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MN: Now, your family farmed in different places in Orange County while you were growing up. Do you know why they had to move so often?

CO: Well, my understanding is that -- well, first of all, because of the Depression, I know that my immediate family moved in with an aunt and uncle and their children and they kind of farmed together for a while because times were tough, and my father did a lot of truck driving and things for them. And then he went out on his own to establish his own farm after a couple of years. But I think it's pretty much due to the three-year limit on the span of time that they allowed Japanese to lease land at that time, although probably there were other factors, too. I don't know, people managed to evade that because people did stay in one place for a while, I know. Like my grandparents, they always lived in Oxnard as far as I knew, farming, but they may have had some kind of arrangement that I really don't know about.

MN: Yeah, right before going into camp, what area of California did your family live in?

CO: We lived in Oceanside, California, which is between L.A. and San Diego, more or less equidistant. But anyway, so my father had joined a group of fellow farmers and they had formed this cooperative association and had set up what I now think about as something which was akin to a Japanese village where we lived fairly close together and then the outlying areas were the farms. And the cooperative association did things as a group.

MN: Can you share with us some of the projects that the cooperative did?

CO: Well, I think that they pooled their resources and maybe probably did their purchasing and things like that a group to get better prices or keep their costs down and then they also built a schoolhouse, combination community hall and schoolhouse, and hired a couple from Japan to be schoolteachers at the place. And now that I look back on it, I think they built a little house for the schoolteachers which was modern and had plumbing and all that kind of stuff. And they did all this for the schoolteachers, things that they didn't themselves have, but I don't know, they did all. And then the schoolhouse, we went to Japanese school every day after the American school. And in summers, we didn't go every day, but we were certainly -- like the teachers would insist that we keep daily diaries, so we had to recount what we'd done during the day. And the teachers would come around to the farms to see what we were doing and what things were going on. Anyway, he was, the male schoolteacher was stern and very... oh, you know, strict and Japanese-like, and ruled with quite a firm hand. And I think the boys really hated it, but I didn't care. [Laughs] I got along. But they were serious about getting us to learn Japanese.

MN: How strict was the school? Did you have to bow to the emperor every time?

CO: No, we had to bow to the schoolteacher every time, and that probably meant bowing to the emperor.

MN: I meant the picture of the emperor.

CO: Yeah, I can't remember it, but I'm sure it was there on account of the way this couple ran things. And we were indoctrinated in Japanese culture and history and loyalty to the emperor. I mean, we were being given a Japanese education.

MN: This schoolhouse community center, did it have an official name to it?

CO: Probably did, but I don't remember it. They would have kendo classes and Japanese movies, and you know, we would have things like competitions as to who could do the most beautiful calligraphy and things like that. They got the parents involved in a lot of these activities, too.

MN: Did you take any additional classes there other than Japanese language?

CO: No, that's all.

MN: And you mentioned that movies were shown. What kind of movies were shown?

CO: Whatever the current movies were, I guess. You know, lots of old samurai things and very sentimental stories. You know, I mean the one I remember is Shina no Yoru, of course, everybody was so crazy about all that. You know, when we had the opening of the schoolhouse, there was a grand celebration, and there is a picture of us, of the girls, and we're all wearing kimono. The adults weren't, but we were, and it was just a big party. But there is that memento of the photo of me and the other girls in our kimonos.

MN: Now, when you went to see these movies, I'm just curious, did you bring your own chairs?

CO: Well, I don't remember. Seems to me like they just used the school chairs because... maybe we sat on benches. Boy, I have to really rattle my memories and get some images. What were they like? I don't know, I just remember that we ran around and it was a time to have soda pop and things because those were big treats at the time. Not that we were so necessarily interested in the picture, the moving picture, but it was just a social occasion and there would be food and refreshments, the usual Japanese kind of thing. So with all these gatherings, it was a cohesive group. I think they were old friends to start with, but this was sort of an intentional community sort of based on a Japanese village, it seems to me. So that they had their... I mean, they did want their children to be taught, indoctrinated, whatever. And it's funny because at that age, there really was no conflict between going to an American school during the day where we spoke English and did everything that were the standard things in school, and then to switch into this really kind of different culture and different society.

[Interruption]

[Ed. Note: Due to a technical problem, a portion of the interview is missing.]

<End Segment 2> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.