<Begin Segment 3>

JS: And what else did you sell besides the bicycle and the wheels?

KM: Oh, that's a good story, too, because these Italians would come into the shop, and they would ask my dad, "You got any BBs?" And my dad said, "What's BBs?" And he said, "Oh, we used the BBs to shoot the birds that were eating our wine grapes. So we want BBs." "Okay, next time salesman comes in, I'll order that." So he ordered BBs, then they wanted air rifle. So he ordered the air rifles, and they started selling. And then people come in looking for fishing equipment, fishing hooks and line and reels, rods, tackle, so he put those in. So at the, before the evacuation, oh, we had a variety of stuff selling besides the bicycle. Because the bicycle business, after, you know, when the cars came out, naturally it started dropping down. So he had to put in things that the people were asking for. Interesting. And, before the war, he would, being a citizen, he could purchase guns, pistol, ammunition, so he had all that in stock. And before the war, we had, I think, thirty cases of shotgun shells, and we had a big order of rifle and pistol ammunition, too. And when the war broke out, why, that was a contraband. So I said, "What are you gonna do with your contraband?" And one of our advertising agents from the Fresno Bee, he was in the U.S. Navy Intelligence. So he said, "Don't worry about it," he says, "I'll tell you when to turn it in. Because I worked in Intelligence and I know what's going on." So we didn't do anything, and first notice, second notice, about the third notice, he says, "It's about time, I think you'd better turn your stuff in or return it back to the wholesaler." Called the wholesaler, he says, "What do you got?" He says, "We got thirty cases of ammunition." Says, "Oh, wow, we can use that. There's going to be a shortage," so they took it all back. They took everything back.

TI: But that's interesting that, so he had a friend who was Naval Intelligence letting him know really when the real deadline was in terms of getting things in.

KM: Uh-huh, yeah.

TI: Do you know how he got to know this Naval --

KM: He was with the advertising agency with, for the Fresno Bee. And he'd come into Dad's place and ask him what he wanted to run, what kind of specials he wanted to run. That's how come we knew him. And we didn't notice until the war broke out that he told us that he was Naval Intelligence.

TI: Do you think while he was coming into Japantown, he was observing the community also? Do you think he was kind of...

KM: He may have been, too, yeah.

TI: 'Cause was he friendly with other businesses, too?

KM: Oh, yeah. Yeah, because being advertising agent, why, he's around getting ads. Of course, we had a Fresno Fish Market there, and they did big advertising.

TI: Oh, that's interesting because yeah, it is, actually, when you think about it, a great cover for Intelligence to...

KM: Yeah, right, it is a great cover, yeah, it is.

TI: ...selling ads for -- I'm not saying that he was, but it's just interesting how he was a Naval Intelligence, and then also in advertising.

KM: Right, uh-huh.

TI: You wouldn't think that they would do that, that combination.

KM: Yeah. He was in Naval, but he was retired, and this advertising job was his real job.

TI: Yeah. But yet he stayed in touch, because he told your dad that he knew when...

KM: Yeah, right, uh-huh. He knew how it worked, the system worked. [Laughs]

TI: Okay, well, good. That was interesting.

KM: It is interesting, yeah.

<End Segment 3> - Copyright © 2010 Densho and Preserving California's Japantowns. All Rights Reserved.