<Begin Segment 1>

MN: Tuesday, March 20, 2012. We will be interviewing Takuzo Dave Maruya at his Gardena home. We have Ann Kaneko on videotape, videocamera, I'm sorry, and I will be interviewing, I'm Martha Nakagawa. So, Dave, I wanted to start with, what is your father's name?

DM: Father's name was Shiro.

MN: Shiro?

DM: Shiro.

MN: And which prefecture is he from?

DM: Kanazawa Prefecture.

MN: Kanazawa?

DM: No, I'm sorry. It's Ishikawa Prefecture.

MN: Can you share a little bit about what your father's early life was like?

DM: I understand he was orphaned at an early age, and he served in the Japanese army during the Japanese-Russian War, where he had a leg injury which crippled him the rest of his life.

MN: And do you know when he came to the United States?

DM: My parents came, immigrated to the U.S. in 1909 or '10, something around there.

[Interruption]

MN: So is it your father who came here in 1909?

DM: Yes.

MN: He came by himself?

DM: I think so. My mother came later, a year later.

MN: And so they got married in Japan or did they get married here?

DM: They were married, I think.

MN: What is your mother's name?

DM: Her first name was Hatsune.

MN: And her maiden name?

DM: Matsumoto.

MN: And what prefecture is she from?

DM: The same prefecture.

MN: Ishikawa-ken.

DM: Yes.

MN: Do you know anything about your mother's early life in Japan?

DM: No, only that her ancestors were descendants from samurai in those days, so they were prominent people in the town.

MN: So in total, how many children did your parents have?

DM: Five.

MN: Is that including the sister that passed away?

DM: That'd be two, three... no, it'd be six, I'm sorry. Three girls and two boys, three boys.

MN: And where are you in the sibling hierarchy?

DM: I'm the oldest son.

MN: Oldest son, but child number...

DM: Three.

MN: And where were all your siblings and yourself born?

DM: The eldest, Junko, was born in Brawley, the next was Yoshiko, born in Japan, then I came, born in Brawley, and Al Soto, the next brother, was born in Japan, and George was born in Brawley as well as Mey, the youngest.

MN: And what year were you born?

DM: 1920.

MN: And what is your birth name?

DM: Takuzo.

MN: But everybody calls you Dave now. When did you pick that up?

DM: I'll come to that if you want, later.

MN: Oh, later? Okay, let's talk about it later then. So what is the first language that you learned?

DM: English.

MN: English?

DM: Well, I was talking to the parents, as a toddler I imagine it was Japanese.

MN: So at home you talked to your parents in Japanese?

DM: Until I learned English.

<End Segment 1> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.

<Begin Segment 2>

MN: So when you were about three and a half or four, you went to Japan.

DM: Yes.

MN: Who went with you?

DM: My sister Junko and Yoshiko.

MN: And your parents, mother and father?

DM: Just my mother went.

MN: And where did you stay when you reached Ichikawa-ken?

DM: At her parents' home in Kanazawa.

MN: What do you remember of your mother's parents' home?

DM: It was a huge wooden house elevated on a foundation, so it was off the ground. And it had a big porch in back of the house where you can sit and watch the backyard. And the address was interesting. Because when I went to Japan with the army, the first chance I got was I visited my mother's home in Kanazawa. I took the train to Kanazawa, and Kanazawa was in the Ishikawa Prefecture which was about, west of Tokyo on the Japan Sea side. But my parents gave me the address of the parents' home, which was Ichiban-chi, Ichiban-cho, which I later learned -- well, when I went to the town, I couldn't find it. So I had to ask a policeman where this house was. He said it was down the street, and he explained to me how houses were numbered in those days. Ichiban-chi means "number one," which meant the first house on the first street. So you had to go down the street to find which house is number one. Not like in this country where it's numerically numbered down the line.

MN: So that would indicate your mother's parents or family were very prominent.

DM: Yeah. I don't know if they still use that system now, but...

MN: Now, what happened to your second oldest sister Yoshiko in Japan?

DM: She died in Japan from influenza, I think it was.

MN: Now you were still very young. Did you understand what happened to your sister?

DM: No, I was only about four years old, so I don't remember too much of it. All I can remember is the boat trip, which I remember hanging onto the railing so I wouldn't fall into the water. That's about all I can remember.

MN: Do you remember a funeral for Yoshiko?

DM: No.

MN: How long did you stay in Japan?

DM: About a year, I think.

<End Segment 2> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.

<Begin Segment 3>

MN: Now, when you returned to the United States, who came back with you?

DM: Oh, my brother Al was born on that trip, and he came back with us. But we were detained a... was it Angel Island? Because he was not a citizen. We spent about a week in Angel Island before we were released and went back home.

MN: Now, when you were coming back, you came back when Al was born, and then you and then your mother. Now, what happened to Junko?

DM: She came back also.

MN: Oh, she came back? She didn't stay in Japan?

DM: I'm sorry, she stayed in Japan.

MN: Your older sister, Junko.

DM: Yeah.

MN: And then you came back, do you remember the ship that you came back on?

DM: The name of the boat was Taiyo Maru.

MN: Taiyo Maru, not Tatsuno Maru?

DM: No, Taiyo. I distinctly remember the name, T-A-I-Y-O.

MN: And then you went through Angel Island. Do you know how long you were at Angel Island?

DM: It was probably about a week, I think. And, of course, I don't remember too much of the stay there.

MN: Were the men separate from the women?

DM: That I couldn't tell you. All I know is it was an island, and looking out the window, you could see the city in the background.

MN: Do you know if the Japanese were separate from the Chinese?

DM: I couldn't tell you.

MN: What memories do you have of Angel Island?

DM: That's about all. Just looking out the window and seeing the San Francisco in the background.

MN: Now, how did you get from Angel Island back to Imperial Valley?

DM: In those days, we traveled by train.

MN: Do you remember if your father came up to pick you up?

DM: I think he did, yeah. He came and picked us up, then we stopped in Los Angeles where they took a picture of our family. I think that's it up there. I can't remember the studio's name. It was in the J-town.

MN: I think at that time there was a lot of photographers besides Miyatake.

DM: Probably were.

<End Segment 3> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.

<Begin Segment 4>

MN: Let me ask you a little bit about your education. What was the name of your grammar school?

DM: I attended the start of first grade in Trifolium Elementary School, which was an old country, two-room schoolhouse in an area called Trifolium, which was about ten miles west of Brawley. And I completed first through eighth, seventh grade at Trifolium. Of course, one room consisted of one to fourth grade, and the other room was from fifth to eighth grade. And I remember taking, of course, every year we took what they called Standard Achievement Test, and my score was higher than the eighth graders', so the teacher let me skip eighth grade and went directly to high school. I was in seventh grade at that time when I took the test.

MN: What was the ethnic makeup of Trifolium?

DM: Just about everything you can think of. Predominately Latino, and quite a few Caucasians. There was one black family, and about half a dozen Japanese families.

MN: So to get to this two-room grammar school, how did you get there?

DM: We walked. Our farm was about three quarters of a mile from school.

MN: How about Japanese school? How old were you when you started Japanese school?

DM: Gee, I must have been about seven or eight years old when on Saturdays they had the Japanese classes at the Japanese Methodist Church in Brawley. And the bus picked us up and took us back.

MN: And so, was Japanese school half a day or all day Saturday?

DM: All day.

MN: How many students do you think went to the Methodist church Japanese school?

DM: Quite a few. I would say in my class there were over a dozen. Of course, teaching was usually just fundamental A, B, C of the language, which means write and reading in katakana, which was the simplest form.

MN: How strict were they?

DM: Strict. You had to pay attention.

MN: Did you have to learn the Kimigayo and bow to the Tennou picture?

DM: I remember singing the song, but since it was not a Buddhist church, it was mainly Christianity.

MN: Now, you're there all day. What did you bring for obento?

DM: My mother would fix lunch, which consisted of sandwich, mostly likely peanut butter and jam.

MN: Is that what you brought to your regular school lunch?

DM: Yes.

<End Segment 4> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.

<Begin Segment 5>

MN: Let me ask you a little bit about the martial arts. How old were you when you started taking kendo classes?

DM: It was about, I was probably about ten, eleven, when my father bought me the kendo gear. And kendo and judo lessons were held on Sundays. So my father used to drive us into town, and those lessons were held at... they had a community center in Brawley, Japanese community center, where we received kendo lessons. And ironically, the kendo instructor was Mr. Sano.

MN: Can you share about the story of Mr. Sano, what happened to him after Pearl Harbor?

DM: The night of Pearl Harbor, him and his wife were murdered in bed while they were sleeping.

MN: Did they catch who did this?

DM: No, they never caught the... but the kids said there were Filipino helpers that were working on the farm.

MN: Now, when that occurred, did it really raise the tension in Brawley?

DM: In our community it did, but the rest of the community probably felt they had it coming.

MN: Let me go back to your prewar time with your kendo. What prompted you to start taking kendo and judo lessons?

