Densho Digital Archive - Mary Suzuki Ichino Interview II (denshovh-imary-02-0019)

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RP: Did you have any contact at all with returning internees? You mentioned that there was an office for them.

MI: Yeah. You know, I have to tell you, the minute I got off the bus, the Greyhound bus, Mrs. Ogura picked me up, and it was my first view of Little Tokyo.

RP: What do you remember about it?

MI: It was so devastating. It was just so run down, so dirty. And I said, "This is Little Tokyo?" And she says, "No, it's called Brownsville." I said, "Well, it sure looks it," you know. There were laundry hanging out, people sitting out in the window. It was basically a black neighborhood now. It was no longer Asian. And so we went through that and I thought, okay, I learned something there. But the temple was still there, the Hongwanji temple. And then I went looking for areas that I knew and how things have changed. And the other thing was -- you were asking me whether I got into contact with some of the returnees. One of the big question was where would they live? Because at that time, restrictive covenant was still in effect, and there was still that anti-Japanese feeling. They didn't, they didn't make that distinction yet. And so where do you put them up? So the Hongwanji temple and several other temples and churches became hostels. And I remember my dad, I guess he got worried, he came and he stayed at the Hongwanji temple. And they all, they were down in the basement and in the room, every room was full of these bunk beds, two or three up high. It was hot. And my dad got a job as a cook or a dishwasher, something just to get started. And I would go there every other day, take his, get his laundry and bring back fresh ones for him. And then we would go to eat like at the Chinese restaurant we used to go to, like the San Kwo Low and the Far East. They were still there. So it was nostalgic that something that was, we missed was still there. Yeah. So we, I used to look forward to that and that was my dad and my time.

RP: Yeah just, wow. And the rest of the family is still at Manzanar.

MI: They were still at Manzanar. And then my dad, I don't know how he found it, but it's what they call a White Russian district of East L.A. It's sort of in a slum area.

RP: Boyle Heights area?

MI: Yeah, Boyle Heights. He saw this vacancy sign go up and he got off the streetcar -- this is what, the story that I heard -- and he took it. And it was above a store. And then he called the family from Manzanar. So we had a place to stay. And then we had to start buying furniture and stuff like that.

RP: How long did you work in this WRA position, Mary?

MI: Probably about two years or three years at the most. Yeah, and then I got an offer to work at the welfare council, which I thought was a little bit easier for me. So I took that job, yeah. But I went through a lot, a lot of experiences with the reports office when I was there. 'Cause that's where we had all put this thing together with Ronald Reagan, before he became president.