Densho Digital Archive
Densho Visual History Collection
Title: Minoru Tajii Interview
Narrator: Minoru Tajii
Interviewer: Martha Nakagawa
Location: Gardena, California
Date: February 14, 2012
Densho ID: denshovh-tminoru_2-01-0013

<Begin Segment 13>

MN: Now when your family moved to Calexico, you shared that you started to attend a Christian church. Were your parents Christians?

MT: No. But that's what Kokubun, Kei Kokubun's family, the father used to teach it. 'Cause he was a Christian. So he had a Christian church, so we used to go there.

MN: So was there a Japanese school held there also?

MT: Oh, yes. But I liked El Centro 'cause it was bigger. You had more different teachers. So we always went to El Centro. And besides, at the same time, they could do the food shopping, so we always went to El Centro. 'Cause we always went to one Japanese restaurant, it was a grocery store. There weren't too many grocery stores around for the food. Because everything had to come from Los Angeles by truck. So we all went to the biggest place.

MN: Now you mentioned that when you were very young you'd play with a lot of Mexicans.

MT: Yes.

MN: And as you got older, who were your friends?

MT: Japanese.

MN: What kind of games did you play?

MT: Oh, gee. We didn't have too much with games. Marbles were one of the biggest ones. In those days, marbles were the biggest thing then. My father didn't like me to play marbles because I would tear my knees. Because your knees are always touching the ground and the knees gave out. They didn't like me... so I used to put the marbles that I won into a coffee can and I'd bury it. And every once in a while he'll find it, and boy does he... he takes it, in those days, we only have outdoor toilets, and he'd throw it into the toilet. So I have to go out and win some more. But I never bought any because they never gave me money to buy marbles. Like I say, they didn't want me to play marbles. He taught that... in a way, my father said, that's like gambling. Well, yes, in a way, because any marble you knock out of the big ring is yours. And I don't buy any, but I'll always have marbles because I used to win.

MN: So your dad would just put it into the outhouse hole?

MT: No, not outhouse, I used to bury it in the backyard. But my father, he sees a place where dirt is moved, and he'll dig it, oh, yeah, get the marbles. I always tried to hide it near a bush so it'd be harder to find, but he'll find it, or he'll see me taking some marble out because I need some more. Then he'll throw it away.

MN: Let me ask you about your outhouse. When it got full, what did you do?

MT: Dig another hole and move it, bury the other one. You always have a lot of dirt because you're digging another hole to put the outhouse over. You always have to bury it.

MN: Did you put, like, lye on it?

MT: Nothing. That's why my mother used to hate it. She used to do something. I can't remember, she used to put like a mask over her face. But she must have used a perfume or something so that it won't smell so much. But us, we don't care, we get used to it. That's the way we live, everybody else is the same way.

MN: What did you use for toilet paper?

MT: Newspaper. He used to take the Japanese paper, so we used newspaper. Then on the weekends, he would buy us an L.A. Times, so we always got newspapers.

MN: Which Japanese newspaper did he take?

MT: The Rafu Shimpo. He used to have the Rafu Shimpo a long time ago.

MN: So you're helping out on the farm before you go to school, after school, then you had Japanese school, you had kendo and you went to church on Sundays. Now, if you had any free time...

MT: No, we don't. That's why I'm not a farmer. [Laughs] I used to hate that. You don't have enough time to really play with your friends. Although sometimes when I'd come home from grammar school, and a friend of mine, anybody that's about your age or two or three years younger than you, you become friends with. I'd jump on my bike, and my father bought me a Japanese bike in those days, before the war. And I used to jump on it and go to the friends' house, play, and come back in time to do my cooking and whatever house chores. That's the way we used to live.

MN: Farms are not very close together. When you say you biked, how far are you biking away?

MT: Sometimes three, four miles. But then on a bicycle you can go pretty fast, you know. It'll only take you, go two, three miles, it don't take you very long, fifteen minutes, twenty minutes. Then you play a couple hours or one hour and then come home, rush home and do your duty. Get the bath ready, cook the rice, don't burn it.

<End Segment 13> - Copyright &copy; 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.