<Begin Segment 5>

TI: So let's talk a little bit about the community. I'm not sure if you're aware, but I think later on this year, I'm not sure if it's in Yakima, but there's a museum there, and they're going to do an exhibit about...

MS: Yes, we've talked about...

TI: ...the Japanese American community. So I think this would be useful for you talk about the community as much as you can, because this is something I'd like to share with them.

MS: I find that when I look back at all the years I've been around, that I have never felt as secure as when I was growing up. Because Yakima valley had a very good community. And we were, they had a Methodist church and a Buddhist church, and there was some divide there. But whenever they had the Obon or the New Year's and so forth, celebrations, we would all get together, and we would be able to intermingle. We didn't think of anybody being different, because Yakima was quite a ways. In those days, you traveled fifteen or twenty miles, that was a long ways. And Toppenish, there were Japanese in Toppenish, which was lower valley, and they were farmers.

TI: So when you got together for, like, Obon, which is a Buddhist sort of event or ceremony, you're saying that the Christians and Methodists were there, the whole community --

MS: That's true. That's true.

TI: How about other ethnic --

MS: They had a Japanese Association in a building, and they would have events there. And not only that, I remember going to Japanese movies there. And I remember having these pieces of wood, and you clap with those and bang, bang, bang. [Laughs] And apparently, as I'm finding it very interesting, but the person that brought the movies would be, do all the oral things, and you'd enjoy it.

TI: And so you're in a movie theater, it's dark, so these are silent movies.

MS: Yes. It's in the, it was in the big room that they had in the Japanese Association building.

TI: And you're saying the operator would then be the, like the voice over or he would take on the characters?

MS: Yes, all the dialogue, yes.

TI: I've heard about that. That must have been...

MS: And we'd sit on benches and we'd just... it was really interesting because you didn't see it anyplace else, that kind of movies. It was an event. Every time there was something, it was an event. Because you're on a farm, and you're, like, ten miles away from Wapato. And we'd go in there for groceries and to get your car fixed, but you don't see them otherwise. So these were really events. And then we had that baseball team that was so well-known.

TI: Yeah, the Wapato...

MS: Yeah, Nippons, yes. We'd go there and we'd yell and holler and scream. And because I didn't even want to watch it all, you'd run around in the park. Kara used to keep score for them.

TI: Because they would come to Seattle and play the Seattle teams.

MS: Yes, yes.

TI: Would the Seattle team ever go to Wapato?

MS: I don't know. Because, you know, they're just somebody playing with each other. When you, so you talked about whenever there was an event or a movie, the whole Japanese community would get together. For something like Obon, if I go to an Obon, sort of, dance now, you see lots of other ethnic groups participate.

MS: I really miss going out. In fact, the Buddhist church in Wapato still is there, and it's still supported. And every year, in March, they have a big dinner and people come from all over to go to the dinner to support them, and that's their fundraising. And I know my nephew from Seattle goes to help.

TI: Oh, so people come back, it's like a reunion for the valley.

MS: Yeah, north people, yes, that could get there.

TI: But back when you were a kid and had Obon, did other ethnic groups participate in Obon?

MS: I don't remember that. I don't remember that. Not only that, at that time, the Filipinos were farm laborers. And I remember them on a Saturday night on Wapato Avenue hanging around in the pool hall, and you didn't pay much attention to them. But now, they are very respected in the family, in the Yakima valley, and they bought farms. And they are really very, very important in the valley. But at that time, they were farm laborers.

TI: And how did the Filipino farm workers get along with the Japanese?

MS: I don't know. I think anybody who came to work were really treated well. I think that's a Japanese custom. They're kind and they're nice people, and they're not rude. And so I think anybody that came to work for you, you really sort of appreciated them and took care of them. And I think that is an attitude that prevailed at that time. I don't know whether it's true now.

<End Segment 5> - Copyright © 2010 Densho. All Rights Reserved.