Densho Digital Archive
Densho Visual History Collection
Title: Kazue Yamamoto Interview
Narrator: Kazue Yamamoto
Interviewer: Megan Asaka
Location: Spokane, Washington
Date: June 8, 2006
Densho ID: denshovh-ykazue-01-0013

<Begin Segment 13>

MA: And you said, you mentioned earlier that you also did housework.

KY: I did. When we lived at Insley, my mother said, "You can't just do nothing," I mean, we had to do something. So most of us, my older sister and I, went to do housework, and my younger sister was still going to school, so we did, we did go up and work for the... the people that I worked for, there was only Mr. and Mrs., the older couple, but the family that my sister went, there was a couple children, so she had to kind of watch, take care of the children. But I had it a little easier 'cause there was no children involved, it was just older couple. And I, I did some of the cooking, but she did most of the cooking, but I did the cleaning, and, and then from there, I went to school. I went to beauty school from there. From doing, I would come, I would stay there at night, go to school, and come back in the evening and do some of the cleaning. But you know, I didn't like it at the time, but this lady is the one that taught me everything about etiquette. You know, being a south side society family...

MA: So it was kind of a wealthy area?

KY: It was, the South Hill was all wealthy area, and there was, every other home back in the '45 and '50 area, there was a girl in every, Japanese girl doing housework in every other home up there. You can't believe the, that's all we, that's all we could do is do housework after we came out of camp, there was no jobs. So I remember ten kids that were working up there doing housework. And going back to my lady that I worked for, I didn't like the housework, but, you know, she's the one that taught me everything about how to set the table -- you know, back on the farm, we just sat down and ate. We didn't have manners, we didn't have placemats, we didn't have napkins, we just, you know, we were farmers. But this lady, she taught me how to set the table, how to set your forks, how to eat, you know, starting from the left, 'cause she was a society lady, and she told me how to serve, you serve from the right and remove from the left. Or was it the other way around? I forgot now, but she taught me all that. And to this day, I really give credit to that lady for teaching me all that. Because my parents didn't know anything about etiquette, kind of Emily Post etiquette. So I was kind of glad I did housework at that time, although I didn't like it, but I didn't mind, I learned all that.

MA: What was the name of this family you worked for?

KY: Lammers, L-A-M-M-E-R-S. And they owned the Long Lake Lumber Company, so they were pretty wealthy people.

MA: Did you live at their house?

KY: I lived there, uh-huh. I had a room, I lived there. And then from there, my mother said I should do something besides doing the housework the rest of my life, so from there, I went to the beauty school for, it was a one-year course. And I do have a diploma and I still keep up my license. But she, she didn't tell me to quit, she says, "You could go from here, go to school, come back in the evening and still help out. And I got my board and room, and I got -- I don't know how much it was -- I got paid so much a month. So that's what I did for the last, for that time, I went to school.

<End Segment 13> - Copyright © 2006 Densho. All Rights Reserved.