DM: I had no interest in it, but my dad did. He wanted me to go into it, so he bought all the gears and the suit.

MN: So you're not the one that said, "I want to take kendo and judo?"

> DM: No.

MN: How common was it for a kid to take both?

DM: It was convenient 'cause it was held at the same place at the same time.

MN: So did a lot of kids take both classes?

DM: There were, I won't say a lot, but there were, you know, I mean, sufficient.

[Interruption]

MN: So for kendo and judo, did you compete with the other cities?

DM: We generally had the tournaments with the kendo club in El Centro and Calexico, which were nearby cities, rather, towns, 'cause they weren't big.

MN: How about, did you come into Los Angeles? Did you go to the Rafu Dojo?

DM: I don't remember coming this far.

MN: How about your younger brother Al or George? Did they take kendo or judo?

DM: Al and George, they took judo lessons but not kendo.

MN: Now how long did you take kendo and judo?

DM: Couple of years, 'cause I was usually prompted to go.

MN: Now, Tomoya Kawakita, who was convicted of treason after the war, came from the Imperial Valley. Did you know the Kawakita family?

DM: No, I didn't know them until we went to Poston.

MN: So you didn't meet him in the different shiai, kendo or judo shiai?

DM: Probably could have, but I don't remember. 'Cause Calexico is about twenty-five miles south of Brawley on the Mexican border.

MN: And that's where the Kawakitas were from.

DM: They were store owners, I think, their family ran a store.

<End Segment 5> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.

<Begin Segment 6>

MN: Let me ask you about your parents' farm. How many acres did your parents usually farm?

DM: Usually in Imperial Valley they were divided into three quarter miles square, which would consist of forty acres.

MN: Did they own the land?

DM: No, they couldn't. Immigrants couldn't purchase property in those days, so he would lease the land for three years at a time.

MN: So did you have to move every three years?

DM: Usually the land would be not nourishable to produce crops, so we generally moved every three years to another location.

MN: Every time you moved, what happened to your home?

DM: Our houses were, they were wooden houses about twelve by fourteen. They were made small so they could be lifted on the back of a truck to carry to a different location. So they were just simple houses.

MN: So you had a portable home?

DM: Yeah. I guess you'd call it portable.

MN: How old were you when you started to work on the farm?

DM: I can remember working on the farm ever since I can lift a shovel in a hole, which would probably be around five or six years old.

MN: So at that age, what are you doing on the farm? You're so young.

DM: Chop weeds.

MN: And then you're going to school, so when did you help on the farm?

DM: After I came home from school.

MN: How old were you when you started to learn how to work with the mules?

DM: Oh, I ran the team of mule, I can remember, around ten or eleven years old.

MN: What did you do with the mules?

DM: Mules would probably be attached to a plow or a cultivator.

MN: So did you have to be pretty strong to work with the mules?

DM: No. You had harnesses from the mule which you would hold to direct them in what direction you want them to go. I was in the back handling the equipment.

MN: How do you know the mules are going in a straight line?

DM: They generally do. Goes, our work was usually up and down the furrows. Furrows were straight ditches, about three or four feet apart, up and down the field.

MN: What did you grow on your farm?

DM: At first, my dad was into lettuce and melons. They were mainly shipped back east on the freight cars, so they had to be ice packed, and it took about a week for the produce to appear in the market back east. So they were picked, you might say, not prematurely, but they were picked before they were ripe.

MN: Now when you say melons, are you talking about watermelons?

DM: Watermelons, cantaloupes, honeydew, and they had a fruit called honeymelons, which was a little smaller than the honeydew.

MN: Where did you purchase the seeds from?

DM: Mainly from the Kitazawa seed company.

MN: That's from Oakland, huh? Are they from Oakland?

DM: I don't know where they were headquartered. I think in L.A.

MN: Oh, L.A.?

DM: That was the, I think Mr. Hatchimonji handled the Kitazawa seeds.

MN: So Mr. Hatchimonji sold it at his seed company?

DM: Yeah.

MN: Because that was going way back, I think.

DM: Way back.

<End Segment 6> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.

<Begin Segment 7>

MN: Okay, we're talking about your farm. Where did you purchase your fertilizer from?

DM: Fertilizer, my dad usually bought a truckload of chicken manure from L.A. which was trucked in.

MN: So how did you fertilize your farm?

DM: The fertilizer was dumped into our, on our land, and that was my job to shovel the fertilizer into a gunnysack. And it was also my job to distribute the fertilizer up and down the row with the gunnysack on my back.

MN: How many pounds was a gunnysack.

DM: Oh, they must have weighed forty pounds or so.

MN: What was the worst part of doing this?

DM: Smell.

MN: I guess 'cause it's chicken manure, huh?

DM: And the heavy labor work.

MN: So when you started to plant, what time of the year did you start planting?

DM: The melons were usually started in September, and harvested in late November. And tomatoes and squash were planted about the end of February, after the frost season. And they were harvested from mid-May to the end of June. And most of the squash and tomatoes were hauled into L.A. Market.

MN: So after you planted your crops, how did you water your farm?

DM: Well, there were drainage... not drainage, irrigation canal throughout the valley, which was water that came from the Colorado River. And my dad would open the gate from the canal leading into the farm.

MN: So you didn't have to carry it in the bucket?

DM: No.

MN: What happens if you had a cold snap?

DM: Cold snap, you're probably talking about the frost?

MN: Frost, yes.

DM: There were years when frost would kill our plants, and we had to replant all over again.

MN: So you'd start from the seed again?

DM: Yeah, or seedling or plants.

MN: So where do you get your plants if they got --

DM: They were brought in from the L.A. area.

MN: So you just had a whole crop wiped out by frost, and you have to buy new plants. Do you get it on credit?

DM: Probably did. I can't remember, my dad handled the finances.

MN: So if you knew there was a frost coming, how did you protect your plants?

DM: He used to buy old tires, and around four o'clock in the morning, he would get up and light the tires to produce heat, but it produced more smoke than heat, I think. But he would start the fire by collecting horse manure and soaking them in kerosene, and put 'em in a tire to light. That's how you started the fire in the tires.

MN: Was that common among the farmers there?

DM: That was common. That's about the only protection we had from frost. Some of the rich farmers had fans, huge fans, which they would blow across the farm. Of course that came after the area was electrified. Electricity didn't come to the valley until Hoover Dam was built, and the electricity was trucked in to the valley. And by the time we got the electricity to our farm, it was about in the mid-'30s, early '30s. I still remember wiring our house, which was a simple procedure, 'cause two wires leading into, two wires leading from the pole, and you put your socket between the two wires. Usually had two sockets in every house. Simple.

MN: You were in high school when you wired your house.

DM: Yeah, probably, early. I think I was in high school in 1934.

MN: And then you got your wiring in the mid-'30s, you wired your house. Now going back to your farm, what did your mother do on the farm?

DM: She worked on the ranch too, between her household chores, which were backbreaking jobs. On a farm it's a lot of stoop labor.

MN: So your mother helped out and she did the housework also.

DM: Yes.

MN: You mentioned earlier that your father was in the Russo-Japan War and he was injured. How serious was that injury and how did that affect his ability to farm?

DM: He limped. I notice he didn't talk too much about it, but he managed without crutches or canes until he got older.

MN: So he never complained about pain?

DM: No.

MN: Did your father hire other workers?

DM: We had a lot of Mexican laborers come, and had one particularly, a Filipino man that he lived with us and worked on the farm.

MN: So how many people on average did you have, hired workers?

DM: During harvest season, it would be a group of maybe around six people would come in to help harvest. So it was seasonal work for them.

MN: And you said a lot of it was Mexican labor. Did your parents speak Spanish?

DM: Oh, yeah. Well, enough to get by. Mexican language is pretty simple.

MN: So you learned Spanish also.

DM: Sure.

<End Segment 7> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.

<Begin Segment 8>

MN: Now, when you have your crop, where did you sell your crops?

DM: The crop was trucked into our, we had a shed, we called it a packing shed. They were brought into the shed, and my mother and father would pack the product into the crates. And the truck will pick up the crates and haul them into the produce market in L.A.

MN: Now how did you get the produce to the produce market?

DM: There were independent truckers that came by every day.

MN: So you didn't truck it yourself?

DM: No.

MN: Now your parents, did they have a separate smaller garden where they had Japanese vegetables?

DM: We grew our own vegetables, which consisted mostly of our meals. So I grew up with daikon and nappa and cucumber and things like that.

MN: How did your mother prepare the nappa and daikon?

DM: I remember nappa, she would cook 'em with a can of mackerel or sardine. And daikon was made into tsukemono. That's about what consisted of our meals.

MN: When your mother made the tsukemono, was it salt or did she use nuka?

DM: Both. I remember we had a container dug into the ground where she would soak 'em with heavy weight on top.

MN: Did she always have to change, or mix nuka every day?

DM: Yeah, I remember she mixed them up occasionally.

