Densho Digital Archive - Grant Hirabayashi Interview (denshovh-hgrant-01-0004)

<Begin Segment 4>

TI: And you mentioned the Katsuno and then the other, Hirabayashi family, I guess. Now, your father, did, after he came to Thomas, did other brothers follow? Or how did...

GH: No, Mr. Katsuno bought the land.

TI: Right.

GH: And I think forty acres, and then he kept twenty and we got ten each.

TI: Okay. So you got ten and then...

GH: Gordon's family got ten.

TI: ...Gordon's family got ten. And so Gordon's father was, was your uncle?

GH: Well, actually, it's, let me put it this way: it's the same clan. And we, in Japan, it's a close neighbor.

TI: I see. Okay, so it's not really a blood, a blood relationship --

GH: So, so we have, if we follow our genealogy, it goes back to, I think, in writing we have it about 19-, early 1600s, yeah. But we come from the same, one family.

TI: I see. But then back in Japan, in the village, there was a close, closeness. Did Gordon's father and your father know each other in Japan?

GH: Oh, yeah. As a matter of fact, they both went to the same school, the Kensei Gijuku.

TI: Okay. So they were almost like brothers in some ways.

GH: Yeah.

TI: Well, and growing up, let's see, you were born in 1919, Gordon was a little bit older than you were.

GH: Yeah, uh-huh.

TI: Did you do much with Gordon, or how did you know Gordon?

GH: Yeah, well, we used to play. I recall... well, one thing that comes to mind is for some reason, my father always bought a Ford truck, whereas Gordon's father always bought a Chevrolet. And Gordon, when we bought our truck, he said, "Oh, you got another tin-can Ford." I said, "Yeah," and I said, "You got a 'Shove-or-leave-it.'" [Laughs] And I do recall we used to take the car and try to go up to Star Lake. And what we'd do is we'd mark our start and then we'd go up as high, in high gear, and when the motor cuts out, we put the brake and then put a line. And then Gordon would come up. That was one of the games that we played.

TI: So with the trucks you guys had this game to see who can go higher, your Ford versus Gordon's Chevrolet?

GH: [Laughs] Yeah.

TI: And so who would, who would win?

GH: No, it's about the same, yeah.

TI: So the trucks were pretty equivalent?

GH: Yeah.

TI: It wasn't like one was better than the other. That's interesting that there was almost this competition with, with always getting Fords and always getting Chevrolets. That's, that's interesting. What was Gordon like? When you think about Gordon --

GH: Yeah, he was an intelligent fellow, he did very well in school, I know. Well, we played baseball games, used to run around together. Very nice fellow.