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AH: Who did you have for social contacts when you were a rookie there for the 49ers? You're in San Francisco. Did you gravitate towards the Japanese American community at all? Did you have friends from Hawaii that were living over in the mainland? Servicepeople?

WY: I had, see, I was really fortunate. See, they had a guy Frank Furuchi. He used to, they used to own the Los Altos nursery, and they were in Los Altos. And one day, one night -- we were training at Menlo Junior College -- and one night he came knocking at my door. So, this guy Frank Furuchi, he, he came and told me, "You don't know who I am, but I read in the paper where you're losing weight. You want to eat rice. I want to bring you to my home." I was so happy when he came in. So he said, "The next day off, I'm going to take you, come pick you up and take you to my home." And he used to live about fifteen, twenty minutes away from Menlo junior college.

AH: He's Italian, right?

WY: Huh?

AH: He was an Italian?

WY: Italian? No, no, no. He was Japanese.

AH: Oh, how do you spell his last name?

WY: Furuchi.

AH: Oh, Furuchi. I thought you said "Farucci." I was going to say, I was gonna say, "What's he doing giving you rice?"

WY: [Laughs] So, he and I became so close that he used to come pick me up. And then, when the 49ers moved to Kezar Stadium, moved to San Francisco, he introduced me to a man, Jiro Hosoda. And so I met Jiro and so Jiro Hosoda told me, "Why are you staying in a hotel? Why don't you come and stay with me at my house?" So I moved, I stayed with him for seven months at his house. So even today, Mr. Hosoda and the wife passed away, but they were just so close to me. And now the son and the daughter, I'm very close with them, I still get together. As a matter of fact, the son just called me last night. But I was very close with them, and then, I had a guy by the name of Bill Mizono. He was my running mate. He and I used to go out on dates, used to help me out, get me dates, and get some girls, and we used to go out on dates. But Bill was really my running mate in San Francisco.

<End Segment 22> - Copyright © 2003 Japanese American National Museum. All Rights Reserved.