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TI: Well, let's talk about your, first your father. What was your father like?

BI: Well, he was a rather quiet man with a little temper. [Laughs]

TI: So how would you know he had a temper? What would he do that would indicate that he had a temper?

BI: Well, when we first moved out to Bellevue, the community used to help each other on the farm. And we had a group of the community members come out to help plant, probably strawberries, I'm not sure, but they were all working out in the field. And since Dad was, knew how to cook, he would come home and make lunch. So he was cooking a lunch and my neighbors, who were Caucasians, came down around lunchtime and we were playing. And Dad said it was time to set the table. So I said okay, but my friends were there and I didn't go in to set the table. And he called again and I didn't go in soon enough, and he got very angry. And he came out with a poker -- [laughs] -- and chased me across the ten acres. That I will never forget.

TI: So he chased you in front of all the community members, too, who were working in the field?

BI: Yes, looking all, looking at me. [Laughs]

TI: That must have been a sight. [Laughs]

BI: That I won't forget.

TI: So were there, were there other cases where he would show his temper, or was that just kind of an unusual sort of --

BI: That was unusual. I'm sure he was under a lot of pressure, and other than that, I don't remember him getting very angry. (Narr. note: Dad was sentimental and always remembered my birthday. When I would come downstairs, he would say, "Today is Fumiye's birthday." And he would always roast a chicken for dinner and bake a birthday cake for me. He always wanted me to look nice. Once when I was wearing my brother Taki's clothes, he asked me, "Don't you have anything better to wear?")

TI: But in telling that story, that was interesting. So when, was it pretty common, when someone, like, bought a new farm, like in this case you had ten new acres, that the other Japanese Americans in the community would come out and help that, that family get started?

BI: Yes, uh-huh. Yes, uh-huh. Yes.

<End Segment 5> - Copyright © 2006 Densho. All Rights Reserved.