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TI: So I'm guessing that your, probably your earliest childhood memories are more of Stockton then, that's what you can remember.

MS: Yeah, uh-huh.

TI: So let's talk about that. What are some of your memories of Stockton growing up?

MS: Well, we lived on one of the delta islands called Terminus Island. And there were, it was part of the big land ranch that my uncle managed. And so we didn't live too far from my cousins, my dad's sister's children, the family lived not even a mile away, I don't think. So I was raised partly by my aunt, because she had her children to watch, and my grandmother continued to work the fields. I think she also did some cooking for the Japanese workers, farm workers.

TI: That's right, because earlier you mentioned how your father had a younger sister by about three years. And so she lived nearby, your grandparents or your father's... so they're up there. So it sounds like there was quite a bit of family up there. You had grandparents you were living with, your aunt, she had children, so you had cousins. And so what, how would you guys play, say you were with your cousins. What was that like?

MS: Well, what I could remember, because this was all before I was the age of five, they lived in this very big house with, on top of a, kind of a hill. And there would be the lawn that came down, we would roll down the hill. That was, that was one of our fun things, that we would roll and race down the hill. They had dogs and horses, so we always had pets about. And there were just the usual kid things to do, I guess. We didn't have any special, special things like swimming pools or anything, but you know, we were kids in the country, pretty free to play.

TI: But it sounded like a pretty wholesome childhood, I mean, out in the farm, lots of animals, lots of space.

MS: Right, uh-huh. And a very, well, where my grandparents lived was a little teeny house. But where my cousins lived was a rather large house. And I spent most of my days there, I think.

TI: So the bigger house where your aunt and uncle, so it'd be your father's brother-in-law, what did, why where they able to afford such a large house?

MS: Well, he was the manager, and I don't know how he worked himself into that position, but he was the manager of this very large farm. And he was very sort of ahead of his time in all kinds of ways. He had cameras and he filmed the farm life, he filmed us as kids, in fact, that was part of our entertainment, to watch ourselves. And he developed all kinds of new techniques for farming, I think. On the films that he took showing how they converted not-farmable land into good usable farmland, and diverted the delta water into irrigation ditches and whatnot. In fact, John Esaki at the museum has all these films now. The Futamachi family donated it all to them, to JANM.

TI: Well, it's wonderful that he documented, 'cause you hear about the stories of Japanese farmers who did that, they improved the land so they can farm. And to actually have film footage of that would be amazing. So he actually shows diverting water?

MS: Uh-huh, and putting rocks to build the lower part of, you know, I'm not sure exactly what they're doing, but it shows them packing up the onions that they farmed. And my cousin always talks about the stringless celery that my uncle was developing at the time, and that had he, had the war not started, maybe, we would have stringless celery. [Laughs]

TI: Oh, so he had, he was working on that, kind of, I'm not sure what's the right word, but cross breeding or... not breeding.

MS: Yeah, developing something that was new.

TI: And was your brother-in-law, did he have like a college education, or where did he get this...

MS: I don't know much about his background. I just know that he, well, he came from Japan, too, from the same area. But I don't know how well-educated he was.

TI: And his last name, or his name was?

MS: Harry Futamachi.

TI: Okay, interesting. So you mentioned, so you grew up there, and at about five, you start school.

MS: Six, uh-huh.

TI: Okay, at six you started school.

MS: Yeah. And it was a small local school, there were first, second and third grades in one room, and I suppose fourth, fifth and sixth in another. But my oldest cousin was third grade, and my, and I was first grade. So I didn't speak a word of English. Fortunately, she was third grade and spoke a little English, so she could help me out for the first few months when we started school. But I think after, yeah, just a few short weeks or months, we were, we were speaking pretty well.

TI: So that's like total immersion. You had to, in some ways, sink or swim.

MS: Right. They had no pity on us. And I don't remember much about the school other than it was a, one classroom with many grades in it.

TI: Now, do you recall if the kids in your area, I'm thinking maybe your older cousin or something, did they go to Japanese language school?

MS: She did, uh-huh. And there was one nearby, and in the films that they took, there's all kinds of footages about the school and the undokais that they had, and the picnics and things like that.

TI: Okay, good.

<End Segment 6> - Copyright © 2009 Densho. All Rights Reserved.