so there were a few?

LW: Yeah, it was strictly white residential and Oriental residential, it was Japanese, or Japanese, Chinese.

TI: So in your memory, there weren't any whites, though.

LW: No. Because that time, I remember anybody that wants to build a home over there or wants to buy a home, they won't let you. You were really restricted.

<End Segment 10> - Copyright (c) 2009 Densho and Preserving California's Japantowns. All Rights Reserved.