•1969 / mary

"Around the 'sixties, they started carrying Japanese foods for the 'war brides' at all the military bases around there...our store became sort of a meeting place.

"Mom could speak very good Japanese and she would listen to their problems and offer sympathy or advice."    [ben sakoguchi] 

^ Mary in the Japanese foods department "I was long gone by then…at UCLA…the war brides would come from all over: George Air Force Base in Victorville, March, out by Riverside, the Marine Base at Twentynine Palms…there was a network and they all k

^ Mary in the Japanese foods department

"I was long gone by then…at UCLA…the war brides would come from all over: George Air Force Base in Victorville, March, out by Riverside, the Marine Base at Twentynine Palms…there was a network and they all knew...you could get Japanese foods without driving that extra sixty miles into L.A.

"She would order these publications, thick magazines or books, really…recipes, sewing patterns, all sorts of things like in women’s magazines…and it was kind of a lending library…they would all come and check out those books.

"When my Pop was on a visit to Japan...he's talking to a stranger on the boat from Okinawa, and Pop says he has a grocery store in San Bernardino...and this guy says, 'Ah, yes! Mary’s Grocery!'...and my Pop was just flabbergasted."    [ben sakoguchi]