<Begin Segment 4>

RP: What can you tell us, Kats, about the Japantown area of Seattle?

KO: I didn't go down there as much, but we used to go down there to eat, special occasions, and I remember it being, a certain area was Japanese, then in-between area was between the Chinese and Japanese, and then a little different area was Chinese. But a lot of the Japanese owned the, or leased, you could say, these hotels down there, the, you know, the overnight-type hotels. The seamen would come in and stay.

RP: Right, Victor was just talking about that most of the, most of the hotels in that area were owned by Issei.

KO: That's right.

RP: For mostly single guys.

KO: Transient trade.

RP: Transients coming in and out of the community.

KO: 'Cause I used to pass down that way. When I used to walk down with some friends, we would fish a lot off the docks, which would be dangerous now. We used to crawl under the docks and fish for perch, yellow perch and rock cod, if we could catch it.

RP: Shiners?

KO: Yeah, shiners. [Laughs]

RP: Yeah, I'm familiar with that term after yesterday. Yeah, both Victor and Shig talked about fishing out there.

KO: You heard about where we'd fish, and it wasn't too sanitary? [Laughs]

RP: [Laughs] Right by the outfall. That's where all the fish were, though.

KO: That's right.

RP: How young were you when you started fishing?

KO: Oh, I imagine about maybe eleven, ten, eleven. It's hard to think back, it's such a long time ago, but that was part of our recreation.

RP: What else did you do for fun and recreation?

KO: Well, I don't know if you have heard of Collins Playfield.

RP: Yes.

KO: Okay, it used to be there, and I used to meet people there, and we would play basketball on an outdoor court. We used to monopolize it, certain people, and do things. And during the winter they would open up the inside and we would play basketball. But on a Saturday if you had nothing to do, they had what they call some kind of hockey game with wooden dividers, and we occupied the time that way. Meet your friends at the field house at the park.

RP: A number of folks mentioned that they swam in Lake Washington, too.

KO: Yes.

RP: You used to do that?

KO: Yes, well, they would give us a few pennies to take the cable car or whatever it is to go there. We used to go to Alki Beach, which was... yes.

RP: I'm beginning to learn the hangouts.

KO: And we'd get a locker and leave all our clothes. Of course, things were in terms of pennies in those days 'cause a dime was a lot of money, see. But I was fortunate enough to have that privilege even to get a nickel or dime. A lot of people couldn't even afford that so I considered myself very fortunate.

<End Segment 4> - Copyright © 2007 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.