Images: Suzanne with a portrait of her parents; Toichi and Tomoye Hitomi in Fresno, May 1942. Courtesy of Suzanne Hitomi.
Author’s note: I wrote “Bank Alley” in tribute to my Nisei parents, who lived in Alameda, California before the war. My father, Toichi “Tad” Hitomi, grew up on Oak Street; his father had a bicycle shop on Park Street. My mother, Tomoye Yamashita, and her family lived with other Japanese between Park and Oak behind the Alameda Main Library, formerly a motel. My parents were both interned, first in Fresno Assembly Center, then in Topaz. My mother’s house in Alameda is now gone. The street was Bank Street; however, my mother referred to it as “Bank Alley.” It’s now known as Times Way. I walk this path frequently in the same path my mother walked, remembering seasons past.
About the contributor: Suzanne Hitomi is a Sansei, born in 1946. She attended Oakland High School and majored in art photography and elementary education at San Francisco State University. After retiring from a long career with the Federal Government and U.S. Postal Service, she started taking writing classes at Berkeley City College and J-Sei, focusing on poetry. Her poems have been published in local papers. She lives in Alameda near ‘Bank Alley.’
Copyright 2021, Suzanne Hitomi. All rights reserved.