<Begin Segment 7>
RP: Were there any experiences you had here in Santa Monica where you felt discriminated against because of your Japanese ancestry?
FN: Oh, when we first moved down, I think it was kind of hard to get a job. When I, kind of, a little discrimination but once you got to know the people, they know how you were, so they were... friendship that and our, when I got the job at Roberts I made a lot of friends with Caucasian people. And when the war came and they fired us, those people, they just got so mad. See, the war started on Sunday, December 7th, and on Monday, noon, the company had the check for us and fired us all. And in the Roberts was mostly Japanese people that worked in the produce place. So all the Caucasian people, they boycotted, so the Roberts, they just folded up. Then Ralph's wasn't such a big thing then but after Roberts folded up, Ralph's got big. But Roberts was, failed due to the fact they fired all the Japanese people working there. And all our friends, they boycotted the place and that really hurt. So they went, they folded up.
RP: So you had a, you had considerable support --
FN: Oh yes.
RP: -- from the Caucasian community.
FN: It's not everybody that hated us. We had friends. And once you associate with them, they knew how we were, so they liked us. I mean, we were, they were real true friends. And well, we were nice to them and they were nice to us so we really got along good. And that shows you they supported us. That's why the Roberts folded up, due to the fact that they fired all of us.
RP: How many, how many Japanese Americans worked at, at your store who were fired?
FN: Oh, let's see, about four of us. But most of Robert's produce side were all Japanese Americans. And I don't know why we were in the produce. Well, we were... even if you had a college education, you didn't have a chance at that time. It was more discriminated, so I'm the only guy that's out of high school and I had three guys that was graduated college working under me. But they never knew I went to college. So I was a boss and they just worked. Yeah, it's, even the people at that time even had a college education, they just weren't able to get jobs. That's, it was kind of discrimination there. So, it's, that's the time that experience counts and I had the experience helping my folks and I got the job and got manager of the Robert's so the other people's working under me, and they're all college graduates.
RP: So how did you feel when you, when you were fired and you got that last check?
FN: Oh, I don't know. It's... it was hard so I went to get a job at the flower market. And it wasn't very long before I worked myself up pretty good in the flower business. And, as I say, I was with the company for thirty-four years.
<End Segment 7> - Copyright © 2011 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.