MN: Did you have chickens on your farm?

DM: We had chickens which we ate. I remember how my dad used to kill the chicken by grabbing his neck, and corralling it so the neck would twist off. It was soaked in hot water, and my mother's job to feather 'em. That's how we ate our chicken.

MN: How often did you eat your chickens?

DM: Couple times a week, I think.

MN: What about perishable foods like tofu or konnyaku?

DM: In town, there was a Japanese grocery store, and in the back, there was a man that ran the fish market where he sold tofu. So I remember buying the tofu and fish and age from that department.

MN: Do you remember what that store was called?

DM: Yeah, I think it was called Asahi grocery store.

MN: What about the ofuro? Did your father build the ofuro on the farm?

DM: Every farm we had to build our own ofuro, which consisted of a rectangular, galvanized tank, dimensions were around three feet by four. And it was my job to build a fire underneath to heat the water. And that was about a daily chore for me in those days.

MN: Where did you get the firewood?

DM: We collected anything that would burn, like across from our farm was the irrigation ditch, and other side of the irrigation ditch was strictly desert. And we would go there to chop the brushes and bring in to use as firewood.

<End Segment 8> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.

<Begin Segment 9>

MN: Now, the Japanese American farmers in Imperial Valley usually left the area during the summertime. Did you do that also?

DM: I remember our family in the '30s would go to Terminal Island. That would be in July, after the harvest is finished. And we'd rent a house on Brighton Beach and we'd go to the beach, which was maybe around two or three hundred feet from the house.

MN: So what happened to the chickens and the mules?

DM: My dad stayed home, stayed back to watch the farm, because from June, July and August and part of September there was nothing to do. It was too hot to grow anything or do anything.

MN: So how did you get from Imperial Valley to Terminal Island? Did your mother drive?

DM: My dad drove us, I think. He had a sedan, I can't remember... I think it was a Ford, which would chug along the two hundred miles, which would take us about all day.

MN: So what did you do on Terminal Island?

DM: Oh, my mother knew a lady that lived on Terminal Island, and she was a foreman of the crew that worked in the cannery. So she always got a job when we went there.

MN: How old were you when you started to work at the cannery?

DM: I was around fifteen. And in those days, Terminal Island on the wharf, it was lined with canneries. One they had was Van de Kamp, the next was French Sardine Company, then after that it was Franco American tuna company, that's where my mother and I worked. We worked only when a load of tuna would come in from Mexico. In other words, the boats would arrive loaded with tuna at all hours of the day, which had to be cooked and placed on a tray and chopped into sizes to fit the can, and that was my job to bring the tray of fish to each lady who did the canning. And the pay was good. I remember it was something around thirty-five cents an hour, we got paid.

MN: The workers there, what was the ethnic makeup?

DM: Workers there were mostly Japanese ladies and Mexican ladies. The tray of fish would come down a conveyor belt, and the ladies would be on both sides of the belt on tables to can the tuna into the cans. And being fifteen years old and a simple country boy, these Mexican ladies would pick on me. [Laughs] 'Cause they knew that I wouldn't fight back. And I still remember when the ladies finished canning the pieces of tuna, what's leftover were flakes of tuna, which they scraped together and canned, and they were called "tuna flakes." So I never bought tuna flakes after I saw all this going into the cans.

MN: You mentioned that you would go to work when the boats come in. So what was your working hours like?

DM: Working hours there were generally... 'cause they first had to be cooked and prepared for canning, so the work day would start around seven 'til four or five.

MN: Do you know what your mother did in the cannery?

DM: She did the canning, which was placing the cut piece of tuna into the can. And, of course, there were scale there, she would put on the scale to make sure they weighed twelve ounce or whatever it's supposed to weigh. And it would go down the line and oil would poured into it automatically, and the lid would be stamped on.

MN: On the weekends, like on Sunday, what did you and your sister Junko do?

DM: Where?

MN: On Terminal Island. Did you stay on Terminal Island on the weekends?

DM: Oh, we stayed only from around June, July and August, 'cause in the first part of September, we'd have to go back because school would start from the first or second week of September.

MN: But when you're on Terminal Island and you're working every day and then you have Saturday and Sunday, you have free time, right?

DM: Right.

MN: What did you do on your free time?

DM: I probably went to Brighton Beach.

MN: So you didn't go visiting into Little Tokyo?

DM: I remember taking a ferry across the channel to San Pedro and catch the Red Car that would go into L.A. So we'd go to J-town and have China meshi.

MN: Do you know what restaurant you went to?

DM: I distinctly remember our favorite place was Sanko Low, which was the Chinese restaurant on First Street.

MN: Oh, and you mentioned you went swimming on Brighton Beach, where did you learn to swim?

DM: Oh, I learned to swim before that when I was, when I could tread into the water in the irrigation canal which was next to our farm. The canal was probably around eight feet wide and two and a half, three feet deep. That's where we would frolic in the water and learn how to swim, which was illegal.

MN: Why was that illegal?

DM: 'Cause that was the drinking water also. [Laughs] And there were... a worker from the irrigation company, they were called Sanjero's, S-A-N-J-E-R-O, they would patrol the canal to see who was using water, and they would have a lookout on us kids to see if we were in the canal. So we would time it and get out of there when he rolled by.

MN: Now going back to Terminal Island, you were living on Brighton Beach. Did you have any contact with the Fish Harbor people, the Japanese American community there?

DM: Our row of houses, rental houses were about half, more than a mile, mile from Terminal Island. Well, I mean, the housing on Terminal Island, which were behind the canneries. There were a bunch of barracks there where the Japanese family lived. Most of them were workers in the cannery or they and their husbands were fishermen out on the boats.

MN: So did you have any contact with them?

DM: I met a few of 'em. Of course, they were kind of standoffish because we were just country bums.

MN: What did you do at Fish Harbor? Did you go eat there, or did you help out with fixing nets?

DM: No, I didn't do any of that stuff. 'Cause the house we rented had, were equipped with kitchen.

MN: How about the boats from Japan? Did you go and watch them coming in?

DM: We would go to the channel to watch the boats in and out.

MN: So how would you compare your work at the cannery to your work on the farm?

DM: Both were labor intensive. Of course, working in the cannery was more enjoyable 'cause you were always around a lot of people. While on a farm, you're by yourself out there.

<End Segment 9> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.

<Begin Segment 10>

MN: And then in mid-September you returned to Brawley. What was the first, one of the first things you did when you returned?

DM: Get ready to go to school. That means buying clothing.

MN: Where did you buy your clothes at?

DM: In those days, most of our shopping were done from the Sears-Roebuck catalog.

MN: So you didn't go into Brawley to go buy new clothes.

DM: We did occasionally, but like I say, most of it was done through mail order.

MN: How did you prepare your farm?

DM: In September, we'd get the farm ready. We used to hire this contractor who had big tractors, the equipment to dig the furrows up and down the ranch. So then we'd prepare to plant after the furrows were made.

MN: Is this also when you flooded your fields?

DM: That was done during the summertime, in June, July and August. My dad would run the water onto the field and just flooded the field, so it'd be all wet, to give the ground some moisture.

MN: Why did you have to flood the field?

DM: To give the ground the moisture.

MN: And that's the only reason, to keep it wet?

DM: No, so the plants would grow.

MN: But at that time, you're not harvesting anything, you're not growing anything.

DM: Just preparing the land for planting.

MN: Now, this water that you're using, you also eat and cook with it. How did you, your family, purify the water?

DM: We didn't; we just, I remember having a tall, galvanized tank, round tank, which our job was to fill from the pond that we built, and after the water settled, sediment settled, we'd just use water from the top. That was drinking and cooking.

MN: Now you're coming of age during the Great Depression. How did the Depression affect your farm?

DM: Well, their income was very low. So we lived poorly. We had enough to eat, but then other luxuries were not there.

MN: But did you understand that you were poor?

DM: Oh, yeah. Like taking lunch to school, some of these kids from the well-off families, they had meat in their sandwiches, and they had to... well, those with better-looking lunch. So we would, the farm boys would eat separately with those city boys.

MN: You know in the Los Angeles area, the Work Progress Administration bussed in some of the city people to help out on the farm so they could get some food. Did they do that in the Imperial Valley?

DM: I never saw them.

<End Segment 10> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.

<Begin Segment 11>

MN: Now, your parents come from Ishikawa-ken which didn't have a lot of immigration to the U.S., were they invited to other kenjinkai picnics?

DM: No, because there were very few Ishikawa-ken people in Imperial Valley. I can only count two other families besides ours. So we were close, but we were never invited to the other kenjinkai picnics. We had our own picnics.

MN: When you had your own little gatherings, where did you go?

DM: Each other's house to eat, mainly.

MN: What sort of gochiso did your mother bring over?

DM: Oh, I don't remember too much, but then I remember she made onigiri and things like that.

MN: What about New Year's? Did you do mochitsuki?

