<Begin Segment 19>

JA: So what kind of social activities did Bellevue members...

MH: The Niseis or the hakujins? [Laughs] Japanese, all right. Well, we all, we had a lot of things going on with the Seinenkai, the youth group that we had, which was formed, and they kept us all very, very busy by having dance socials at holidays, and we had movies there and we went to judo tournaments. And so with all the activities like dances and things, we were all kept very, very busy and all the sports that we had. (We had a terrific girls' basketball team.) And the boys had a fantastic baseball team so we always had to follow the Bellevue baseball team that played at Columbia Field, in Seattle on the Fourth of July and things like that. So we just kept our lives very busy socially that way.

JA: How about, again, the broader community?

MH: The broader community? Well, our life was very, wasn't included in a lot of the activity that was held in the community. I think the main thing that we were involved in was the Strawberry Festival that they have. Otherwise, we weren't included in very many other things except for school activities or something like that. But then the Strawberry Festival, in 1939 we had three princess -- no, four princesses of Japanese descent, and that was the only time that they were given the opportunity to become princess. And, otherwise, it was just all, every year we donated strawberries for it, they make it special for the Japanese farmers. And the year the Japanese farmers were evacuated, that was it, no more strawberries so no more festival.

JA: [Laughs] And I've seen a picture of some kimono-clad dancers.

MH: Yes. They were not dancers, they were princesses. They had one hakujin prince -- queen and then the rest were princesses, is what they selected. And they had about four hakujin princesses and then they had four Japanese ones, is what they had, from the Seinenkai.

JA: And why were they wearing kimonos?

MH: I guess they thought it would be nice to show what the Japanese people actually did wear in Japanese kimonos, and then girls had one so I guess they asked them to wear it.

JA: So the organizers asked.

MH: That's right. It was no purpose for dancing or anything like that.

JA: And did the Nikkei community attend the festival itself?

MH: Yes, they were there every year. Always, we had a big crowd of Japanese people from all over. This, from even Seattle they all came out, so we had a big crowd that really participated in the festivals that they had.

JA: This Bellevue Strawberry Festival, I understand, was quite an event that --

MH: Yes, it's a big event. It used to have thousands of people that showed up from all over.

JA: More than the regular population of Bellevue at the time?

MH: Yes, that's for sure. Yes, they did.

JA: So you're saying that both Caucasians and Nikkei came from distances to attend this festival.

MH: Yes, uh-huh. They all came out, yes, from Seattle and just every place, to make it a gay affair because they know it's the strawberry -- Bellevue Japanese strawberries.

JA: And during the festival, was it segregated?

MH: No, it wasn't. We all mingled, visited everybody, and just enjoyed visiting with everybody. We, that way we met more people that we never knew that lived there. And so, no, we had a wonderful time congregating with the Caucasians and everything and made a gay affair.

JA: So this was an event that the community looked forward to?

MH: That's right, yearly. It's a yearly affair that they all looked forward to.

<End Segment 19> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.