Densho Digital Archive - John Tomita Interview (denshovh-tjohn

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KP: I'll start off by introducing the tape. This is an oral history with John Tomita. And we are at the Teramachi --

JT: Condominium.

KP: -- Condominiums, in, on 267 San Pedro Street, Los Angeles, California. And the interviewer today is Kirk Peterson and with me working the camera is Richard Potashin, and we are doing this interview for the Manzanar National Historic Site. It'll be held at that site so it'll be part of the National Historic Site's collection. And, do we have your permission to record this interview today?

JT: Yes.

KP: All right, well, thank you very much. Is it okay if I call you John?

JT: Yes.

KP: Okay. So let's start at the beginning. When and where were you born?

JT: I was at, in a little town called Isleton, California. It's on the Delta of Sacramento River. It's only about thirty, maybe thirty-five miles from Sacramento. And my father was farming and from, when over a year, he move into town to start a restaurant business.

KP: What year were you born?

JT: 1920.

KP: 1920. And let's step back and talk about your father a little bit. Where did your father come from in Japan?

JT: Yeah, my father came from this small country called, well, anyway, it, he is from Kumamoto province. Kumamoto province and near the city of Kikuchi. And there's a little village right next to Kikuchi called Daidoson. And my, my mother came from Kikuchi too but she came from a different village. They call it Nishidera, yeah, Nishidera.

KP: So when did your father, what did your father's family do in Japan do you know?

JT: Oh, my father, the farmers, he was the only son with nine sisters. And he was really spoiled in Japan. And, but he, I guess he was adventuresome. He left Kumamoto when he was around sixteen years old. And he had a married sister in Hilo, Hawaii. Yeah, and so he came to Hilo. But I understand that was before the First World War started and I guess, I don't know, I don't know whether it was his idea or my father's idea, but they decided, he decided to come to America and he was going to start shipping produce from California to Hawaii. That, that was the business they were gonna start. So, at sixteen he came to California and looked... but then the First World War started and the Germans start sinking all the shipment from United States to Hawaii. So the trading business didn't work out so he, he started the restaurant business in Isleton. And...

KP: So this was all right around the time of the First World War that he started his restaurant?

JT: Yeah. So, I know my sister was born in 1918 and I was 1920. And the First World War was 1918. So, anyway, and as far as my father, but he was quite a, I didn't realize it until... I knew there was a gentleman that used to visit our family every so often. He always dressed very nicely and he, he liked my sister because she must have been a real cute gal. But I'm the brother, he didn't care too much for me. But the thing is, all I remember that man is that he always giving a dollar bill, anyway, a bill to her but she, he only give me a fifty cents or something. So I always, you know, envied my sister, because she's getting the dollar bills and I'm getting the fifty-cents... but, and then I, gosh, we were so small, I know he was a big man. But, later on I heard that he was working for the Japanese government, setting up the, not a casino, but gambling houses. He, I understand he set up the gambling houses in L.A., Fresno, Sacramento, up in Portland, Seattle. And he, I, that's what I heard much, much later.

KP: So what do you think his connection was with your father? Why were they friends?

JT: That's the part that was amazing. There's, there's an old picture of my father when, when he got married. You should have seen the, the... I don't, I can't find that picture now. But he had a, a topcoat, a beautiful topcoat and a derby. He looked very fancy in the picture. And I often wondered where he got it. So I presume that he must have got it from this man that... and he, this man, while he was setting up all these gambling joints, I think he was in Lodi, a, a man came after him with a knife. Yeah, and so he had to shoot him to protect himself. Because, so, he had to go to prison, this man. But he was sent to San Quentin. But I did, my dad kept on telling me, "He's not in the prison." But he's at San Quentin. So I said to him, "He has to be in jail." But later on I found out that there was apartments in San Quentin for the prisoners. And he, this man, though he killed a man and he, and he was in prison, supposed to be in San Quentin prison, but he's living in apartment. And my father always said this. So he'd take him food and clothing and stuff. And so I don't know whether it's true or not, but that's what I was told. So this man was in apartment and then when he was released from San Quentin, he went back to Japan and I understand when he went back to Japan, he went to Manchuria to set up the same thing for the government. Yeah.