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TI: So we're gonna start the second hour now, Lily, and before we move on to the war, I just wanted to ask, was there any other prewar memories that you want to talk about?

LH: Well, I remember the good times we had going to the Asahi baseball ground, and it was somewhere beyond Taylor Street north of Sixth Street and it was a open field. We had the bleachers and... everybody liked baseball in those days, and then our family friends, the Kanemoto brothers, I think there was Harry, Yoshito, and maybe Sauce that played for the Asahi team. And that was probably why we went. I don't know, but anyway, I remember my parents taking me there and it was dusty, but there was a lot of people. The other thing I remember about Japantown was they used to play sumo, sumo...

TI: But before you go there, going back to the baseball game, so what would you do during the game?

LH: I know I didn't sit on the bleachers long because I just remember running around, and I don't know what I was doing, but I was running around and, 'cause I never really concentrated on the ball game because I probably learned baseball in school. Anyway, so I was just a kid running around.

TI: And were you running around with other kids and just kind of playing?

LH: Probably other children, and I don't remember who, but I do remember the baseball field and the dust and the people playing baseball. And then I remember the sumo, and the only ones I remember playing are the Dobashi brothers. I don't know who they competed against, but simply because the Dobashis had the store in town I remember the Dobashi brothers. And they were big men. The other thing I remember was the Salvation Army used to play on the corner of Jackson and Sixth, by where Kogura's is, on the weekends, and I would stand there and listen to them and they had, this was, I found out later it was Mr. Iwanaga was the head, the captain or whatever it is. And they were all Japanese, but they had the Salvation Army uniform with the cap and the black and the, seemed like there was a little bit of red in their thing. And after I got married, their son, Daniel, was my husband's good friend and to this day I still correspond with him. We always visit -- they moved, they were transferred to Los Angeles and Mr. Iwanaga died there and then his wife lived to a hundred and four, but we've, they've been lifelong friends with us after I got married.

SF: What did the Salvation Army in Japantown do?

LH: I think they helped the poor people, and they were, it's where the Yu-Ai Kai building is. That was Salvation Army building; it was quite a big building. But I think they helped the poor people, and in what capacity I don't know. What else do I remember? Oh, of course Okita Hall, and the Obon Odoris they started and that was a fun time for me 'cause I was fourteen, fifteen and it was something different than, when you come out of the farm and it's, it's a fun thing, so I enjoyed that. And then the war started, so --

TI: Going back to the Obon dances, how would they compare to the Obon dances today?

LH: Well, in those days it used to be on Jackson between Sixth and Fifth, and there was a lot, we were all Japanese. Now it's mixed. And it was jam packed, because on both sides of the sidewalk, like I said, it was a hub, so everybody came out and it was really a festive time, and the dances with everybody in their kimonos, I thought it was really pretty. It was really beautiful. And then the Reverend Iwanaga from, was he in Watsonville? Somewhere out there. Anyway, he was the leader and he was a very good looking, charismatic man, and he was our teacher and I thought he was very good. There were some of the older ladies that helped, the leaders, like Grace Akahoshi was one of theem and they were good friends with the Hiokis because of the laundry, but anyway, yeah, those were good days. 'Cause I was just a teenager and I really didn't notice boys yet, but the dancing was fun because it was different.

SF: Did they have the food, the teriyaki and the games and that sort of thing in those days?

LH: You know, we had picnics and I don't, I don't remember. The word teriyaki doesn't stick in my memory when I was a child. That seemed to be after the war and when restaurants started serving... and we didn't go to, well, we did go to restaurants, but it was always Chinese restaurants. They didn't have any Japanese restaurants. It was the Ken Ying Low on Sixth Street and the, they used to call it Kiraku Tei, the one near Dobashi's, and I remember the cook there was a big Chinese man. He had a son. I thought his name was Roy. I don't know, maybe Jim (Yamaichi) would remember, but anyway, the son was older than I am, but I remember the, the oven and the chashu hanging and they, they're slow cooked, and don't ask me why I knew. I probably snuck into the kitchen. I don't know, but I do remember that chashu hanging in the oven. And that restaurant went way in the back, and we used to have our Kumamoto meetings, New Year party there a long, for a long time, and then they closed down after the war. It became part of Molly Fujino, Molly... well anyway, the Japanese people bought 'em out and I don't know what happened to that Chinese family after the war. And then on Sixth Street, Bill Dare ran Ken Ying Low, and we knew him because we had the laundry and he was in and out 'cause he had, in the back he used to raise moyashi and, I don't know why, but I've been back there. He had all these baskets with the, you put the beans and the moyashi grows, so I learned how that was done, and then I don't know what happened to him either because we quit the laundry and we all went our own way. So then I kinda lost contact with Japantown after that. This is after the war.

SF: Did Molly's have the gambling in the back?

LH: I don't know. [Laughs] They may, I don't know.

SF: I thought I heard that, so I was gonna...

LH: But I do know where they had gambling and I, I guess I learned this not too long ago. My husband wouldn't tell me, but Jim Sakamoto by Kogura's, I think he, they said that they had gambling back there. Am I right? I don't know. Ask Jim. He's the one that was my nemesis in Alviso, 'cause we were neighbors. We never got along. We never got along. And I always tell my kids, one time he shot at me. We were in the corral and I was sitting on the fence, and there he is over there and he had that BB gun. He took a shot at me and hit me in my back. [Laughs] But we always laugh about it now. We're good friends 'cause we're family friends, but my kids never let him forget that. Isn't that funny? Gee, and we're both old now and we just...

<End Segment 11> - Copyright © 2010 Densho. All Rights Reserved.