Densho Digital Archive - Fred Oda Interview (denshovh-ofred

<Begin Segment 25>

TI: And so this, it was, so you did all these sort of temporary farm jobs, it was hard, and so did you continue doing that kind of work, or what did you do next?

FO: Oh, then after that, I went to barber school in San Francisco.

TI: And why did you do that? Was it because you knew that you could work with your father and that was a good business?

FO: Yeah, we had no choice, like I said. No education. [Laughs]

TI: So did your father encourage you to go to barber school, too, did he think that was a good decision?

FO: No, he didn't encourage me, yeah.

TI: Did he try to discourage you? Did he try to tell you not to?

FO: No. Later, he said, "Don't stay in this business too long." [Laughs]

TI: Well, so for you to go to San Francisco to barber school, how would you afford that?

FO: Well, I couldn't. So I was a schoolboy, working for a Jewish family as a houseboy, you know. They had a cook, so I had to serve them meals, you know, they ding, ding, ding the bell.

TI: So that was a way to get room and board?

FO: Yeah, room and board. I got free room and board, and I got few dollars for bus fare.

TI: Okay, so that was your living expenses, that's how you paid for your living expenses.

FO: Yeah. My brother was doing that at (UC) at Berkeley, he was working in the family, and that's, he's the one that found me the job. He says his relative, I mean, his employers' relative looking for somebody in San Francisco, you know. And just about that time I was running out of money.

TI: Oh, so you were able to get a similar job in San Francisco.

FO: Houseboy, yeah.

TI: And was that a, how did you enjoy doing that? Was that hard work to do?

FO: No, just something you just had to do. Because you run out of money and work out conveniently, you know, you work little bit, go to school and come back, work little bit.

TI: Now, when you were in San Francisco, did you take any time to go visit, like, Nihonmachi in...

FO: Yeah. And then get hungry, I used to go to Chinatown and have bowl of noodle, you know.

TI: And so how was that like for you? Going, when you went to Japantown in San Francisco. Because that was still pretty large, wasn't it? There were a lot more Japanese.

FO: Yeah, oh yeah. Because after that, they tore the Japanese town down, so there was no more Japanese there. So to this day, it's no good. They can't make a go of it, the Japanese. So I guess eventually, there won't be no more Japanese town. Because they're talking about tearing it down, I mean, changing it. Like L.A., same thing. But L.A., the Japanese, they bought out most of the people and they really established the Japanese town again. But the population wasn't there because, you know, housing not there, so they were all out in the suburbs. So even the Japanese town in L.A. is going to be no more.

TI: Yeah. And part of that, I think you're right, the Japanese American community is kind of dispersed geographically.

FO: Yeah, dispersed, that's right. Yeah.

TI: They're all over.