<Begin Segment 2>

KO: So he came back, fourteen, then he went to school.

KL: Did he come back by himself or was he with other...

KO: Yeah, came back himself.

KL: Did he ever say how he made those arrangements? That's pretty mature for a fourteen year old. Did he ever tell you about that trip?

KO: No, no, he came home, and he was going to school, then about twenty, went back to Japan, married to my mother.

KL: We were looking at pictures before we started recording, and it looks like friends were really important to your dad when he was a young man. Can you tell us anything about any of his friends or how he met them or what they did together for fun?

KO: Oh, yeah, those days, he had to go downtown, Little Tokyo, they have a whole pool hall over there downtown. And he used to play in the young days. I guess a lot of gambling, too, over there. He works grocery, young age, going school, then went back to war start.

KL: Did he return to San Jose when he came back to California?

KO: No.

KL: He came straight to Los Angeles?

KO: Yes.

KL: Do you know where he lived?

KO: Boyle Heights.

KL: When he was fourteen? Do you know where he went to school?

KO: I don't know the high school, I don't remember. But he went to school.

KL: Did he graduate?

KO: Yeah.

KL: Did he live with other people in Boyle Heights?

KO: Yeah, all of them, his brother.

KL: Oh, so did his brother come back to the U.S. with him?

KO: Yes.

KL: Yoshio.

KO: Yeah. But after he went Japan, he never came back, brother never came home.

KL: Okay. And you said both parents and both sisters died in Japan?

KO: Yeah, they died. I think that's why my dad's kind of shocked, too, lost baby sister, went Japan, the whole family passed away.

KL: We were interviewing Robert Kame this morning, and he talked a lot about Little Tokyo and classes he took there and picnics. It was really interesting, did your dad ever tell you any details of what Little Tokyo was like?

KO: [Laughs] You know, a lot of time he'd go gambling, [inaudible], during the teenage days.

KL: He liked that, huh?

KO: He liked that. Buy car and bunch of friends.

<End Segment 2> - Copyright © 2015 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.