DM: Yeah, I remember doing mochitsuki, pound the noodles with a mallet that my dad made. So we had mochi for New Year's. Yeah, I remember, I think they call it kazari where they have a large round mochi on the bottom and two other smaller mochi on top with a tangerine on top. Which was sort of supposed to have been a tribute to the emperor of Japan or something like that.

MN: How did your family eat the mochi?

DM: She boiled it in broth with some vegetables in it.

MN: Ozoni?

DM: Yeah, it's called ozoni.

MN: During the New Year's, did your family rest for the three traditional days?

DM: Oh, yeah, we didn't do any work on the farm I don't think except irrigating. Irrigation had to be done. Other than that, we didn't celebrate New Year's much, nor Christmas. Christmas, we did have Christmas program at the school, elementary school.

MN: What kind of program was that?

DM: I don't remember, but it was something like, depicting the three shepherds and that kind of thing.

MN: During these celebrations, did your father like to drink?

DM: He drank after work during supper.

MN: Was he a heavy drinker?

DM: He was quite a heavy drinker, because he made his own... not shochu, whiskey, but the other thing, rice wine. What do they call that? Well, he made that and drank it with his supper. At times he would get, he would drink too much and get drunk, so my sister would pour water in his wine to dilute it, which he didn't know the difference.

MN: How did he make his rice wine?

DM: I don't remember. I think he bought the material from the store and soaked it in the tub which he buried under the ground. Of course, I wasn't into that so I don't remember.

MN: What about Japanese movies? Where did your family go watch Japanese movies?

DM: The Japanese community center did have Japanese movie occasionally. And my mom and dad would go to watch the movies. Of course, the kids would tag along, but we couldn't understand the language too well, so we mostly played outside.

MN: When you played outside, what kind of games were you playing?

DM: Gee, it was dark, you don't know. Probably played tag at the most.

MN: What other games did you play on your free time?

DM: Well, in school we had our usual activities like softball, volleyball. And when I went to high school, I went out for softball and tennis. I made the team in tennis. Of course, the team was made up of four singles player and two doubles team, and I was the last one picked on the doubles team.

MN: Did you go compete with the other schools?

DM: And we did compete with El Centro High and Calexico High.

MN: For tennis and also for softball?

DM: Yes.

<End Segment 11> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.

<Begin Segment 12>

MN: Let me ask you about Boy Scouts. Which Boy Scout troop did you first join?

DM: First I joined, it was a troop in Westmorland, little community called Westmorland, which was maybe about four or five miles from our farm, I joined the Cub Scouts, which you could join at the age of eleven. And when I turned twelve, I joined the regular Troop 31, I remember it was called. I stayed with Troop 31 until the Brawley people started their own Boy Scout club which was Number 10. So I joined Number 10, and stayed in Scouting 'til I was around sixteen, seventeen years old.

MN: So this first troop that you started with in Westmorland, was that an all-Japanese troop?

DM: No, it was Caucasian troop. So there was very few Japanese kids.

MN: And what prompted you to join this troop?

DM: That was the nearest troop to join.

MN: But were your friends in it, is that why you joined?

DM: I think so. I think I remember some older boys were in the troop.

MN: And then when you said the Brawley people started Boy Scout Troop 10, was this an all-Japanese troop?

DM: Yeah.

MN: Who sponsored that troop?

DM: I think it was the Brawley Baptist... not Baptist, Buddhist church, was the sponsor.

MN: And what did the Boy Scout Troop 10, what kind of activities did you do?

DM: Most of the activities we did were like camping.

[Interruption]

MN: Okay, you were sharing about what kind of activities Boy Scout Troop 10 did.

DM: We went camping a lot, and to the desert, like go to Borrego Valley and places like Hemet. And once a year, the regional Boy Scout Council would have a jamboree, they call it, where all the troops get together. And I remember coming to a park in the Santa Ana, I can't remember the name of the park, where the whole troop couldn't come. So one patrol selected which to come to the Jamboral, which was nothing but Scouts from all over the Southern California area would get together. That was our activities in the Boy Scouts mostly. Field trips and camping out.

MN: Were you in the drum and bugle corps?

DM: There was a drum and bugle corps, I don't know if it was affiliated with the Boy Scouts or not. I was a bugler, and we did march at occasions, but I don't remember leaving Imperial Valley.

MN: But you were able to reach Eagle Scout rank?

DM: I think I reached the rank called... let's see, I can't remember. There was a Star rank, then Eagle. So I was in the, at second from the top rank, which you reach by accumulating so many merit badges.

MN: But you left the Boy Scouts before you can get enough for Eagle Scout rank.

DM: I couldn't collect enough merit badges, get there.

MN: Why did you leave the Boy Scouts?

DM: I was getting too old. Because most of the leaders in the Scouts were seventeen, eighteen year old, which, they wouldn't be Scoutmaster, but they were patrol leaders. I got that far and I dropped out.

MN: Let me ask you about guns. How old were you when your dad bought you your first gun?

DM: I must have been about twelve years old. He brought me a .410 shotgun, double barrel, handed it to me, told me my job was to go kill the rabbits that were eating our crop in the field. So I remember going out on evenings looking for rabbits.

MN: What did you do with the rabbits? Did you eat them or sell their pelts?

DM: No, just probably buried them.

MN: Did your father show you how to use the rifle?

DM: He just handed me the gun. He probably did show me which shotgun in those days were, you would break it down and put the two cartridge in each barrel, then snap it together and I was off hunting.

MN: Was there any recoil on that thing?

DM: Oh, heavy recoil when you're small.

MN: Only twelve years old.

DM: But .410 is the smaller, the smallest shotgun they made in those days. So from there it went up to ten gauge and twelve gauge, which were much bigger guns. And they would wallop quite a bit.

MN: You never injured yourself?

DM: No.

<End Segment 12> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.

<Begin Segment 13>

MN: Let me go back to your schooling now. You graduated from Trifolium elementary school, and then from there, which high school did you attend?

DM: I went to Brawley High School from freshman, graduated.

MN: How did you get to Brawley? Did you walk?

DM: There were daily bus services that came around and took us home.

MN: What was the ethnic makeup like at Brawley High School?

DM: Brawley High was, it was mainly a Caucasian school with quite a few Latinos and quite a few Nisei kids. 'Cause there were a lot of farmers in there, Japanese farmers.

MN: Now in your Trifolium elementary school picture, you have one black family in there. Did they also go to Brawley High?

DM: Yeah.

MN: You shared with us some of the sports activities you were in. You were on the tennis team and the softball team. How did you do academically? Did you have a favorite subject?

DM: I was just an average student, C and Bs. I guess my favorite subject was general science and geography. I did take two years of Spanish. My weak subject was mathematics.

MN: What year did you graduate from...

DM: 1937. Then I enrolled in Brawley junior college for two years, and graduated with the... what do they call it? Arts degree, I think they called it. Master of Arts?

MN: AA?

DM: Yeah, AA. I don't think they call it junior college anymore, they call it community college nowadays.

MN: So after you graduated from Brawley junior college, what did you do?

DM: Worked on a farm, and one summer I remember coming to L.A. and I got a job working for a landscaper. He was an Issei man, and he had a business of going around to new houses to install a garden and a lawn. Most of that was done up in the Baldwin Hills area where the houses were going up. And my job was to plant plants around the house and install the lawn. 'Cause in those days, didn't have sod, so the lawn was prepared by sprinkling the seeds. Of course, you have to level the land first, sprinkle the seed, then you cover the seed up with horse manure, ground up horse manure. So that was my job. At that time, my boss's name was George Ohara. He says, "I can't be calling you Takuzo, I want to give you an English name so the customers would, you're talking to." But he says, "You're Dave from now on." Well, he called me Davy. So that's how my name stuck. I worked there maybe about a year or so and went back to the farm. And that's about the time when the war broke out.

MN: So when you were working with Mr. Ohara in Los Angeles, where did you stay?

DM: At his home. He was not a bachelor, he was a divorced man with his own house, big house on Thirty-first Street in the Jefferson area.

MN: So what did you do on the weekends?

DM: Oh, he had another worker that stayed with us, 'cause we stayed in his house. And on Sundays we'd catch the J car to go to J-town. Of course, first thing we did was China meshi. I still remember our favorite dish we always ordered was hamyu. I think that's part of a pork, salted and made into patties. Besides the other dishes that we ordered.

MN: It had the little fish on top?

DM: Yeah.

MN: And then you said you went back to the farm?

DM: Yeah.

MN: Was it because your father needed your help?

DM: Yeah.

<End Segment 13> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.

<Begin Segment 14>

MN: Before we get into the war years, I want to ask a little bit about your oldest sister Junko. Do you remember about what year she returned to the United States from Japan?

DM: She went to grammar school in Japan and returned to the U.S. when she was around thirteen years old. That's where she enrolled in Trifolium school, graduated in a couple of years and went to high school.

MN: When she went to Trifolium, was she able to speak any English?

DM: No, she started from scratch. She must have learned pretty fast, because when she graduated from high school, she was the salutatorian.

