<Begin Segment 8>

MN: And you mentioned that you helped on the family farm in Hiroshima. Can you tell us what kind of farming you did there?

HY: Oh, they, it's a rice paddy, and it's the, you know, fields where they grow vegetable and stuff. And I don't know what you call them, the big tatami, you know, the long reed they grow, stuff like that, make tatami. You know what tatami is, huh?

MN: Was farming in Japan very different from farming that you knew here?

HY: It is, it is.

MN: How is it different?

HY: Well, it's... they put water in there, they plant the rice, you know. We don't do that here. And the, when they water the vegetable, they scoop the water and they pour it out instead of irrigating.

MN: Is it any harder or is it easier?

HY: Well, it's just a small, like here, the acres, over there, just a little, you know, plots is it.

MN: Now, while you were in Japan, you also attended school there. Now, what was school like in Japan?

HY: They put me in, in sixth grade, I believe, yeah. And it was completely different to here.

MN: How was it different?

HY: Every morning, you go through the gate, you had to bow toward the emperor. Then when they go in and then you have to clean the, your room, study room, end to end, the floor and everything else. Just spic and span. Then they make you exercise before you start class.

MN: Did the other --

HY: It was completely different.

MN: Did the other students tease you for being American?

HY: No, no. Kids were okay.

MN: How much Japanese did you speak at the time?

HY: I guess pretty good, I would say. [Laughs] Been going to Japanese school here, you know.

MN: Now, while you were there, Japan's growing militarism and nationalism.

HY: Yeah, we had China and Japan war, huh?

MN: Was that very obvious at school and where you were living?

HY: Oh, yes. All the soldiers used to come there all the time, you know. All the soldiers on the field trip, I guess. Field trip, they come to the school, and all the people cook for them, and put it in their... what do they call the... they got the little, I don't know what they call that, Japanese soldiers, they got a, for putting the rice and stuff, little bit of this, little bit of that.

MN: So as students, you cooked for them?

HY: Not the students, the parents come up to the school and cook for them.

<End Segment 8> - Copyright © 2010 Densho. All Rights Reserved.