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TI: And this, you may not remember, but you may know, but I'm curious about the community life at the Yamato Colony in terms of, did they have things like Japanese language schools, did they have the big picnics, all these different things?

FH: Yes. There's something about Livingston that I need to say, and that is that it was a very hostile community. And why Abiko chose there, it was the land that nobody wanted. Lots of sand, no water. And in the desert, it's very hard to raise anything. So even the white farmers didn't want it. So that's why land was available. Abiko was not a farmer, and so he just thought land is land, I guess, I don't know. I never asked him that question. However, the land produced also strawberries, cash crops between the trees and the vines, they used to have to make some money, so they planted soybeans, they planted carrots, daikon, and anything that grows, tomatoes. And so that as cash crop to survive. That's what many farmers did. My dad was into kind of an entrepreneur and did that.

TI: And how about things like, for the children, did they have schools for the children, or Japanese language schools?

FH: Yes, I'm sorry I didn't tell you about... they built a community center, but it was a church. The first thing they built was a church. And they had a -- I mentioned earlier, or maybe I didn't -- there was one room that had a triangle, YMCA. 'Cause the colony was founded by YMCA members and others, of course, joined in, but they were the nucleus. And so that started in San Francisco way back in 1886, which was a strange, strange thing. I couldn't believe that they had a Japanese YMCA in San Francisco, when most of the people started coming from Japan in about 1885. 1886 they had a YMCA. I don't know how it happened, but it's there. Well, my father certainly was part of that, and so they had this center that was about two miles outside of the town, and it's still there. The building, the old building went down, but they have the education building, they have a brand new chapel there, beautiful church. And Livingston was a very hostile place. My mother said there used to be a sign on Highway 99 right outside the town that says, "Japs keep out." That's the kind of welcome they received. And yet in spite of all that, they hung in there. And so the word "gaman" is so, so important here. They gaman and they hung in there, and they sucked it up. They persevered, and today, the church that I was not welcomed in San Francisco, Methodist church, they had to start one in Yamato Colony for the Japanese Methodist church. I think they called it the Grace Methodist Church. Today, it's called the Livingston United Methodist Church. Instead of it being in town, it's at Yamato Colony.

TI: For the whole community.

FH: That's in the whole Livingston. And they're all intermarrying, worship together, pray together, play together, and they have parties together. It's just amazing, integrated community today. I went to their hundredth anniversary, it was amazing.

TI: So Livingston has changed so much in those hundred years.

FH: Yeah, 2006, they had a hundredth anniversary, and I thought that was amazing. In fact, there's a school named after Yamato. Yamato Elementary School. I say Yamato Y, because that's the Yamato Colony.

TI: Oh, interesting.

FH: That is amazing.

TI: I'll have to go out there. I'm curious now. I'll have to go visit.

FH: Oh, yeah, you ought to. And there are a lot of pioneers there. Not many my age left. The oldest guy was, I guess he's 104 or something, his name was Sam Maeda. He just passed away. He was the eldest that left, continued on. There's a Kishi family that's well-known in Livingston, and their daughters and their grandpeople are professors and teachers and doing many things today.

TI: So how about things like picnics and things? Were there community events?

FH: We used to have picnics when the blossoms, you know. I remember, been to many of those picnics, and they take turns in different places and have picnics in different farms in Livingston, yes. And then they used to have a tennis court there. It's amazing. I used to play tennis there when I was a kid. And there was Chaplain Aki, named George Aki, who was now, he is one month older than I am, in better condition, and he cannot play tennis today, but we used to play in Livingston. And the reason they had a tennis court in Yamato Colony, I don't know. It was the only tennis court in the entire county. [Laughs]

TI: Yeah, I've never heard of...

FH: But I guess these Japanese immigrants, YMCA members from San Francisco said, "We should have a tennis court." [Laughs]

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