MN: She was number two in her school in high school?

DM: No, the graduating class.

MN: What about Japanese school? Did Junko go to Japanese school in Brawley?

DM: She probably went to teach. Yeah, I remember she was one of the teachers.

MN: When did she start working at the Kashu Mainichi?

DM: Mr. Sei Fujii was a friend of the family, and he was looking for a bilingual to run his office. So he asked Jun to work for him. So she came to L.A. That was back in '39 or '40, somewhere around there.

MN: How did your family become friends with Sei Fujii?

DM: I don't know. My dad knew him from before.

MN: Now, at that time, where was the Kashu Mainichi office?

DM: I understand it was in J-town, I think it was on Second Street.

MN: Do you know what Junko was doing at the Kashu, what her responsibilities were?

DM: Run the office, payroll and everything like that, I suppose.

MN: But she did almost everything there except for the editorial.

DM: At the end, I understand, she ran the place. [Laughs]

MN: Did you help out at the Kashu?

DM: Who, me? No, I just was there occasionally to visit her. That's where I met most of the people including Horse.

MN: George Yoshinaga.

DM: Yeah.

MN: This was after the war.

DM: After the war, yeah.

MN: He joined you after the war. So before the war, which newspaper did your family subscribe to, Nikkei newspaper?

DM: Both the Rafu and the Kashu.

<End Segment 14> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.

<Begin Segment 15>

MN: Okay, let's get into the war years. What were you doing on Sunday, December 7, 1941?

DM: I distinctly remember because my brother and I went into the desert to hunt rabbits. And on the way back we had the radio on in our pickup truck saying that Pearl Harbor was bombed. So we hurried home, and I went into the backyard and buried the gun. That's about all I remember about Pearl Harbor day.

MN: Did you know people who were picked up by the FBI?

DM: Oh, yeah. The next day, a lot of... like my Japanese teacher and the priest at the church, and all those important people were picked up.

MN: How did the people in the town of Brawley treat you after Pearl Harbor?

DM: We stayed... we didn't venture out much, knowing what could happen. So we didn't go into town very often except for provisions. Because the Japanese grocery store was still open. And when was it? It was the early part of '42 when we got notice to report to the Methodist church with one suitcase apiece. That was just about in the middle of our harvest season. All that didn't go to waste, I don't think, because my dad turned over the farm to this Mexican family to look after the farm and the equipment.

MN: Did he look after it? I mean, when you returned after the war, how was it...

DM: When we went back after the war, no, there was no farm. Everything was gone, the family was gone. They probably went back across the border with everything. So that's the last we'd seen of it.

MN: How did you feel when you found out you had to go into a camp?

DM: You know, at that age, it was most like a lark, adventure.

MN: How did your hakujin friends treat you after Pearl Harbor?

DM: Some of the closer friends were still friendly.

MN: Was there a cherished item that you had to leave behind?

DM: I can't think of any except the gun, but then didn't have much to call my possession.

MN: Now your sister Junko was working at the Kashu. What happened to her?

DM: She had to come home. So she left with us from Brawley to Poston.

MN: And you said you left from the Methodist church, Japanese Methodist church?

DM: We were told to assemble there.

MN: When you got there, were there a lot of soldiers?

DM: Soldiers, yeah. Even the soldiers were driving the bus.

MN: So you get there, you have to get on these buses, what happened to your luggage?

DM: I think they were thrown up on top.

MN: And then did the bus take you to a train depot?

DM: No, straight to Poston on the bus.

MN: Do you remember how many buses?

DM: Oh, there must have been about ten, twelve or so.

MN: Did the buses have any bathrooms on them?

DM: No. I think we stopped in Coachella for... in the army there was a term for that kind of stop, I can't remember.

MN: Pit stop?

DM: Pit stop.

MN: What memories do you have of the bus ride?

DM: It was dusty, sweaty ride. Must have taken us at least six, seven hours to get there.

MN: Did they pass out water on the bus?

DM: I don't remember.

MN: Food?

DM: No, no food.

MN: You said it took about seven hours?

DM: Yeah, somewhere around there.

<End Segment 15> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.

<Begin Segment 16>

MN: So when you got to Poston, what time of the day was it?

DM: It was late afternoon, around four o'clock. We were assigned to our barracks, and first thing they did was hand us these canvas bags, it's called mattress bags, and told to fill the bag with straw and it's going to be our mattress for the rest of the stay. And the barracks, there were sixty barracks, sixty blocks in Camp I. And each barrack was divided into four rooms, A, B, C, D. We were assigned to apartment C, which was one room around twelve by fourteen feet. Our parents, sister, and four siblings stayed, so there were six of us in that room.

MN: That sounds very cramped.

DM: Pretty cramped. Of course, there was no furniture in there, you had to make your own furniture as time went by.

MN: Now you said you were in Unit C. Which block were you in?

DM: Block 59. So we were at the edge of the camp next to the desert.

MN: Is this where all the Imperial Valley people were put into?

DM: They were scattered all over the camp, anywhere from, I remember from Block 12, there were a lot of people in that area, and then 60 was Imperial Valley

MN: So your block, though, was it all Brawley people?

DM: No. We had a mixture of Boyle Heights people. That was it, mostly Boyle Heights and Imperial Valley people.

MN: Boyle Heights is the city people. Did you get along with them?

DM: [Laughs] At first, they were standoffish. They didn't want to mingle with the country boys. But eventually we became friends, and one of my best friends was Tosh Tsuchiyama from Boyle Heights.

MN: So in the beginning, you said you had to put the hay in these canvas mattresses. When you got to your barrack, where did you put the mattress?

DM: On the floor. Later on, about a year later, they started distributing these metal cots.

MN: Who was chosen to be the cook at your mess hall?

DM: Oh, we were lucky, 'cause our head cook was, used to run a restaurant in Brawley. He was an Okinawa man, I remember, and a very good cook. Of course, one end of the block was the mess hall, and at the end of the other row of barracks was the recreation area, we called it, which had these ping pong tables and things like that.

MN: Now at the mess hall, what kind of food did you serve?

DM: Breakfast was usually just cornflakes when we were able to get milk. Cornflake and toast. I don't remember eating much of an egg. That was it. And pancakes on weekends, I think. Then the lunch consisted of sandwich and soup. And dinner was, in those days, in the beginning it was c-ration, army classified as c-ration which was... well, you can imagine, it wasn't A, it was B, it was C. So some of the stuff they served us was liver, and the parts of the pig that nobody wanted, and things like that. Liver, I never got accustomed to eating it. So all I would eat would be the rice and the vegetables they served. But I think so much complaint went into the administration that the quality of food did become better as time went by.

<End Segment 16> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.

<Begin Segment 17>

MN: Now your job at Poston, how did you get your first job and what was it?

DM: Gee, my first job was... oh, I was assigned as the milk truck driver. My job was to meet the truck that came in from L.A. about three times a week with a load of cartons of milk. So four o'clock we'd meet the truck and load our portion of the milk to distribute it to the camp, kitchens in Camp II and III. And each kitchen were given so many quarters depending on how many kids in that block. So, in other words, adults didn't get milk, just the kids.

MN: Now you said four o'clock, is this four o'clock in the morning?

DM: In the morning. That's when the truck would arrive from L.A.

MN: And you meet them at the gate?

DM: No, he drove into the yard, into the warehouse where we'd meet 'em. And in a way, it was handy because anything we needed from the outside, he would purchase it for us and bring it in. Things that we couldn't obtain in camp. So I worked there for a couple of years, got to know the kitchen help in all the kitchens in Block 2 and 3. About that time, they were looking for help with the garage. So I applied and started working at the garage. The garage took care of the trucks for the camp, and the cars of the administrators. Of course, I took two years of auto mechanics in high school, so I knew a little bit about maintenance.

MN: How far was the garage from Block 59?

DM: The garage was in the area of the administration building, and Block 59 was at the other corner of the camp. So being the furthest away from the camp, I was assigned a truck to pick up the mechanics in the morning and bring 'em to the garage and take 'em home at night.

MN: So you're the one that had to pick everybody up on the way to the garage in 59, and then you did the reverse on the way home?

DM: Uh-huh, the reverse.

<End Segment 17> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.

<Begin Segment 18>

MN: Now, Poston had this huge strike in the fall of 1942. Did you participate in that?

DM: I vaguely remember the strike, but I don't remember joining it or anything. 'Cause when you're a young teenager, I was in my twenties already, those things don't interest you.

MN: Let me ask you about sports then. What sports or activities did you get involved in in camp?

DM: Gee, since that area was so small, they had enough area to build a softball diamond. So we had a softball team which we later named as the Blackbirds. And we got to be pretty prominent in the camp as a softball team. We were in the B class. A class were the higher up teams, mostly from L.A. and Orange County. Of course, they were older boys. And we did compete with the teams in other blocks in other camps.

MN: When you say "other camps," you're talking about Poston Camp II and III?

DM: Yeah.

