<Begin Segment 22>

RP: So you lived for ten years in Chicago?

KY: Huh?

RP: And then you came back here.

KY: Well, she lived there but once she got finished with her education. Well, she was going to, she was going to, she wanted a degree on top of her nursing degree. She went to... what's the name of that college in New York? So she got her bachelor's degree and then she had a nursing degree so. Anyway, so we got, after she got finished with her education, she came to Chicago and stayed with her friend who had, whose mother and father lived downstairs and they lived upstairs. But they lived upstairs with an extra bedroom. So they asked, told my wife, "You could stay here for a while." So that's what she did. And I used to, I used to go there almost every night to see my wife. And then we got married and then we moved to Oak Park where she was working. We found a nice little apartment there and we lived there for four years after we got married. On the fourth year, she got pregnant and so my wife says, "Let's get out of Chicago and go to California again. I can't stand this snow and the cold." So I says, "Okay." I had a job, a good job. Pay was good and everything. But I says, "I don't care. Let's go to California. I don't have a job but I'll find something to do." So we jumped in the car and came to California again.

RP: Where did you first settle when you came back here?

KY: What kind of what?

RP: Where did you settle when you came back?

KY: Oh, it was Crenshaw area. You know where Crenshaw area is? Yeah, we found, my buddy that I used to work with in Chicago lived a block away from us. So he helped, he helped me find apartment, a house in Crenshaw area. And we moved there right away.

RP: And then how, how did you end up coming here to Santa Monica again?

KY: Well, by that time we had already lived there in Crenshaw area for ten years. My oldest son was preparing to go to junior high school. But if he did, he'd have to go to this junior high school that had a lot of blacks living in and going to school. And it was known that the black kids really kids mistreated the Japanese kids coming to the junior high school. They are a very aggressive race. And so I says, "I don't want him to go to that school. Let's move to Santa Monica where I was born, where I was living before the war." And so we found this place here. While, while I was working my wife and this couple that lived on the same street that I lived, we lived in, knew a real estate broker living in Santa Monica, and with his help they were able to find this house here. This house was pretty well, pretty badly taken care of. They didn't take care of it very well. But it had possibilities so my wife says, "Let's buy this house." Anyway, it was in bad condition. The rugs were terrible. Everything was terrible. But being in the trade that I was in, I could fix it. So said, "Okay, let's buy it." So we moved here.

RP: So how did it feel to be back in Santa Monica where you grew up?

KY: Huh?

RP: How did it feel to be back in Santa Monica where you grew up?

KY: Oh, it was great. It was great. I knew it would be great because I had lived here all, most of my life. The education in Santa Monica is great, it was very good. Their reputation for schools was much better than the reputation in Crenshaw area. And he was able to go to junior high school at... it was real nice. It's real close. You could walk to the junior high school. And my daughter, who was next in line, her grade, elementary school was just a few blocks from here this way. So it was close to schools. The only thing that was far was the high school. But my, now my wife would take my kids to high school, drove 'em there every day.

<End Segment 22> - Copyright &copy; 2011 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.