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MN: Can you tell me how many Japanese families were living in Missoula?

RN: Families, there was three of us, three families. And then in the town of Missoula they had a hospital and there was about two Japanese working at the hospital.

MN: Did you socialize with these people?

RN: What people? The white people?

MN: No, the Japanese people.

RN: Yeah, they used to, our place was sort of like a, it was like a gathering place, wintertime and the fall. There were, some of 'em were bachelors, and the other farmers, they would come over. We lived pretty far apart, though.

MN: Can you tell me about the Doi family?

RN: The Doi? We don't know too much about 'em. Only thing is they raised livestock. They never, they never raised vegetables. They'd raise cattle, not too many, but outside of that I don't know what they raised. All they had, I know they had, they had the cattle on the field. But they never raised vegetables.

MN: Did they have any children?

RN: Well, I really don't know. There was a Doi family, but they had a young fellow, I don't know how old he is, how old he was, and I don't know if... he was a cowboy. He was a Japanese cowboy, and he had his own horse and his clothing was always like a cowboy. Cowboy hat, cowboy boots, he had his own horse. And they raised a few cattle, but outside of that I don't know how they, how they survived. And they had one Japanese woman living with them besides the wife, and they had a couple Japanese men living, so what they did for a living I don't know.

MN: What about the other Japanese family? It was a Issei couple, is that right?

RN: I don't know what the other, what the other families did. I know they didn't raise hardly any vegetables. We never socialized with 'em very much. They only lived about one or two miles away and they lived, they had a farm on the river, so I don't know what they raised or how they made a living. Like I say, we never socialized. My parents, my father used to go over there and I would tag along all the time when I was six, five or six, and he would talk to them for a while, but we never got together. So I don't know what ever, I don't know what happened to 'em.

MN: So these people who were coming to your house, who were they?

RN: They were ex-railroad workers, or they were, some of them were still workin' on the railroad, maintaining the railroad. So they were bachelors, so they used to come over to our place.

MN: You also mentioned you used to have guests that would stay at your house for a few days?

RN: Well, it was more than a few days. Sometimes, sometimes it was, they would stay at our place during the summer and they would help my father on the farm, working, but they would stay two or three months. They were single persons from Japan and they would just, they would just take off. Of course, I don't know about the pay or anything, but they would stay at our farm during the summer, help my father on the farm, then they went in, they went further east. They said they're going to Wyoming. I don't know why, but I think they went to Wyoming to work on the railroad. But they were from Japan. I would say there were, at that time they were all in their early twenties, 'cause I know there were, they had, well, they must've had education in Japan. But anyway, they were in their early twenties, and they were always single.

MN: So it sounds like your parents helped a lot, all the Japanese who came through.

RN: He helped a lot of them.

<End Segment 5> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.