<Begin Segment 5>

KL: But you grew up in the hotel that was your family's home?

JM: Yes, yes.

KL: What was the hotel's name?

JM: It's called the Kamm Apartments, it was in an old, old building that might have been a bank at one time because on the main floor, it had either post office or cubbyholes like they were mailboxes for a lot of people. And it had this huge staircase up to the second floor, and then the hotel was on the second, third and fourth floors. And we could go up to the roof, too. And I think all the rooms had marble fireplaces, so it must have been big business. I mean, it was a small hotel, it was right on the corner of First and Pine. And that hotel is now a floor-level parking lot. And I remember when the building next door burned down, I remember feeling the walls of our apartment, and they were hot. So that was very scary and very... must have been a big fire. But we lived right by the fire station, and my sister and I were always running to Mom because the fire engines used to scare us when we were kids. That's how Alice got a black eye. We were running into the kitchen, and the kitchen had doors that opened out with the doorknobs kind of like glass doorknobs. And Alice ran and didn't get the door open, and I came up behind her and gave her a black eye. So anyway, we had a lot of fun growing up.

KL: Did you become friendly with any of the people who stayed at the hotel, were they long term?

JM: Yes, oh, yeah, there were some... there was a Connie Conwell when we came back. And I think some of these people stored our things for us, because my sister's complete set of Japanese dolls for (Girl's Day) were intact when we came back. So I think my father boxed everything up and left it with them. Although I heard that there was, what do you call, storage, one of the buildings was used as storage for people that had to go to camp.

KL: He was already part of the Buddhist Temple, you said, right?

JM: Uh-huh, very active there.

KL: Sometimes temples or churches arranged for that.

JM: Pardon?

KL: Sometimes temples or churches would arrange to...

JM: Yeah. Our temple was left pretty intact. I don't know who looked after it, but because it was called church, well, about 1994, we went to Oregon Buddhist Temple, so that's what it's called now.

KL: But it was Oregon Buddhist Church in the '20s?

JM: Church before then. And because it was church, I think people respected it, and didn't do anything vandalism to it. It's on Tenth Avenue and Everett, and it is still there as a historical building. I think it's been a photography shop on the main floor, and also I thought attorneys were going to move into it, but I don't know who wants it now. But it is a historical... and it might be for lease or rent again. But they built a huge, highrise loft, and they had to build it in a sort of an L-shape I think, because that corner is a church and the building next door. One time, might have been some prostitutes living in the upstairs over the hotel. And the reason is because one of our minister's wives from Japan said, "Somebody came looking for girls." [Laughs] So that was the story we have of the old temple.

KL: Connie Conway was somebody you remembered well from your...

JM: Yes, he lived in our hotel, and there was a Mr. Meek, Marcus Meek, I think, and they were just really good to us.

KL: Were they just single people who needed a place to live?

JM: Yes, uh-huh, mostly single men living, I don't remember any families living there.

KL: It'd be nice to have two fun kids around, I think, if you were just a single person.

JM: Oh, they used to, they were so good to us.

<End Segment 5> - Copyright © 2012 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.