Densho Digital Archive - Art Imagire Interview (denshovh-iart-01-0014)

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RP: Now how long did you live in this... was it an apartment did you say?

AI: Oh, no, it was a house. The one that was on Spokane Street?

RP: Right. Did you eventually...

AI: Yeah, we lived there a couple years then we found another place. Where was that? That was a little, a little closer to town. It was called Aitken Street. Oh, it's by the Washoe County Hospital, right there. And we lived there for... oh gosh, when did we buy that house? In the '50s I guess. So we lived there for maybe three or four years and then, and then finally bought a house out on Capitol Hill and that place is still standing. That was out on the southeast part of town, close to Wells Avenue. Wells Avenue is kind of a main north/south drag, just before it connects to South Virginia Street. At the time, when we bought the house it was, it was literally country. Because down the street a little bit there was a horse pasture. Then when my mother moved, they finally, she sold it and used the proceeds from the sale of the house to provide her income for the rest of her life. So...

RP: There were no issues related to discrimination and, and trying to get, buying a house?

AI: No. I don't think, I don't think we had any problems.

RP: You talked about during the war, businesses in Reno would have signs up. They refused service. Were there any that were specifically targeting Japanese?

AI: Oh, no, not that I recall. I don't... fact is, I worked for JC Penney's for a while as a stock clerk. And my boss was a black gentleman. Oh, I've forgotten his name now. But anyway, he would tell me, he says, "You know, Art," he says, "You're a lot better off than I am." He says, "You could go places that I can't." And I said, "Really?" I didn't, I didn't realize that at the time there was still discrimination against blacks. And that was, what, early '50s and that sort of thing. Well, fact is, after I graduated from college and came back, worked for the naval shipyards for a while and then, and then went in the service and then came out and went to work for a company called Aerojet in Sacramento, it's an aerospace company. And they used to send me back to Tennessee where there was a large Air Force testing facility where we'd test our product. And I remember going there in the early '60s and encountering... had to go to the restroom, there's black, or "colored," and "white." And so I had to make a decision which one to go into. Well, when I peeked into the "colored" one it was dingy, always dingy and dirty andso I'd always opt for the... but apparently the southerners recognized Asian people as, more as foreigners than people of different color. So they were more, more readily accepted.

I recall I had an extended stay at, in Tennessee, so I had to get a haircut. And I was getting a haircut and this young kid kept staring at me and staring at me. And we both finished our haircuts together and were walking out the door. And the kid's running up to the car where his mother was gonna pick him up. And he said, "Mommy, mommy, look at that strange man." So, I realized that probably there weren't too many Japanese or Asians there at that time, but since that time, since I've gone there, because of that facility there, they'd hired a lot of Asians, Indian, that sort. So there was a large non-white contingent of people there. And those... probably wasn't until about '65 or so that they fully integrated.

And where I was was near the town of Pulaski, Tennessee. And, you know, Pulaski is the home of the KKK. And so when I would, we would be testing late at night and we'd be sitting around BS'ing while we're waiting for test preparations to finish. And we would talk about what we were gonna do for the weekend. And we were always warned by the guys that whatever you do, stay on the main roads. Don't go off the main roads because people will shoot first and ask questions later. Because a lot of moonshining going on there still. Tennessee was a dry state. Well, it was dry by the county. And, there were, yeah, there were just a lot of moonshining going on. My friend was always... the fellow worker was always good at finding where, where the hooch was to go buy. So, that was, that was quite an experience. And we actually drove through Pulaski and it was just a regular community, but gave you a creepy feeling. [Laughs]

RP: KKK headquarters.

AI: Home of the KKK. They, they don't pull any punches there but...

RP: Just to backtrack a little bit on the story that you shared about this black manager when you had a stock job. He made this comment that you mentioned about that you're lucky, 'cause I can't go to certain places? So, so is that... can we take that as a reference to Reno? That there were certain places he couldn't go in Reno?

AI: Oh, yeah. They couldn't go into the clubs. Fact is, in the late... before I left, which was '55, they'd built a special club for the black people, and it was on Lake Street. I recall that it's not there anymore but it...

RP: Even gambling was segregated?

AI: Yeah, so...

RP: But you didn't, you or your parents didn't... well, your mom didn't want to go into casinos anyway, but if you, if you were of age and wanted to...

AI: Yeah she, the only time she would go is to take friends. 'Cause the friends there would always want to go to the clubs. But, or they came to visit or whatever.

RP: There were no other facilities that, that prohibited you from coming into them? Like swimming pools or theaters?

AI: You know, I don't think I encountered that. Because there was a place called Moana Hot Springs which, just south of town, and I recall going there and swimming. I was not excluded. So I didn't, I didn't encounter anywhere, that I recall, that I was barred from entering. Yeah, I don't... yeah, I don't recall any at all.