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TI: So when they came back to the United States, your father and mother, do you know where they settled?

YM: I assume they settled in San Diego. That's where our family lived most of the time. And my dad had a grocery store in San Diego. And we lived across the street from the grocery store.

TI: So you're my first interview where someone grew up in San Diego. So you're going to have to describe a little bit more to me about San Diego in terms of, was this like in the Japanese part of town?

YM: Yeah. We were living -- in San Diego, we didn't live in a Japanese community like in San Francisco or Los Angeles, we were kind of spread out. But we were sort of, I would say, confined to the part of town where we were allowed to live, you know. I don't know whether you realize, but in those days, the Japanese were not welcome to live in better white neighborhoods. So you might say we lived across the track, but it wasn't that bad, you know. But we lived in San Diego, not too far from the city center, and we lived, the house was just across the street from the grocery store, so it was very convenient.

TI: And so when you say, or tell me, describe the neighbors. Like when you say they weren't all Japanese, it sounds like more of a mixed neighborhood?

YM: Well, it was mainly a Spanish neighborhood, I think. I was only four or five years old. We moved out of there when I was about five years old. But it was essentially a Spanish-speaking neighborhood, I think, because my dad learned to speak some Spanish to deal with his customers. And my mother learned to do some cooking, prepare Spanish foods, which I loved very much. And anyway, it was a great store. I remember we used to go there as kids, we'd go and get candy out of the store and all that sort of stuff. And anyway, I went to, while I was there, I attended the kindergarten. And about that time, though, the lease that my dad had on that store was terminated. I don't know why, but the store was owned by some guy. I don't know what happened, but I remember he used to come over to the house quite frequently and my mother would give him coffee. He had this funny habit of taking coffee and pouring it into the saucer, I guess to let it cool or something. But as a little kid, I thought, "Hey, that's kind of interesting." [Laughs]

TI: And then he would kind of lift it up and --

YM: Then he would drink from the saucer. He was a Jewish guy. Maybe that's the way they drink coffee, I don't know. Maybe just to cool the coffee. Anyway, my dad lost the lease on the store, so then we had to move to another location where he set up another business, grocery store. And so then I relocated to another grade school.

TI: And describe this second neighborhood. What was this other neighborhood like? Was it similar?

YM: Well, it was not too far from our first home, but it was, I think, more of a mixed neighborhood. I think there were more white people there. It was, we rented a home there, too. Anyway, I remember going, there was a neighborhood house nearby that I used to go to to play with the kids and so forth. And I went to an elementary school there called Logan, Logan Elementary. And I was in first or second grade there, I believe, I don't remember. Anyway, we were there for I don't know how many years. I think my sister, younger sister Michi might have been born there, I'm not sure. But anyway, then after that, my dad, his business didn't go too well, so he opened a fruit and vegetable business, store, in another location.

<End Segment 2> - Copyright ©2009 Densho and the Twin Cities JACL. All Rights Reserved.