<Begin Segment 14>

RP: And then, then your family moves from Glendale back to Los Angeles.

MI: Uh-huh.

RP: And your father starts back into the restaurant business.

MI: Yeah. It's always the restaurant business.

RP: Tell us, tell us where, where did he --

MI: Where he...

RP: -- get started with that in Los Angeles?

MI: You mean how he started into the restaurant?

RP: Well, he had the restaurant background.

MI: Yeah, he the... well, he started, it was in downtown Los Angeles, he opened up a restaurant. And that prospered.

RP: Also...

MI: That was after the war.

RP: Oh, it was after the war.

MI: Or did he do it before the war? Okay, I'm trying to think. Oh, yeah, yeah. Now I know. It was in downtown Los Angeles again. It was right near Little Tokyo, and right near the old cathedral.

RP: Saint...

MI: Do you know the, do know Los Angeles area, Second and Main?

RP: Saint Vibianas?

MI: Saint Vibianas. Yeah, it was only a half a block from Saint Vibianas, he had a restaurant there.

RP: Oh, he had a restaurant there before the war.

MI: He did that, that was very good. It was a good restaurant and he had just remodeled the inside after so many years and put in a bar. Because that was one of the things that people were asking, besides the regular food counter. And then there again, evacuation. And the guy that bought it, bought it for pennies. Bought the darn business for just about nothing, including equipment, food... 'cause I was there taking the inventory. And the reason I remember that man so vividly was it was just, oh, hundreds of items that you had to add up, you know, and calculate how much it was. And then he, he pointed out that I had made a mistake and I had overcharged him a hundred dollars. And I thought, my god, he's getting this business for nothing or, and he's quibbling about a hundred dollars. But you know what, that was the way some of those people were. And I remember I thought, "Oh my god. My dad lost all of that." That was hard.

RP: So you were involved with the inventory of the restaurant. Did you also work there in any other capacity?

MI: No, not really.

RP: You were busy with school.

MI: I was busy with school. Yeah. But, I was going to say something. I was just thinking about something. Well, it will come back to me. But that's the way it was with a lot of people I think, they lost money. And luckily he had some money put away. And you know some, sometimes people would say, "Well, did the government supply your necessities in camp?" And I says, "No, we had to buy our own." "Well, how did you manage that?" Well, everybody had... if they had any money. And not all, a lot of people did. In my dad's case, he had a checking account, so he had some money in there. And from that he could withdraw to pay for necessities like soap and whatever the commissary had. Clothing, the government didn't give us clothing and we had to buy our own.

RP: Do you have any idea at all what he sold the restaurant for, in terms of...

MI: No. You know, I don't think my dad would tell me. See, it's like that story about the Sacramento Bee. If it's a painful story, my dad was a very quiet man, he wouldn't say.

RP: He didn't share any emotion about that --

MI: He would not show it.

RP: -- losing his business.

MI: It, it all stays inside.

RP: Uh-huh, Issei, stoic Issei.

MI: Typical Issei. You know the word gaman.

RP: Suck it up.

MI: My sister and I just the other day we were talking about different things. And said, "You know, that word gaman is a good thing, but you know what? It could sure bring a lot of H, too." [Laughs]

RP: Yeah. Enough gaman.

MI: There's a limit to that G-word, you know.

RP: Yeah, that's enough gaman already.

MI: Come on now. Listen.

<End Segment 14> - Copyright © 2008 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.