MN: What was the name of your team? Oh, you said Blackbirds.

DM: Uh-huh.

MN: How did they get that name?

DM: [Laughs] Blackbirds was a common name in Imperial Valley 'cause blackbirds, well, they were prevalent in Imperial Valley. Because I remember in the evenings we could, used to see these flocks of blackbirds flying by. There were such huge flocks that it would dim the day, thin the light from the sun. That's how thick they were when they fly by. And the blackbirds mostly fed on the farms, eating the grass on the farms. They were called blackbirds 'cause they were black.

MN: I also understand the Block 59, you folks also built your own gymnastic equipment?

DM: There were, mostly the Boyle Heights kids were into gymnastics, so they and their parents built things like bars, chin up bars and that kind of thing.

MN: Did you work out on those?

DM: They taught us. I mean, we followed them. Of course, most of the stuff was built with lumber scraps salvaged from the dumps or around the administration area where they threw out the wooden boxes. So everything was salvaged from scraps.

MN: So I want to ask you some weather-related questions. Poston had sandstorms. How did you protect yourself from the sandstorms?

DM: You couldn't. The barracks had screens on the window, but nothing to cover it. So I remember my mom would hang towels or tablecloths to cover the windows. Of course, the sand would seep in. Block 59, being next to the desert, we got the brunt of it.

MN: So when did these sandstorms usually hit?

DM: You couldn't tell when they come. When the wind starts blowing hard, then the sand would come with it.

MN: So this is not something you can prepare for?

DM: No. You breathe it.

MN: And then I imagine it's really hot during the summer. How did you keep cool?

DM: [Laughs] Summer in Arizona desert, you'll get into the hundreds. And I remember people building these excelsior water coolers they called them in those days, which was excelsior packed in between two screens, and a pipe of water running, pipe running over it to drip water onto the excelsior, and the fan behind it to pull in the cool air. That was the extent of our air conditioning in those days, if you were lucky enough to have a fan. 'Cause I think that's what our milkman brought in for us. Those kind of things came in handy because he would buy 'em and bring it to us.

MN: How about like, did you have a pool nearby, did you make a pool nearby?

DM: There was a central swimming pool made in the center of the camp, which was just a hole dug in the ground and filled with water.

MN: So it was muddy.

DM: Water was kind of muddy.

MN: Did you sneak out of camp and go over to the Colorado River?

DM: On occasion we would. Pack a lunch and... the river was, it was around two and a half, three miles to the river, the Colorado River, where fishing was possible by just tying a hook to the string. We didn't have nylon in those days, I don't think. Throw it out and we'd catch mostly catfish, which we'd bring back and the cook would cook catfish. Or catfish would be lower grade of fishmeat, but it was fish.

MN: For your fishing bait, what did you use for bait?

DM: Gee, I can't remember what we used. I think the worms we would dig up at the river, or snails we caught, things like that.

<End Segment 18> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.

<Begin Segment 19>

MN: Let me ask you about the dances at Poston. Where were the dances held?

DM: Dances were held in the rec. area, rec. building, with phonograph music.

MN: How often did you have the dances?

DM: Gee, maybe about once a month or so. Of course, we country people, country boys and girls, didn't do much dancing, so the Boyle Heights kids would teach us. That was the extent of our activities as far as dancing goes.

MN: What about records? Did you collect records?

DM: Oh, yeah. That's one of the things he brought in, the milkman brought in to us. We'd ask him to get certain records and he'd get 'em. Of course, in those days, Glenn Miller, Tommy Dorsey were popular.

MN: Do you still have your records?

DM: It's at the garage. But I don't have a phonograph. [Laughs]

MN: So the milkman sounds like he was bringing in a lot of stuff, but was he getting additional payment for bringing this stuff in?

DM: Oh, no, we just give him the money to buy the stuff and he was nice enough to get it for us.

MN: How about dating in camp? Did you date in camp?

DM: We tried, I guess. [Laughs] I guess I did, but I can't remember who.

MN: You had a girlfriend, right?

DM: I wouldn't call it girlfriends. Not steady.

MN: What did young people do in camp?

DM: Gee, they had activities like most of the older Issei, they had knitting classes and crocheting classes, that kind of stuff. Of course, the men would have their... what do you call those? Came with a black and white...

MN: Go?

DM: They had these go tables, tournaments.

MN: Maybe some shogi?

DM: Huh?

MN: Shogi? Did they play shogi also?

DM: I don't know what that is.

MN: That's another board game with wooden tiles. Well, let me ask you about your parents. What was your dad doing in camp?

DM: Nothing. 'Cause some people in camp, they had assigned jobs, but I don't remember my dad doing anything except he was, his job was working around the block. Of course, you had to have somebody to clean the latrines, things like that he did, I think.

MN: He had that bad leg. How was he doing...

DM: He'd get around, but then he still got around those days. Later, until he went into, we came back to Boyle Heights that he started using a cane.

MN: What about your mother? What was she doing?

DM: I don't think she had much of a hobby. I know she did a lot of needlework. That's about it.

MN: Now in 1943, the government came out with the so-called "loyalty questionnaire." Was this an issue with your family?

DM: Sort of. I was "yes-yes," but my sister Jun was, I don't know if she put "no-yes" or "yes-no" or "no-no," but she was sent to Tule Lake.

MN: How did you feel about that?

DM: She had a lot of Japanese in her.

MN: What about your parents? Did they ever say they wanted to return to Japan?

DM: No. I don't think that ever came up.

MN: So of all the people in your family, Junko, Jun, as you called her, is the only one that went to Tule Lake.

DM: Yeah.

<End Segment 19> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.

<Begin Segment 20>

MN: Now, yourself, when did you leave Poston?

DM: It was in the early part of '44. I just chose Cleveland 'cause it sounded like a nice town. We were allowed to leave anywhere except for California, Oregon and Washington. So they gave us a ticket to Cleveland, we left sometime in early part of February, I think. Of course, my friend Tosh left the same day. His destination was Chicago. We got on a train in Poston.

MN: Poston or Parker?

DM: Parker, I'm sorry, Parker. There wasn't any station in Poston, Train stopped at Parker, and then next stop was Winslow, Arizona. And when the train stopped in Winslow, Arizona, Tosh suggests, "Hey, there's a restaurant over across the street, let's go get a steak dinner." 'Cause we hadn't had steak in years. So we went and got, ate our steak dinner, rushed back to the station, and the train had just left with our baggage, ticket and everything on the car. And there was a... before that, before we got on a train, in camp, one of the parents came up to me and told me that his daughter, she's around thirteen, fourteen years old, "would be going on the same train with you. She's going to Chicago, would you keep on her and see that she gets there safely?" So I nodded and said sure. But when we got left at the station in Winslow, had to have the stationmaster call the next station, tell that stationmaster to ask this girl to put our things together and drop 'em off at that station. So she did that. [Laughs] So she took care of us instead of me taking care of her.

So we ended up in, I ended up in Cleveland. In those days, they had a place called hostel every town. This hostel was owned by a young Quaker family, couple. It was a big old two-story wooden house in Cleveland where we got our board and room until we found our own place. And the next day, I had to go look for a job. So a country boy with no hat and just a jacket, I was traveling up and down the street, snow falling, slushy streets, looking for a job. And I went into this Chrysler Plymouth dealer, and the owner was a man named Zettelmeier, a German man. He hired me right away as a mechanic, and being a new mechanic there, I got all the dirty work, like crawling under a car to change a muffler as the water and the slush would drip on me.

And that kind of stuff, which lasted for another two months when I got a notice from the draft board to report for a physical. In the meantime, I did find a hotel room with another fellow from Seattle, Washington, his name was Gene Kumagai. We both got the notice to report, so we went for a physical. I passed, and at the end of the line where this interviewer stamped my paper, he stamped "navy." I saw the word "navy" in there and said, "Hey, you gonna put me in the navy?" And he said, "Oh, no, that was a mistake." So he erased it and stamped "army." When I got back, I asked Gene, "How'd you do?" "Well, I flunked out, I was 4-F." Said, "What happened?" He said, "They said my heart is in the wrong place, that's why they rejected me." So I never saw Gene after that. So about two more weeks working at the garage, I said, "I better head out of here before they call me." So I went back to Poston.

Soon as I got to Poston, I got a notice, "Report to Salt Lake City for induction." And from Salt Lake, with a bunch of other Nisei kids, we got on this train, creaky old passenger car, traveled all the way to Fort Blanding which took us two days. That's Fort Blanding, Florida. Think it was near Jacksonville. And we started our nine weeks' basic training.

MN: You know when you were traveling into Florida, you were going through a lot of segregated states. Did you have to deal with the "whites only" blacks only" sections?

DM: No, we weren't even allowed to get off the train, I don't think. They had a meal car on the train where we ate. Of course, there were other soldiers, too, Caucasian soldiers on the train. We weren't allowed to get off.

