Densho Digital Archive - Yo Shibuya Interview (denshovh-syo-01-0003)

<Begin Segment 3>

RP: You said that you had difficulty when you got back to America speaking English?

YS: Yeah, because when I back there all I did was speak Japanese. I could, the words were just a little hard, harder to come out. But then you just get back in the swing of things after a while.

RP: So, when you got back to America, were you put into junior high --

YS: Yeah.

RP: -- at that point?

YS: Yeah.

RP: And where do you, did you attend junior high school?

YS: Lafayette Junior High School in Los Angeles, and then my mother moved so then I went to Central Junior High School. And that's where I met Ralph, ran into Ralph. 'Cause Ralph was going there.

RP: Where was that located? In downtown Los Angeles?

YS: Yeah, that was on, near the Hall of Justice, if you're familiar with Los Angeles. Temple and Hill.

RP: Now your father had passed away and so that placed a real economic burden on your mother.

YS: Yeah.

RP: How did she support you and later the rest of the kids when they came back from Japan?

YS: Oh, well, she ran it like a hotel. She would lease the hotel and then run the hotel. And whatever profits she made from that, other than the expense and the rent that she paid to the person she leased the hotel from.

RP: Where was the hotel located?

YS: There on Temple and Hill Street, about a half a block from Central Junior High School.

RP: And do you remember who stayed at the motel?

YS: Well it... mixed, well, quite a few Filipino people. And, let's see, a few Hispanics and Caucasians, the whites. You know it was a mix.

RP: Was it a large place?

YS: Well three, it was a three-story hotel. Back then, I don't know what you would call. They had apartments. Each unit had sink, bathroom... I mean, kitchen, bathroom, and a bedroom in each one. Just like a one bedroom apartment is what it... yeah. And there was twenty of them in that three-story building, if I remember. And then we had single, single rooms where bachelors could rent.

RP: So did you have any chores? Did you work for your mom?

YS: Oh, yeah.

RP: What did you do there?

YS: Make the beds. You know, on the weekends when I wasn't going to school, my brother George and I and... take care of the trash. You know, collect the trash for the trash man to come and get it. And then that was our chores. And then of course later on I started delivering papers.

RP: The old bicycle newspaper boy?

YS: Bicycle, yeah, yeah. L.A. Times and the Japanese paper, the Kashu Mainichi. It used to be Rafu Shimpo. I think that's still, I think they, they're still in existence but there was another paper called the Kashu Mainichi that was a, their competitor. And I used to deliver for them.