<Begin Segment 5>

TI: So tell me a little bit about Gilroy. I'm curious about the Japanese community in Gilroy, about how large was it?

SY: It was a small town, and I don't know the population, but Main Street was the only street that went through the town. There was one theater and I think Woolworth, I remember Woolworth was there. There was this Japanese store who made the, the owners made the tofu there. And there was one Japanese restaurant, and the gas station, probably there was one. [Laughs] So it was just a pass through town, you know.

TI: So did they have like a Japanese language school in Gilroy?

SY: Yes.

TI: So like a separate building for that?

SY: Yes.

TI: How about churches? Like a Buddhist church? Did they have a Buddhist...

SY: No, they didn't have a Buddhist church. So we went to Salinas to go to Buddhist church.

TI: And so how large was, like when you say, say, for instance, Japanese language school, how many students would attend the language school?

SY: Oh, there were about, I think, I'd say about thirty.

TI: So it's a pretty good size.

SY: Uh-huh.

TI: So the Japanese community was over a hundred people you would say, or maybe around a hundred?

SY: Gee, I can't really say. Probably.

TI: And you mentioned your father was a farmer. Were the other Japanese in the area, were they also farmers, or what did they do?

SY: Well, I think most of them were farmers. But like I said, they were, they had stores, and they had restaurants, too, so I think most of them were farmers out there.

TI: At Gilroy, did you ever have, like, community picnics where the Japanese in Gilroy would do something?

SY: No.

TI: Or how about any festival? Was there anything that brought the whole Japanese community together?

SY: Gee. No, I don't think, I don't think we had any. Oh, there was Japanese movie, you know, I think we had one every, once a month or something like that.

TI: And where would you guys have the Japanese movies?

SY: At the school, Japanese school.

TI: Okay, so it was kind of that room, and they would set up a screen and show...

SY: Yeah.

TI: And how was that? Is there anything, any memories from that? Was it exciting to go see a Japanese movie?

SY: Yeah, it was exciting, because I think my parents wanted to see the Japanese movies. It comes once a month.

TI: So what was your father like when he got excited? What kind of personality? When your father was excited, how would you know he was excited?

SY: Well, he was a strict father, you know. Meiji-born, they say "Meiji-born," really strict. And he really didn't... well, he would smile, you know, I guess that's about it.

<End Segment 5> - Copyright © 2009 Densho. All Rights Reserved.