MN: I have one question. Going back to that German Chrysler Plymouth dealer person that hired you? Do you think he hired you because Germany and Japan were allies?

DM: I think he took pity on me, 'cause right away he hired me.

<End Segment 20> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.

<Begin Segment 21>

MN: Okay, so now you get to Fort Blanding in Florida, nine weeks. You got to be chosen as a squad leader, though. How did that happen?

DM: Well, I was kind of tall for the group, so the squad leader would be the man up in front of the squad, which eight of the soldiers behind you when we march. That's what we did, trained, march all day, have rifle practice and that kind of stuff, jump barricades. That was part of the basic training. About the eighth (week), these people from Fort Snelling language school came down to question all the soldiers about how proficient they were in Japanese language. So I was picked to go to Fort Snelling in Minnesota. In fact, it was in outskirts of... what's that town in Minnesota? Minneapolis.

MN: How did you feel about going into the MIS?

DM: Well, I didn't care to go. I wanted to go with the rest of the troop to, they were bound for Europe. And when I got to, after I got to Fort Snelling, they checked us out and separated us into Class A, B, C and D. I was put into Class D, which was called the "dumbbell class." So must have spent about a year in Fort Snelling before I was shipped overseas to the Pacific.

MN: So what was your study habits like at Fort Snelling?

DM: It was classroom with an instructor. I guess their object was mainly to teach how to read and write Japanese, which I never got too far.

MN: Did you meet other Niseis from the Imperial Valley at MIS school?

DM: There were a few. I can't remember who they were, but there were some.

MN: What did you do on your free time at MIS school?

DM: Gee, what was there to do but to go to movies? Movies and that's about it. Explore the town of Minneapolis, and across the river was the town of St. Paul. That's why they call it the Twin Cities, I think. And the food was pretty good. I still remember Sunday dinner was always ham. What's that sauce they put on the ham? Raisin sauce. Raisin sauce and ham on Sunday, I still remember. That was our Sunday dinner.

MN: Let me go back to Fort Blanding for a moment. When you were at Fort Blanding, your unit was all Japanese Americans?

DM: No, it was all Japanese American, yeah.

MN: And where were they all from?

DM: All over.

MN: Also from Hawaii?

DM: I don't think... yeah, there were some Hawaiians. I met a lot of Hawaiian people in camps, I mean, Fort Snelling.

MN: Now I know during basic training you have to do the target practice, and on the farm, you're shooting at moving targets. How did you do at target practice?

DM: Of course, we used real bullets. I think we were issued a medal for class 1 rifleman or something. Of course, if you're going to war, you have to learn how to shoot a gun.

MN: So you got a medal?

DM: Oh, yeah, everybody got a medal, whether it was Class A or Class B.

MN: You got a Class A?

DM: Yeah.

MN: What kind of rifles were you issued?

DM: It was M-1, which was a single, bolt action single shot. Bolt action means put a bolt in, you had to pull the trigger, pull the bolt to cock and everything.

<End Segment 21> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.

<Begin Segment 22>

MN: Okay, so you're in the army. Were you sending part of your paycheck to your parents?

DM: Yeah. I joined the program where being the head of the family, they deduced half of my pay, and Uncle Sam matched it and sent a check to my father every month.

MN: Half of your pay is a big chunk, right? I don't imagine you had a lot of money to play around with.

DM: I think my pay at that time was thirty-nine dollars a month, so twenty dollars was deducted from my paycheck.

MN: So you said for, on your free time you went to see the movies? And I guess you really don't have a lot of other spending money to do other things.

DM: No.

MN: Now, going back to the MIS school, how long were you with the MIS school?

DM: It was almost a year, I think something like eleven months.

MN: And when did you ship overseas?

DM: It was in the summer of '45. I can't remember what month or date.

MN: Which port did you ship out of?

DM: I think it was San Francisco. And I still remember the name of the boat was SS Copiapo.

MN: Did you stop at Hawaii?

DM: No, it was straight to the Philippines. And just before we got to the Philippines, Japan surrendered. So the boat made a left turn and headed for Yokohama Bay.

MN: Did you even get off the ship at Manila?

DM: No.

MN: So when you got to Yokohama, what did you do?

DM: Then they trucked us in to Tokyo and we were billeted in the NYK building, which was the headquarter of ATIS. ATIS stands for Allied Translation and Intelligence Service. And I stayed there for a couple months. And in that time, I was able to go visit my mother's place in Kanazawa.

MN: How did your mother's relatives survive the war?

DM: I don't know if there were any casualties, but some of the, my cousins were in the Japanese army. One, especially, was stationed in Manchuria where he didn't see any action. So when he came back, he was kind of hostile to me. He figured that he didn't lose to me. And he wasn't too friendly. But my other cousins, the female cousins, made my stay very enjoyable.

MN: Did you bring a lot of things from the army PX?

DM: Did I buy a lot of things?

MN: To give to them?

DM: Yeah, whatever I could. But sugar was one thing that they didn't sell at the PX, so I would scrounge sugar from the dinner table in the army and scrape enough sugar to take home to them, which they appreciated very much.

MN: Now, you got to Tokyo right after Japan surrendered. What did Tokyo look like?

DM: Devastated. The kids were all walking around in rags. I didn't see a lot of destroyed buildings. Kanazawa was never hit by any enemy action.

MN: Now you're in an army, U.S. Army uniform. Did a lot of prostitutes proposition you?

DM: There were a lot of 'em, I guess.

MN: But you didn't get involved in that.

DM: I don't remember. [Laughs]

MN: Now, how long were you stationed in Tokyo?

DM: It was around two months. And then I was assigned to an engineer battalion that was going, that was shipping to Korea. So we were shipped to Korea, place called Yong Don Po, which used to be a camp of the Korean army. And our mission there was to survey the 38th Parallel which divided the South and North Korea at the time. There was a unit that already had surveyed the peninsula marking the boundaries, but we were there, sent there to resurvey and verify the markings of the 38th Parallel across the peninsula.

<End Segment 22> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.

<Begin Segment 23>

MN: Now when you went to Korea, you were in the engineer battalion. Did you ask for this transfer?

DM: No, you were assigned.

MN: So was this unit all Japanese Americans?

DM: Oh, no. It was Caucasian battalion, and just a few of us from the language school were assigned to it.

MN: Did you know anything about engineering when they transferred you?

DM: We had classes how to operate the survey equipments.

MN: Now you said an earlier unit had already marked the boundaries. This may sound like a stupid question, but how did they mark the boundaries? Was it with a rope?

DM: You have equipment and it's called... well, I remember it was called a Dumpy telescope or Dumpy something, which would sit on a tripod with a scope. It was marked 38th in the back there, the telescope with marks would center on that marking and flip it over 180 degrees, and then they would select a point on the other side. So that's why it was called Dumpy equipment. I think that's how they did it across the peninsula, too, put a post marking where the 38th would be.

MN: How many miles is that peninsula?

DM: Across the peninsula, I think, gee, a couple of hundred miles.

MN: How long did it take you to do that?

DM: Well, we were there over a month. Of course, out in the sticks, too far to go back to the base, so we had our own tent and cooking unit that came with us.

MN: So how many men were involved in going across the peninsula?

DM: I'd say about thirty people.

MN: So you didn't go back and forth to the base camp?

DM: No. We stayed out until the mission was accomplished.

MN: So what was it like working out there, and were you working every day, seven days a week?

DM: Every day to get the job done. And the country around there was pretty barren, no trees. Because that's an old civilization, they probably chopped down the trees for fuel and use like that. So it was barren country, hilly, mountainous country.

MN: You really roughed it out there.

DM: So you could call it roughing it.

MN: How much interaction did you have with the Korean people?

DM: Most of the older Koreans wouldn't talk to us, talk to me, anyway, to the Japanese, Niseis. Of course, the kids younger than five or six didn't speak Japanese, but they learned English. So a lot of contact with young kids.

MN: You said a lot of the Korean people didn't really talk with you, or were they hostile to you?

DM: Not hostile, but they weren't friendly.

MN: Now, you spent the New Year's out there, working out there.

DM: Probably did. I don't remember what happened. I don't even remember from what month to month it was. But it was winter, cold.

MN: I understand it gets really cold out there. The ground freezes like three feet under?

DM: That's what they say, but, of course, if you tried to dig, I imagine you would run into frozen ground.

MN: How long were you in the army?

DM: I was discharged in summer of '46. So from summer of '44, so almost two years, I think.

MN: And where were you honorably discharged from?

DM: Seattle.

<End Segment 23> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.

<Begin Segment 24>

MN: And then after that, what did you do?

DM: I got home, and by that time, my sister Jun had left camp and came to L.A. to look for a place so the parents can come out of camp. And she found an old wooden two-story building on Third and State Street in Boyle Heights. The house was so old that they used gas lanterns to light the house, 'cause that's about all they can afford at that time, buy a cheap old house. So after they bought the house she had it wired for electricity, and that's where I stayed for the first year or so.

