<Begin Segment 6>

DN: The, you mentioned the cannery. Can you tell me about, a little about that cannery?

EH: Well, it burned here a few years ago. It was owned by R.D. Bodle company, and I was too young to go to work there. But they would hire all the, as much of the Island people as they could, and they had two big lines, conveyor belts, where they would dump the strawberries out, and they would be washed and then they would... when you pick cannery berries, you had to husk 'em all. And when you pick market berries, going to the stores, then you left the husks on. And these gals would pick out the bad strawberries, or if there was a husk on there they'd have to pick that off. And... boy, there was quite a string of gals on, on both sides of this conveyor belt. And seemed to me there were two conveyor belts. 'Cause they had trucks coming in all the time, dropping in the fresh berries in there.

DN: At least during strawberry season.

EH: Yeah. And, you know, that was one of the bad things. I have to mention this, because when they took the Japanese away from Bainbridge, it was just prior to strawberry season. And they lost everything. Some of 'em just had to let 'em go, some of 'em leased or sub-leased or whatever, to Filipino farmers. And whether they kept the strawberry cannery going or not, I don't remember.

DN: I, I read in at least one account that the, that the Bodle cannery actually leased farms, farmland to the, to the farmers. They would have a contract arrangement with them.

EH: That could be, that could be. There was a Japanese school down, down in Winslow, and Mrs. Ohtaki, she was the schoolmaster. And she taught them to speak Japanese. But you ask Jerry today if he could speak Japanese -- [laughs] -- no, he doesn't know.

DN: When I interviewed the, the Bellevue Nisei, they all said they went to the Japanese school as well, and they all hated it. [Laughs] They all hated going to school.

EH: I shouldn't say this, but Jerry would try to skip class. [Laughs]

DN: Was it a, was it a weekend school? Did they go on Saturdays, or was it after school?

EH: It was after school. Whether they went every night or what, now, that I don't remember. We're going back quite a few years.

DN: Sure.

<End Segment 6> - Copyright © 2004 Densho. All Rights Reserved.