<Begin Segment 5>

TI: Okay. So let's go back to the people who stayed at the hotel. So you mentioned this Greek man who you think might have been a longshoreman, you had a Chinese, you had the, you said, African Americans who worked with the railroad. And so what kind of work did they do with the railroad?

YK: Porters, cooks... what else is there? I don't think there was any brakemen. Let's see. Oh, waiters, people that generally worked on the train. And my father would kind of keep track of them because a lot of times a train would come in late or at night, and so he'd save a place for 'em, so they'd have a place to stay. And most of 'em stayed just overnight, 'cause they had to take the next train going south. They were all... I think all of them were Southern Pacific people. Yeah, I think that's what it was.

TI: So in many cities, African Americans had sometimes a hard time finding housing. Were there other places in the neighborhood where they could stay, or was your hotel about the only place they would stay?

YK: I think there were one or two others, but they stayed at our place pretty steady because he'd keep the timetable for them, and then he'd know when they'd be coming in. I think it was about every four or five days that it would show up, and they appreciated that.

TI: So they knew that whenever, that your dad would save a room for them, and it was late at night so it was probably easy for them to do that.

YK: Uh-huh. It wouldn't be all that late, it would probably be about eight-thirty, nine. Yeah, I think that's about what it was.

TI: Now tell me about the reception, or when these African Americans came to the hotel, especially the ones who would come on kind of a regular basis or more than once. I mean, how would your father and these African Americans sort of relate or interact?

YK: Oh, I think they got along pretty good. It seemed like they got pretty friendly, because he'd take care of them. I guess that's... I don't remember, but it seems to me that it's about one-third of the tenants were Afro American. I think that's what it was.

TI: So when you say one-third of the tenants, I'm trying to understand, and so they would come like every four days because they were on the train. So was it like different trains and different porters who would be there, or they would only come in groups and they would be there for a while, and then it'd be gone? How would that work?

YK: Generally when they came in it would be, oh, maybe four or five of 'em off one train. And then next day would be another group from another train. Yeah, they were pretty good people because they had to cater to the public. Yeah, I guess it must have been about a third of the tenants.

TI: So any stories about while they were staying at the hotel, did they, like, any interaction you had with them, or any memory of that?

YK: No, 'cause generally they'd come in at night and leave in the morning, so I didn't have too much to say to 'em. I guess small talk, maybe, that's about it.

TI: How about things like did they ever play cards together or socialize like maybe some drinking or anything at the hotel?

YK: Not that I can remember. I think they were probably too tired when they come in. The next day, they couldn't drink because they had to go to work. So they were a pretty clean bunch of people.

TI: When you said your father got along with them, when they would come, would your father, like, would there be joking back and forth or anything like that?

YK: Might have been. I guess the biggest part of it was trust. They trusted his views and anticipation of what they were gonna do.

TI: Now do you recall what... what did the people staying at the hotel, what did they call your parents, your mother and father, when they would come? Did they call them by name, or what would they say?

YK: No, I guess they call 'em Ma and Pa, that's about all I can remember.

TI: Because I remember my grandparents managed a hotel in Seattle, and as a kid I remember they would all call 'em Mama and Papa.

YK: Yeah, I guess that's probably right.

TI: Did your parents ever... not from the African Americans, but from people in the community, did they ever get any criticism for allowing African Americans to stay at the hotel?

YK: Not that I can, I know of. I guess everybody minded their own business, because they didn't seem to say anything about that. My friends didn't say anything either, so I guess they just left that up to the individuals. Like I say, they were a pretty nice group of people, because of the fact that they weren't drinking and gambling, things like that. They didn't have time for that, so that was pretty good.

TI: Now did your parents... earlier we talked about your getting bread from the Greek man. In the same way, did you have very much interaction with any of the African Americans?

YK: No, just say hello and that's about it. Mainly because they came in, generally they came in at night and they left in the morning, so I didn't have much time for interaction.

TI: So as you were growing up, you had exposure to African Americans, to Greek, Chinese, Japanese. Did your parents ever talk about the different races and either how they interact or anything like that?

YK: No, not that I can remember. He seemed to be pretty accommodating. For one, being a hotel, you have to be. So I guess he was pretty easygoing.

TI: So I remember a conversation with my aunt who worked at the hotel, my grandparents'. And in the same way it was sort of a mixed audience, or mixed clientele. And one of the things that came up in the conversation was the Japanese are really proud people, and there were times where I think my grandparents felt that the Japanese may be better than other races. Did that ever come up, did you ever hear that from your parents?

YK: No.

TI: Or did you ever hear that from other Japanese?

YK: Yeah, the others talked, especially those in Japantown, and concentrated where they spoke nothing but Japanese. Some of them felt superior.

TI: So in those cases, do you think the ones that felt that way, maybe managed a hotel, do you think they would have allowed African Americans to stay at their place?

YK: I don't know. Some of 'em might. I think most of 'em probably not.

TI: Yeah, it's really interesting. It's always interesting, I always wonder how the Isseis, the first generation, how they come from Japan, which is very homogenous, all Japanese, and then in the case of your parents, all of a sudden it's African Americans, whites, Chinese, Japanese, and just how they figured that all out. It must have been such a big difference for them, more so than you, because you probably grew up with that. But for them it was a dramatic shift. Especially like your mother, coming from a Japanese village all of a sudden into an American city.

YK: Well, I guess if you think about it, hotel business was pretty accommodating, you know. So you can't get real strict about races and things like that or else you'd lose business.

TI: Running a hotel is a lot of work, and I'm wondering, so growing up, did you have chores at the hotel that you had to do?

YK: Yeah, some minor things like changing the newspaper in the garbage cans and stuff like that. Once in a while I guess I used to count sheets and pillow cases and stuff, 'cause every day they would come and pick them up, had laundry people, and you'd have to have a count. I guess I got to a point where I was old enough to be able to count, so they let me do that. But other than that, I didn't have much to do.

TI: Now every once in a while, in hotels, sometimes you'd have to clean out a room because maybe a tenant didn't come back or something happened. Did that happen at the Royal Palm, that you'd have to clean out a unit or something like that?

YK: Yeah, my parents did that. But the rooms weren't very big anyhow, so it wasn't that difficult. Yeah, I guess the ones that really had to clean out was the tenants who stayed there a long time. And like this Greek guy, he stayed for quite a while. Most of 'em were transients, like the railroad people. So that was pretty easy. All you have to do is change sheets, bedding.

TI: Now how about your parents? How did they work as a team? So did your mother have certain roles or your father have certain roles?

YK: They would each have... I think they went by, had two floors. My father took care of one floor and my mother took care of the other floor. So they were both independently of each other. So that's how I think they worked out.

TI: And then how about things like collecting the money and things like that? Did both of them do that?

YK: Yeah.

TI: Okay.

<End Segment 5> - Copyright © 2013 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.