And I found a job as a mechanic at Asahi Motors, which was on Second Street in J-town. I worked there for a few years. Of course, the other mechanics were all Niseis from camp. In the meantime, my sister had got a job with the Board of Education, and one day she brought home a pamphlet, a bulletin printed out by the board showing what job openings there were available. And I saw this part where it says "looking for mechanics," heavy duty mechanics. So I applied for that job, and the board garage was located on San Pedro Street and Sixteenth Street. Went there for interview and he hired me right away, said, "Start tomorrow." I said, "I can't start tomorrow," because I had to notify my employer I'm leaving. So I was assigned to the night shift. Night shift began at four in the afternoon 'til one in the morning, and there were two mechanics on the night shift at that time and I was the third.

The first job given to me was a big old dump truck in the shop called an auto car, which no longer exists. The engine was torn apart, and parts laying on the bench (by a mechanic who quit). He pointed that out to me and says, "Put it together." So that was my first job, I remember. I got it together it went back on duty running fine. After that the foreman came up to me and says, "I want to hire another mechanic. Are there any people like, you know of, good like you?" Says, "Yeah, I can ask another fellow that I know." His name was Sam Saisho, that worked in Asahi Garage. So I asked him if he wanted to try for that job and he said sure, so he came. Of course, we were assigned temporary assignment pending the exam. So one Friday night about a month later, we were told to set up this exam on the bench, we're gonna have the exam for the heavy duty mechanics the next day, on Saturday. And the exam consists of welding two pieces of sheet metal together, and a transmission that was torn apart and you put it together, that kind of jobs pertaining to automotive. So next day we went through the test, of course, we came out with flying colors, and we were hired one and two.

I stayed on the night shift for a year or so when an opening on the day shift opened up and I turned to day shift. Of course, the day shift were a bunch of old fellows, Caucasian fellows, they would all give me the dirty work, they would all do the easy work. Until they retired and I became the senior mechanic on days. I got a job as, my title was changed to Senior Mechanic, and my job was to take in the jobs as they came in and assign 'em to the other mechanics. So after the age of sixty-two and thirty-two years on the job, I retired.

MN: That's a long time.

<End Segment 24> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.

<Begin Segment 25>

MN: Let me ask you a little bit about Jun going back to right after the war years. I guess at Tule Lake, do you know if Jun, did she renounce her U.S. citizenship or was she just went over there as maybe "no-yes" or "yes-no"?

DM: From there, from Tule Lake there were, some were released that did not want to be, what do you call it?

MN: Go to Japan?

DM: Yeah.

MN: So she didn't go.

DM: No, she wanted to be released, so those were released and they went about their way. So she came back to Poston, when the war ended, she came to L.A. to look for a place.

MN: So she was able to go from Tule Lake back to Poston?

DM: Yes.

MN: It's not from Tule Lake to L.A.?

DM: She might have come to L.A. to find a place for the parents to come.

MN: Now she was working at the Board of Education, but then when did she go back to the Kashu?

DM: It was back in '46 when Mr. Fujii came back and reopened the shop.

MN: Did she continue working there after Mr. Sei Fujii passed away?

DM: Yeah. And his son-in-law took over, name of Hiro Ishiki. I can't remember what year the paper folded up, but it was probably, what, in the '60s or '70s.

MN: I think '80s.

DM: '80s? It went that far.

MN: I remember the Kashu growing up.

[Interruption]

DM: I remember the day they closed up, she had to write the payroll for the employees, and she ran out of money, company money, she couldn't pay everyone so she dug into her bank account to pay off the employees. And I guess she thought nothing of it, but when my younger sister Mey found out about it, she immediately sent Hiro a letter saying, "You owe Jun so much." And he reimbursed her. That's the kind of person she was.

MN: She was probably the longest-serving employee at the Kashu Mainichi, then, it sounds like.

DM: Sounded like to me, too, yeah. I can't remember what she did after the paper folded up.

MN: Now recently the U.S. government gave out gold medals to the Nisei veterans. Did you get one?

DM: I don't remember any gold medals.

MN: Congressional Gold Medal last year?

DM: Oh, that, yeah. I did order one, I got it.

MN: So you didn't go to Washington, D.C.?

DM: No. I got it through the mail.

MN: How did you feel when you found out the U.S. government was recognizing the Nisei veterans.

DM: All I remember is the $20,000 they gave us, which I immediately spent buying a Chevy Blazer.

MN: Okay, Mr. Maruya. You know, I've asked all my questions. Is there anything else you want to add?

DM: Huh?

AK: I wanted to ask you about your woodworking, if you started doing that woodworking in Poston?

DM: No. After I retired, I had to have some hobby, so woodworking interested me, so I went and bought a twelve-inch wood lathe from Sears. With that wood lathe I started learning how to make bowls. So those samples you see here, and from there I turned into other wood items like cutting boards and trays, candleholders. Things like that I made, and participated in the Torrance senior craft sale, which was held once a year, which I went there and I sold my products. I did pretty well. Let's see, I was into woodworking 'til about two, three years ago. I quit when I realized that I still had ten fingers on my hand, so I thought I'd better quit. I haven't done much woodworking since, just small objects that I could make in the garage.

MN: You did some pretty intricate work, because that table right there, you did all that inlay.

DM: That's one of 'em.

<End Segment 25> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.

<Begin Segment 26>

[Showing photographs]

MN: Can I bring that photo that you have with the Hirohito? Tell us what this photo is. Can you hold it up? Tell us what this photo is.

DM: This was taken at the NYK Building when the emperor came to visit one day. So I rushed outside when he was coming out to take his picture. And one of my friends that was on the other side took this picture, and he gave me a copy because I was in it.

MN: And you're in that photo, and you can see Emperor Hirohito walking by.

DM: Yeah, so I had my picture taken with the emperor.

[Interruption]

DM: I was told by my dad that his parents built a bridge in the town of Komatsu where he was from, built this bridge across the river. So if I had a chance, "Go to Komatsu and see if you can see this bridge." So while I was in Kanazawa, I made a trip to Komatsu which was about ten miles south of Kanazawa, went to look for the bridge, and all I found was a little concrete bridge over a small creek, meaning that the original wooden bridge was torn down and the river had swung into a little creek since the time he was there.

This is an old house. This is the house that we lived in back in Brawley in the olden days in the '20s and the '30s. That's what the houses looked like.

This picture was taken on a farm when I was about two or three years old. That's me on my dad's shoulder, and one of the girls is Jun. And taken with a family friend and his kids. Is there a dog in there? Oh, yeah. I don't remember whose dog that was, but I guess every farm had a dog.

Well, this is the same picture with the houses we lived in in those days.

MN: It's a better close-up. Yeah, it's a nicer close-up. Is that your portable house?

DM: Yeah.

MN: That's a pretty big house then.

DM: That was one of the bigger ones, I guess.

This is a picture of my dad with a team of mules. The mules were used to pull the equipment on the farm.

This is a picture of the one room at Trifolium school. I'm in there somewhere. That's me right there. I must have been about age of thirteen, fourteen. No, must have been twelve, thirteen.

That's a picture of both rooms at the school, in other words, the entire student body.

MN: I notice some of those kids are barefoot.

DM: In the country school, we went barefooted. And nothing fancy in the clothing, and I'm in there somewhere.

MN: Did you go to school barefoot, too?

DM: Oh, yeah. That's me, right there.

Another picture of the school a couple years later.

MN: Was this Japanese school?

DM: This was our Sunday school class at the Methodist church. I'm in there on the first row with my tongue hanging out.

MN: I thought you didn't go to church. You went to Sunday school?

DM: Yeah, Sundays. No, no, this could have been the Japanese class we had on Saturdays. No, this was the Sunday school.

MN: Oh, so you did go to Sunday school.

DM: Uh-huh.

MN: How long did you go to Sunday school?

DM: Whenever my dad had time to take me into town.

This was me when I came back from Japan. It was taken in front of a hotel in San Francisco.

MN: So this is right after you got off of Angel Island.

DM: Yeah, uh-huh. I must have been about four or five years old. Oh, where's the other picture?

The houses in Japan were typically like this. This is the backyard of my aunt's house.

MN: Where was that?

DM: This is the backyard of my aunt's house with my cousin Fumi, who was her daughter. And this is a picture of the front of the house, you notice how the fences are made out of brush. And the two girls in there were my two cousins, Fumi and... I can't think of the other cousin's name.

MN: I have one more question. How did you get your scar here?

DM: My scar on my forehead?

MN: Uh-huh.

DM: I must have been about eleven, twelve years old, attending Japanese class on Saturday. A group of older boys were having rock fights and I happened to get in the way, and a rock hit me on the forehead.

MN: That was a big rock.

DM: It caused a cavity there. I guess they took me to the doctor right away and patched me up.

MN: Was it a Japanese doctor that they took you to?

DM: I don't remember. No, it was Dr. Foster. He was our family doctor. And the guy that threw the rock was one of the boys of the Ishikawa family.

<End Segment 26> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.