I went to LeMoyne Elementary from K‐8 and back in the ’70s, it was not the upscale neighborhood now known as ‘Wrigleyville’ but a very rough, ethnic working class area of gangs and graffiti known as East Lakeview. “I grew up in the Lakeview neighborhood from 1970‐1983 on Wilton Avenue, between Waveland and Addison, one block east of Wrigley and a few blocks from my father’s bar, Nisei Lounge. This allowed us to grow both in awareness and consciousness, and to help us be stronger Americans.”Ĭurrent status: Extant as of 2014, under management of son, Stephen Toyoda Howard and Sada Hatanaka, and Hayato and Toki Morikado, the store’s owners, would always make me feel special just by saying ‘hi.’ Growing up in this type of community, many people were poor, having lost most of everything from the incarceration, but for many of us Sansei, the experience we received was rich, thanks to our parents’ efforts.

“Perhaps my favorite place to go was with my mother to Star Market, a Japanese grocery store. To some extent, this created a closed community where we could grow up safely. I learned how to make grapefruit yokan from a neighbor, others came over to our place to learn fine tailoring and fine baking from my mother. It was in this community that we shared experiences and cultural interests. It was, and still is, a unique experience to grow up with, to question, and for most of us, to make sure this sort of thing never happens again. Among this community certain things were all‐known, that our families had been imprisoned for having Japanese ancestry. “It was always nice to know that if you needed to stop to rest, or you felt uncomfortable by someone following you, there were numerous Japanese‐owned businesses on Clark Street where you could seek safe haven. When he walked into Nisei Lounge, a local tavern, everyone turned their backs to him and let him know that ‘wife beaters were not welcome there’ and that he could return when he began treating his wife properly.

As a child, I remember my parents talking about a Nisei man who beat his wife. Social pressure was also instrumental in other areas. That pressure to ‘not bring shame upon your race’ kept most Nikkei in line. This also provided a sense of self‐policing, as none of us dared do anything to bring shame upon our families. Like many Nisei, my father had a business in the neighborhood and knew many Issei and Nisei, including the owners of the businesses on a long strip of North Clark Street. Because there were so many families that knew each other in some way or another, there was a sense of safety in that there was always someone, some neighbor or friend of the family, who lived nearby. “Growing up in Lakeview during the 1960s, where there were so many Japanese American relocatees, provided a unique childhood experience.

The little one kiyo tanaka