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TI: And how about relations between Japanese and whites in the valley?

MS: I think they tolerated each other. I remember the neighbor. I had a feeling that they thought they were better, but then we didn't pay any attention. We were so busy living within our community, and we didn't need to go out to socialize, we didn't need them. And we saw them in school and so forth, but even there, we didn't pay any attention that we really kind of hung around. And I see that happening here in our schools, the black kids can hang with the black kids and the Latinos with each other, I can understand that. I really can. It isn't to be that you don't want to, but there's certain kind of customs that a group understands, and there's a kind of comfort level there. And I grew up that way. And that's why I look back and think I really felt secure there. These other people existed, I didn't know that we should interact and so forth. But I made very few friends that were not Japanese. And because we were busy when we had, we're not in school, busy working on the farm and so forth, that our lives were really complete. And when I hear about wanting people to be more interactive with each other, in a way I can understand when people have so much time, and the comfort level is with your people that, of your heritage, you understand that. You don't have to talk about it before you get comfortable. You know, you can run into a Latino who came from Mexico and you're living in New York, and you're still, there's a basis for understanding each other. And therefore I do understand that, and I think we need to understand that, too, as we continue to live with each other.

TI: And so for you, when you think about your school, what was kind of the racial, sort of, mix of say your school in terms of Japanese, white, and other --

MS: A few Indians. We didn't have the Filipinos there because we didn't, they were laborers.

TI: It was mostly a bachelor community.

MS: Yes, uh-huh.

TI: And so you had a few Indians.

MS: Yes. And the whites, white folks.

TI: And about what percentage would you say was white?

MS: Oh, I would say about forty-five percent.

TI: Okay. And then the rest Japanese?

MS: Uh-huh.

TI: And so Japanese was about fifty percent?

MS: Well, forty-five percent, about twenty-five percent... no, not that much. I would say about twenty percent, and five might be Indians and so forth.

TI: Okay, so about twenty percent Japanese, five percent...

MS: Others.

TI: Others, and then about...

MS: Rest would be Caucasian.

TI: Okay.

MS: And, you know, I think there was a difference, too, when I look back, I think of the people who lived out, who had orchards and so forth and who had land and so forth, those who might have come later, the white folks that were from leased lands and so forth, I think they were different than those who had been in the valley a long time also. So I think we had that that kind of a divide, too.

TI: So it was almost like a class divide?

MS: I would think so, and probably by churches, dividing by churches and so forth. I don't think the Pentecostal people would care to be with the Baptists and the Methodists. And there was a divide with the Catholics. There was a distinct difference with the Catholic groups at that time.

TI: And for the Japanese community, was it pretty much a Protestant and Buddhist?

MS: Buddhist, yes.

TI: Okay. Thinking about in terms of hierarchy, the longtime Japanese families that were in farming, where would they fit in the hierarchy?

MS: I think we all, we all got along, excepting you had your small groups of friends. And I don't know how that came about, but I do remember listening to the people that, like my father's friends, were those who were interested like in the political and so forth. So that they kind of had a way of finding each other like they do now.

<End Segment 6> - Copyright © 2010 Densho. All Rights Reserved.