<Begin Segment 8>

MA: So, oh, just backing up a little bit, when you arrived to Cleveland, what did you think of the city? What were your first impressions of...

IO: I don't remember that. All I know is that, gee, it's a strange place to be. But I didn't have any bad incidents, that's the one thing I remember, no incidents.

MA: And you were staying with a group of Nisei men, right?

IO: Yeah, at this hotel, then we moved over to the frat house, which was further out in a residential area, more, which was kind of a nice place to stay.

MA: When you moved to the frat house, was there any opposition to you guys moving there?

IO: No, there was nothing, nothing that I recall. There was no, just ordinary moving into a place, that's all it was.

MA: And then you said you started working at the foundry.

IO: Yeah. And, of course, the foundry was primarily African Americans, so they didn't pay attention to me. In fact, I had a hard time understanding them with their southern accent, 'cause a lot of 'em were from the deep South. And I couldn't pick up a lot of their accent. But they were all nice, they were. So that went on 'til September when the Labor Day weekend, I decided I was going to come to the Twin Cities and visit my sisters. Well, I stayed and didn't go back.

MA: So going back to Cleveland, what type of work did you do at the foundry?

IO: I was repairing patterns for the foundry. And when they get all nicked up, we try to fix 'em up and then they'll use it again instead of trying to make a new pattern, we just fixed the old ones. But I never did get a chance to learn how to make patterns, 'cause the pattern-maker was never around.

MA: And you said the pattern-maker was Caucasian?

IO: Yes, they were all Caucasians in that department, no African Americans.

MA: So it seemed like it was sort of divided.

IO: Yeah, and then the maintenance department was the same thing. Maintenance department was all Caucasians, and I think they had three Niseis but no African Americans there.

MA: What were the African American workers doing? What department --

IO: Primarily the heavy work in the foundry where they shoveled sand. In those days, they didn't have it mechanized, they had just the shovel and sand, and they were shoveling sand all day long and packing 'em down. And they had about ten percent white people, but that was it. They must have had, oh, 125 or 150 employees in the company there.

MA: Was there a union? Were you all unionized?

IO: There were... I'm not sure, I can't remember that. I wasn't there long enough to really find out too much about it.

MA: Was there, like, what did you do in Cleveland for fun, like after work? Was there a Nisei hangout?

IO: Just went to the movies, went out and ate, went to, Cleveland had a Major League ball club, so we went to see the Major League baseball games. First time in a Major League game there. So that's what we did. Somehow, I remember some of the guys knew some of the Nisei women in town, and they used to get dates with them. And then one of the guys got me a blind date one day. [Laughs] But I don't remember too much about that. That was about that, one time deal.

MA: And your parents were still in Topaz at the time?

IO: Yeah, they were in the camp. So ended up, when I came to Twin Cities, and then shortly, my brother John, he was about sixteen years old, I guess. And he came to Twin Cities, but he didn't know that I was here. I took the bus, I was at the train depot, I guess, 'cause my sister said he was coming. So I met him, and he was shocked to see me there instead of his sisters. But he was happy. But he said he didn't have any problem on the train coming into town, no incidents. He was a sixteen-year-old Nisei kid. Then, yeah, he stayed with me, I guess. Then he went to West High School, which is no longer there now, but that's where he went. And then, shortly, my other brother Ron, he came. He's two years younger than John. And he also came to town and somehow, I can't remember what he did as far as housing, but he ended up, he ended up going to West High School, too. So they both graduated from West High School. Then, of course, Uncle Sam said they wanted to close the camps, came along. That was in 1946 or so, in that area.

MA: '45, '46?

IO: '45, yeah. And there's a place, they had a place called a hostel, house, for people that came from camp, and that's where they stayed. My youngest sister and my youngest brother and my parents, so there were four of 'em. And I forgot how long they stayed there. In the meantime, I was trying to find a place.

<End Segment 8> - Copyright ©2009 Densho and the Twin Cities JACL. All Rights Reserved.