<Begin Segment 7>

MN: Did your family get involved in any kind of kenjinkai? I don't imagine the Shiga-ken kenjinkai was big enough to have a kenjinkai in your area but did your mother get involved in any other kenjinkais?

MU: Not that I remember. She being a Shiga-ken, although kenjinkai could I guess involve other kens.

MN: I would imagine.

MU: I'm not too sure how those ken groups organize or how they work. I'm not sure. She did... we did go to the Buddhist church, to the funeral services. I don't think that Buddhist church in Penryn had Buddhist Sunday school, they may have, I don't know about it. Like I said, I went to the Christian one that was before the Japanese school. Now if the Christian Sunday school was not held at the Newcastle Japanese school on Sundays, I don't think I would have gone to a Christian Sunday school at a church because my mother was a Buddhist until after the war. And I don't remember going to Sunday school, a Buddhist Sunday school in Penryn. And I don't know if they had it, they may not have had it. But I do remember going to that, the temple to church when my mother would go to some funeral services and my being the youngest I would be with her. I remember playing with the juzu. [Laughs]

MN: How about like Obon? Did you go to different... where was the Obon held?

MU: I don't remember Obon being held in Penryn. They may have had Obon, I'm trying to remember my sister maybe dressing up in a yukata or Obon type of kimono and I don't remember that. What I remember like I say was her being in the parade in Auburn when they did do some odori and they participated in the parade.

MN: Now what was this parade for?

MU: Community parade. I don't know which holiday it was for but they did have one with the Nisei gals with the kimono. I don't remember if they were on a platform or if they had to walk a certain distance. Maybe Auburn being a small city it probably was not a long distance for them to walk if they had to walk in the kimono and in their slippers.

MN: Now did your Newcastle community have a annual picnic?

MU: The picnic that I remember would be a community picnic with all the other towns, Penryn. But what I remember more is after the war, the picnics after the war, but I know they had some before the war because I remember going to them. And there would be races and I remember my sister having a bunny outfit where she had bunny ears because I'm thinking back looking at the albums, the photograph albums, and she had some, I think some kind of goggle glasses and so there are some people behind her. I think what was happening, they were on the stage and walking around the stage so I do remember that, so that was before the war. And my sister and her Nisei friends would also at that time dress in kimono. I would see photographs of them lined up and then they're taking pictures. And this is before the war, so as to whether Newcastle just had their own at that time and Penryn had their own at that time and Loomis, I can't remember that. But I do know after the war we had a community picnic. I remember after Marvin and I got married, before we had children we went and got to see many of our numerous friends in Newcastle, Penryn friends. So it was quite organized, I think the community quite a few Japanese Americans lived in Placer County and so they had organized. There was a JACL that was very active.

MN: Do you know who organized these community picnics before the war?

MU: I don't remember if there was a JACL before the war. The picnics after the war I think the JACL, the Placer JACL, my brother was active in that JACL, and I can visualize him on the stage taking part in the picnic, whatever he was doing for the picnic.

MN: But before the war, your brother was not involved in the JACL?

MU: I don't know if they had a JACL before the war. They must have had it because the war was 1941 and the picnics that we had, whether the JACL was the main organizer, the sponsor, I don't remember that. But I do remember going because I enjoyed the food that my mother would make. Osushi being one of my favorite foods yet she would... my mother was a good cook and so she would make the osushi and the picnic obento and jubako and I remember those things before the war.

MN: Did your mother have to spend days to make the obento food?

MU: I don't know how many days she had spent to make the food.

MN: When you say sushi I'm thinking your mother must have made the makisushi?

MU: Yes, nori maki, yes.

MN: Nori maki, and what other foods did she make?

MU: What are the other foods, you mean before the war or after the war?

MN: Before the war.

MU: Before the war, fish was one of the staples that we had. The Goto grocery store in Penryn would send the vendor out to the country. I think that is probably occurred in many of the countries, California. And he would mostly bring fish, fresh fish, and otofu and Mrs. Goto would make the otofu and I'm still am saying to Marvin, the otofu that we have now does not have as much taste as the otofu that Mrs. Goto had made. And I know we ate a lot of otofu but coming back to the picnic food, I think she must have made the usual food, and the inarisushi of course and chicken and takenoko, she would nishime type of food for the box and she... we had a good vegetable garden, she liked to grow vegetables. Being a good cook she always liked to have fresh vegetables, daikon, and she would make narazuke and nukamiso for our ochazuke. And being a good cook she made a variety of Japanese food for us which I enjoyed.

MN: So your mother, did she... your family grew daikon?

MU: Yes.

MN: Did she grow things like gobo and nasubi?

MU: Yes, cucumber, green pepper, tomato, string beans, I'd have to go pick the string beans and string them before they had strings.

MN: Did your mom make like the takuan?

MU: She didn't make takuan, I don't think it was popular at that time. It's after the war when my sister-in-law made it but she would make the daikon, the tsukemono, the daikontsukemono.

MN: Who had to mix the nukamiso every day?

MU: She did, she would put the old rice in there, she says you have to touch it every day. And do you know she took some of that to camp? She took it to camp from Tule Lake to Heart Mountain and when we relocated to Idaho and Utah she kept the core. It's like the sourdough starter, so she kept that so after the war she made more of it with the old rice in there with the nuka and Marvin still talks about the tsukemono she used to make when she had lived with us for twenty years. The daikon, delicious.

<End Segment 7> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.