<Begin Segment 8>

MN: Your father is from Wakayama ken.

YH: Yes.

MN: How active was he in the Wakayama kenjinkai?

YH: He was very active. He was the president for many years, and they always had a picnic every year in Silverado Park in Long Beach, and then he would always lead the Obon.

MN: Can you share what your father did during Christmas also?

YH: Oh yes, during Christmas, this was when we lived in Des Moines, and Christmas was a very busy time for him. Also at Mother's Day, so at Christmas we'd always wait until he got home because he would work at the night meal. And so we would always wait until he got home before we opened our packages.

MN: Now, I thought in Long Beach, when you were still living in Long Beach, I thought your father dressed in a, like a Santa suit?

YH: Yeah, he did. He dressed in a Santa, he had a long stocking cap that was red and there was a tassel on the end that was white, and he always put that on. And he had a big sack -- I think rice came in the sack -- and he'd put all his, all the gifts in there, and then we'd make all the stops and take the packages out of the sack and give it to our friends.

MN: So when you went delivering these presents what kind of car did your father drive?

YH: I think he had a, I think he had a Packard. It was a big car and it had wood frames around the window, because we used to gnaw away on the, on that wood frame, and you could see our teeth marks on the wood frame. I don't know why we did that, but that's what we did, all four of us.

MN: Can I guess on this gnawing on the wooden frame? Because I was on a pilgrimage once where we were talking, there was a young girl who used to gnaw on her piano legs, and there was a doctor sitting next, and he thought it was because they had a deficiency.

YH: Oh. I don't...

MN: So maybe...

YH: Maybe, deficiency of what, some kind of food?

MN: That was his guess on why she was gnawing on the piano leg.

YH: Yeah. My father liked to, when the twins couldn't go to sleep, he had two big rectangular straw boxes in the backseat, and he'd put one of the twins in one and another twin in the other, and then he'd just ride around the block and they were sound asleep. He'd take them into the house in the basket, put 'em in their bed.

MN: How active was your father with the Japanese language school?

YH: He was treasurer of the Japanese language school, and that's probably why he had to go to that, the other internment camp. I found that out years later.

MN: When he got picked up by the FBI?

YH: Right, why he got picked up.

MN: Let me ask you a little bit more about your father. You mentioned he played golf.

YH: Yes, he did.

MN: Who were his golf partners?

YH: I don't know who they were, but he played golf every weekend. He had his golf bag and his clubs and his balls, and he'd always put it over his shoulder every weekend and go play.

MN: Did your father play any other sports?

YH: When he was younger he played baseball. Because I have a picture of him in his baseball uniform, so I know he played baseball. 'Cause he was very young when he went to that prison camp, he was about thirty-seven years old, so he was about the youngest man there.

MN: Now, you mentioned that your mother made all the girls' clothes.

YH: Yes.

MN: Did you get a lot of compliments from people on your clothes?

YH: I don't remember. She made us these pleated skirts, and she made us a sailor dress with this big collar in the back and edged in black. She was an accomplished seamstress.

MN: Yeah, making pleated skirts is very hard.

YH: Yeah, it was very fancy for us.

MN: So did your mother stay up late at night doing sewing?

YH: No.

MN: How would you describe your family economically before the war? Would you say it was middle or upper class?

YH: I'd say middle to upper, because we lived in a big, a big house in Long Beach and not many people lived in a house as big as ours. I think that was because my father was an independent produce business.

MN: He was doing very well.

YH: Yes.

<End Segment 8> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.