<Begin Segment 9>

RP: From Costa Mesa, where did the family move next? What happened to the farming operation in Costa Mesa?

TM: Well, I guess my father got tired of it. [Laughs] We moved to Redondo Beach. He wanted to try a retail grocery, so that's what we went into.

RP: So he bought a, he bought an existing store --

TM: Yeah,

RP: -- or did he start one himself?

TM: Yeah.

RP: Do you remember the name of the market?

TM: Yeah, T & H, T & H Market, yeah.

RP: T & H.

TM: Yeah. T & H, yeah.

RP: How did he come up with that?

TM: Well the former owner had that name T & H. So we kept that name.

RP: What type of store was it?

TM: Well, it was grocery, meat, produce... so my father would go to the market, on Ninth Street, Los Angeles. You know about?

RP: The produce market?

TM: Yeah. And then after I started to drive, I used to go to the market. And then go to school after that.

RP: Oh, so you picked up the produce for him?

TM: Yeah, right.

RP: And you brought it back to the store and went to school. So that meant you had to get up pretty early in the morning.

TM: Yeah.

RP: Like what time would you get up?

TM: Three, four o'clock in the morning. Yeah.

RP: And what did you have to drive? Did you have a truck or...

TM: Yeah, kind of a pickup, pickup truck.

RP: Was the market, was the market set up for catering to Japanese people or was it strictly kind of a general market?

TM: General market, yeah. Wholesale market. You'd buy your fruits at different market and then the vegetable was all outdoor type. I guess these local farmers used to go there and sell their product.

RP: So you'd buy it right from them.

TM: Yeah, uh-huh. And then there were lots of farmers right here, truck farmers on Prairie Avenue. You know where that is? On 182nd. So we used to go there and buy a lot of vegetables there.

RP: Oh, right out of the fields.

TM: Yeah. Uh-huh.

RP: And then you just bring 'em back to the store.

TM: Yeah, uh-huh.

RP: Did you do any, did you work in the store at all as you were growing up?

TM: Oh, yeah. I came, helped set up the, the produce. Then I would, I would go to school. Yeah. But my parents allowed me to stay late at school and like play football and I played basketball and... a lotta the kids, Japanese kids, they didn't get to do that. They had to come home and work right, farmers, yeah.

RP: Or go to Japanese school.

TM: Yeah.

<End Segment 9> - Copyright (c) 2008 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.