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RP: Speaking of Japanese Town, Little Tokyo, what are some of your memories of that area during the time you were growing up?

MY: We're walking distance, my grandmother's house was just two blocks from First Street. She lived near First and Alameda, so I'd go down Alameda, turn right, and go down one block, and there's the big Japanese Buddhist temple, go down another block and then go into a parking lot, that's where we would practice the ondo, the Japanese Nisei Week dancing, street dancing that we did in the street. We would practice there June and July. We would go to the Japanese movies there, and you think about the old, not the old but the horrible movies that are being shown to our youngsters now, we used to see the most gory samurai movies. [Laughs] And it was just a matter of fact. I mean, when they showed up in downtown we'd go see them, and we thought nothing of them. And now I think, "Oh heavens, I would never let my children or grandchild watch something like that." But those were the Japanese movies, but I saw many Japanese movies in Little Tokyo. Even though I didn't understand too much, the pictures were the most important things to us. We saw the beautiful kimonos, even though it was in black and white. I liked to see those movies. And what else did we do down there? There were just lots of homey places. I mean, the Asahi shoe store, I used to go to that store all the time. It was just like a holiday ritual, before school we'd go to get our school shoes, holiday shoes or whatever. But our life was pretty much centered in Little Tokyo for food and for the church, the Buddhist temple, and it was just a gathering spot and it was very homey. From my grandmother's house we didn't even ride a bike, we just walked down Alameda and First Street. We'd be given a dime or a nickel, and that would last us the whole afternoon, and we'd be back by four or five o'clock in the afternoon. So Little Tokyo was like a little miniature playground for us on weekends.

RP: You said that you would practice ondo dancing in the parking lot.

MY: Yes.

RP: Now, when did you first begin dancing?

MY: I think when I was about like five, six years old. I did it for about three or four years, 'cause we left when I was nine. And I still have the getas that I used. I have the obi that they wrapped around me, and I have the kimono that my grandmother would dress me in, for the ondo. I have all of those things.

RP: What was it like to be in the, were you in the actual parade, Nisei Week?

MY: Yes, yes. The P Car line used to go on the tracks in the middle of the street, but they knew when we were having the ondo out in the street, 'cause we would go down First Street, Central, and come down Second Street, and then I think we came down, then we went down San Pedro. What's the, like a big rectangle? The streetcar conductors knew when we were dancing. They would just stop and let us pass by, and then once we had come by they would go down. [Laughs] It was just nothing formal, but they just knew that we were dancing out in the street so not to knock us down. And the passengers on the streetcars were just very, very happy to see all of us dancing and see us up so close. And we did it, usually it was like a Friday, Saturday and a Sunday. Maybe we did three nights.

RP: Now, how did that feel for you as a...

MY: It was fun for me. I got to meet new friends, and I loved dressing up -- as my niece can tell you, I love to dress up -- and I loved getting makeup with the okeshoda. Got to wear lipstick, and so it was a time to appear a little bit more grown up.

RP: You lived in the Boyle Heights area, nearby.

MY: Yes, on Floral Drive. I went to Hammel Street School, elementary school.

RP: Many folks who grew up there always have very fond memories of that being a very sort of diverse community.

MY: Yes.

RP: A number of different ethnic groups. What are some of your memories about that community?

MY: Well, I went to school with many children that spoke Spanish, but it -- and Caucasian children -- and we just blended in. I used to eat as many tamales as I did eat sushi and rice. [Laughs] And it was, Hammel Street School was a very small elementary school and we just got to know each other, and it was a very friendly, what I would consider bedroom community. It wasn't, there weren't too many commercial stores close to us. There was a First Street Store; I think that was about five or six blocks from us. And then about three blocks from Floral Drive was a turnaround. The P Car would end up there and they would turn around and go back downtown, and we would have to walk to that. That was about three weeks, I mean three blocks. And that was our mode of transportation. We had a car, but my father used it go to work and back, and whenever we wanted to go to movies or to go see my grandmother, we'd get on the P Car and just walk a block to my grandmother's house. And getting on the P Car -- remember those little tokens? -- it was just a way of life.

<End Segment 3> - Copyright &copy; 2011 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.