<Begin Segment 21>

JS: Do you remember anything about the hostels that were established for Japanese who were moving back to California who didn't -- I mean, back to San Jose who didn't have a place to stay?

MN: Yes. Yes, there was a hostel there. It was two stories...

JS: Where?

MN: Right where the Buddhist Church gymnasium is now. It was a two-story wooden building, and they had, the top floor was for gentlemen, I think, all the men lives upstairs, and then the, and then the bottom floor, there were families living there. My girlfriend lived there with her mother and her two brothers. But then I don't -- no, I don't think her two brothers lived there.

JS: Did you ever go inside?

MN: Yes.

JS: What was it, what did it look like inside?

MN: It was, it was dark and dingy. It was just, it was just a room. Community bath and community kitchen.

JS: How about beds and things?

MN: No, I didn't, I didn't, I don't remember the beds.

JS: Okay. It wasn't like it was a row of beds...

MN: No, no, no. No, each one had their own house, own room.

JS: Oh, is that right?

MN: Uh-huh. Like Midori and her mother, they had their own room, and the others, the Kotsubos, I think, they lived there, too. But the upstairs where I think they had rows and rows of bed. Right? Uh-huh, for the, for the men, for the men.

JS: Okay. Were there any events that took place in Japantown during that time that stand out in your mind that you could talk about, tell us about?

MN: Yes, uh-huh. Well, do you know the Obon, the Buddhist Church has their Obon festival? It used to be on Jackson Street, right on Jackson Street, right in front of our, our restaurant. So it was fun; they used to have the stage right in front there. Yeah, they had that for a long time, at least ten years.

JS: Okay, ten years meaning from 1940...

MN: 19-, right after the -- well, I don't think, they didn't, '47, '48? '48, uh-huh. Yeah.

JS: Okay. Anything else that you can recall during that time that happened in Japantown?

MN: No.

<End Segment 21> - Copyright © 2004 Densho and The Japanese American Museum of San Jose. All Rights Reserved.