<Begin Segment 26>

DN: The, the one thing that I did mean to -- and I forgot to kind of ask you about -- was the, the return of the Nisei to the Island. There was an active campaign to, to keep them from coming back, wasn't there?

EH: Well, when you get a chance to interview Jerry, he had no, no repercussions at all. One girl, she was much younger, I think she was in my sister's class. And they welcomed her back, and she wanted to get in Rainbow, and they didn't vote her in. And she was a little upset over that. But other than that, and then Schuyler, holy smokes. Walt Woodward, he, he was always saying what a dirty S.O.B. he was.

DN: Lambert Schuyler?

EH: Yeah, Lambert.

DN: Or Schuyler? I'm not sure how you said his name. I wasn't sure.

EH: Schuyler, I think.

DN: Schuyler?

EH: Yeah, I think so.

DN: Did, did that, and, of course, you didn't get back to the Island 'til '46, and this probably would have all been the year before, anyway.

EH: Yeah. Well, you see, when I got, got back out of the service, that's when I went to Alaska.

DN: Right. So you were there and gone.

EH: I was out of the country again.

DN: Right.

EH: So to speak.

DN: Are you aware of any, so you're not aware of any problems that people had coming back. How about their property? Was, had their property been vandalized or any of that?

EH: Now, that I can't tell you. I know Jerry, they had their place when they came back.

DN: And the Hayashidas' place was fine?

EH: Yeah, yeah. And I think it was the Hayashidas. The Kobas, they never came back. Trying to think of a guy... I can't think of what his last name is. But he, he never did come back to the Island, either. And Bear Omoto didn't come back. And then he had gone, and Lefty Kitayama, he didn't come back.

DN: Did the strawberry farms come back?

EH: Not like they were. You know, the Filipinos have taken over a lot, and they were not as good a farmer as the Japanese were. The Japanese farmers were immaculate. Just right down to a tee, you might say. And where the Filipinos, they were more or less kind of lackadaisical, or whatever you want to call it.

DN: They probably had, came from a different culture as far as farming went.

EH: Yeah, yeah. Well, they, I don't think they were real farmers like the Japanese were. But, you know, the Japanese, when they came to the Island, they went to work in the mill, and they were still not farmers, until they realized, hey, the mill is gone, we've got to do something. And I think Jerry could tell us who the first ones were to start the strawberry farm. Because it was, it was easy, and they could make a little bit of money at it, and they had to work all year to keep their berries just so.

DN: Right. Well, and it also kind of fit in with the lifestyle they were forced into by not being able to own land. It was, they could move from place to place. Did, what happened to the cannery? Did it remain there all those years, or did it finally close down?

EH: They closed, now, I can't tell you what year they closed the cannery down, but they used the, Weaver had a cement plant down there. Weaver? I think so. And then here, a few years ago, it caught fire. And completely wiped it out. They could see the flames from Seattle, they were that big, when it burned down. 'Cause it was built out over the water, and they had a big parking lot where they would come in, and a big loading dock where they could bring the strawberries in, you know, and have 'em all ready to cart 'em on over. They had some kind of a rack deal, they'd bring the racks, and somehow would dump, dump the berries onto this washer deal, and it, it went on up, and then onto the conveyor belt where the gals would pick it all out. And then, then they, I think they were, went through some kind of a chopping device or something, and then put in cartons, I believe.

<End Segment 26> - Copyright © 2004 Densho. All Rights Reserved.