<Begin Segment 17>
RP: Dorothy, share with us what your, what your mother did in Reno. She went to work for a Japanese American woman who was...
DI: Oh, Mrs. Imagire, uh-huh.
RP: Yeah. And what did, Mrs. Imagire was a...
DI: She was a seamstress.
RP: A seamstress?
DI: Yeah. She made clothes and what do you call it... altered it for people.
RP: Alterations.
DI: So I think she had a pretty busy business there.
RP: You talked to, you mentioned that when you got to Reno, your father was no longer, no longer had this bingo parlor.
DI: No, he just stayed home.
RP: Uh-huh, he just stayed home. Can you share with us the story about his relationship with Bill Harrah and...
DI: You know, I really don't know that much about it. But I think they knew each other, because my father worked for a family that ran the bingo parlor up on Lick Pier. And I think some of them had concessions on Ocean Park Pier. But I don't know, maybe they had connections, 'cause Bill Harrah had a bingo parlor in Redondo Beach. I'm really not sure.
RP: You said that it was just your opinion that some of the business owners didn't care to see your dad in business because he was...
DI: I think, yeah, being a Japanese, I think they really would like to have. And then it was right there by the, right near Harold's Club next door, next-next door, an ideal spot. And so I think they really would... so he didn't think it was so much the federal government that wanted him put away, but I think he just thought it was a political thing. Isn't that what the feeling was? Yeah. He never really said too much. But we had heard indirectly that that's the feeling he had.
RP: And Bill Harrah wanted that location?
DI: Well, maybe not just Bill Harrah only, but maybe the other businesses, 'cause it was an ideal place right on Virginia Street, right near the archway.
KP: I'm not following. You said he was forced out of business?
DI: Pardon?
RP: Was he -- go ahead. Was he forced out of business by these folks or how did it...
DI: You know, I really don't know. But I think being that he was a Japanese American, a Japanese alien, actually, because he couldn't become a citizen. So maybe that might have been it, and it was just an ideal place to have a business there.
RP: Was he still involved in an import-export business at that time, too?
DI: That I don't know. I don't think so.
RP: Because, I'm asking that because I was curious to know if the FBI had ever visited him in Reno. Did the FBI ever come to the house and talk to him?
DI: I would think so, but I'm not sure.
RP: 'Cause that, that connection with import-export usually meant that they'd at least get visited by the FBI or possibly even get picked up for questioning.
DI: That I don't know.
RP: Not sure about that.
<End Segment 17> - Copyright © 2008 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.