<Begin Segment 3>

TI: And I just wanted to start having you tell me some of your early memories.

WY: My what? Early memories?

TI: Early memories of the Imperial Valley.

WY: Well, my early memories of going to school in country schools like two-room schoolhouses. And even when you're very young, although I don't say three or four, but maybe about ten or so, you're out there weeding the farm, pulling out the wire, what do you call it, things to protect the plants, and stuff like that. You were out there working. But during the winter, there was a lot of time on your hands. So I used to read the, my mother and father subscribed to the more liberal of the Japanese newspapers called Kashu Mainichi, and I used to read Hisaye Yamamoto's column. I told you about that. And she wrote under a title, "Napoleon Says." And I thought, "Oh, I like the way this person, this guy writes. I could really go for him." [Laughs] But it turns out, through our meanderings, we met each other. It turned out she was a girl.

TI: Did you ever ask her why she used "Napoleon Says"?

WY: No, I never did.

TI: We'll have to ask her that.

WY: But she was the first person I'd ever read that wrote about what we Japanese eat, and she validated my life, you know? And how we used to fight with our siblings. That's... yeah.

TI: And so what resonated with you when you read this was just those little simple everyday things. The food, the...

WY: Yeah, and that's my life. Nobody, I used to read Ladies Home Journal or something like that, you know, all the time. Because my father, he was a sucker for traveling salesmen. They would sell him anything. And I used to read the serials. They used to have stories running in and out all the time. And the first time in my life, I read about something that was about us.

TI: Now, do you recall about how old you were when you first read her work?

WY: Well, I could have been about... I could have been about fourteen or fifteen, because I remember reading her when, during one of those breaks that I had at the farm. And it was very warm, it was a winter day, but it was warm, and I was reading her column. And I said, "Oh, this person really can write." And her sense of humor was not obvious, that kind of thing. And it just really blew me away.

TI: So I'm curious, did her writing get a similar reaction from other Nisei when they read it? Did you ever talk with other people?

WY: Yes, I did. Eventually, we ended up meeting the same people, because we couldn't, weren't (allowed) to own land, so we'd lease land and move, lease land and move. And I said, well, you know, I remember I went to Oceanside and I met some Japanese kids. And they lived in what they called Kumamoto Mura. And I said, "Oh, I really like this person who writes in the column called 'Napoleon.'" And they said, "Oh, that person. She lives in our Kumamoto Mura." I said, "She"? And they told me who she was.

TI: Well, did these people like her writing, or they thought that it was just...

WY: No, they thought she was very, you know, she was intruding and telling about their lives to everybody.

TI: Oh, so interesting. It's almost like, that she was being maybe too private or going to...

WY: I don't know. I really enjoyed it because, as I said, it's made my life valid. But they didn't like her, I knew that. And I don't think she liked me at the beginning. She said, "Oh, I did, too," but she didn't like me at the beginning. I was too forward.

TI: Do you recall how you went about to meet her the first time?

WY: Oh. Well, (...) when I said, "Oh, I really like this person who writes "Napoleon," (a friend) said, "Oh, she lives in our Kumamoto Mura." I said, "Oh." And so they introduced me to her, but it seemed like she was very cold. But that's the way she is, she's just not very forward.

<End Segment 3> - Copyright © 2009 Densho. All Rights Reserved.