Densho Digital Archive
Densho Visual History Collection
Title: George Yoshida Interview
Narrator: George Yoshida
Interviewers: Alice Ito (primary), John Pai (secondary)
Location: Seattle, Washington
Date: February 18, 2002
Densho ID: denshovh-ygeorge-01-0005

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GY: And we played many games, depending on the season again. When it was in the fall, I guess maybe April when the wind starts to kick up and the rain stopped falling. Kite-flying was a really wonderful thing. We bought kites. They were sort of diamond-shaped. They were, probably cost five cents or ten cents. Made out of wood and paper and the string. We'd fly kites, put a, made homemade tail on it. That was a wonderful experience. And the other experience I remember is watching the Filipino men who were men who made kites made out of thin strips of bamboo, triangular shaped, the body was triangular with some crosspieces and the wing-like appendages made out of bamboo. And blue, dark-blue crepe paper. And when they were up in the air, boy, could they be seen, I guess a little part, they had the little cuts, and they'd just flutter. And just, they'd pull like mad. Oh, it was cool, neat. And we'd just watch, you know, just sit there watching these men -- who suddenly see us sitting there and, "You want to try?" So we said, "Oh, of course." And it was such a treat. And they would hand the line to me, and man, it, that was a great thrill. Great thrill. And this is the empty lot right across from the old Buddhist Church, and it's still open, man. Go up there. It's a shocker. I guess maybe the land is so moist and there's a lot of shifting. I really don't know why it's not improved. The whole street -- all the houses are gone. It's kind of shabby with all the parked cars there. But in those days, that was a playground, and the empty lot was a place where I enjoyed kite-flying. And when the rain stopped, the sun came up, so I sit there and lie there, and that was neat, too. It was so nice to feel the warmth of the sun after the rains.

In other streets we played jintori. That was a neat game. Jintori's a Japanese name. Jin means hito, and tori, to take. Sort of like tag-like game. We had bases, maybe two telephone poles, and there was a center divider. And this team, Team A played Team B. And we'd go, if we go into terr -- enemy territory, they could tag us. We had to go to the bases. And we could save them if we caught the -- Team A was able to cross the enemy lines and touch the hand of those who were captured. They were free to go back. So it's called jintori. I guess it, it must have originated in Japan somewhere because the name's jintori.

<End Segment 5> - Copyright © 2002 Densho. All Rights Reserved.