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TI: During the break you mentioned that your parents went to Japan?

CH: Yeah, they took two trips, and my aunt, yeah, it would be my aunt, Mrs. Umeda came and stayed with us and cooked breakfast and dinner, she stayed over and took care of us and washed our clothes and stuff like that. And I don't know how long they were gone, I'm sure it must have been a week or two weeks or something like that, but nothing too long.

TI: Probably even longer, because didn't they take a boat all the way?

CH: They take a boat, yeah.

TI: So that would take a while.

CH: A month, probably. I remember Mrs. Umeda came and stayed with us, but I don't remember how long.

TI: Now, did your parents ever talk about what they saw in Japan or any stories when they visited?

CH: Yeah, I remember seeing some pictures of kind of a shed, like that's where they lived, the house wasn't fancy or anything, it was kind of like a brown shed. They said, of course, they have a stove in the middle of the floor, and then tatami, it's all straw mats, so you have to get on your, stay on your hands and knees, I mean, your knees. And they got, you know, being in America, you can't stay like that very long, and they couldn't, they had a hard time with that down in the country. But you get into town, and they have chairs and stuff like that. But they said in the country, they really live from the house, and then the field is right there.

TI: Now, did their Japanese, how did their Japanese relatives think of your parents? Did they think of them as being successful in America?

CH: Well, I think, you know, when they talk about America, they thought everybody, place was lined with gold, because they thought America was lots of, make lots of money. And I don't know, I don't know what they felt.

TI: Because in some ways, when you describe your house and the business, it seemed like your family did quite well.

CH: Well, we did. My dad was...

TI: They were able to travel back to Japan.

CH: My dad, yeah, they went twice to Japan. And another thing, my dad was very, like a history minor, but he liked to take us, I mean, make us understand what America, history, like Lake Tahoe, what was those people that...

TI: Oh, the Donner?

CH: Donner party.

TI: Yeah, the Donner party.

CH: Oh, my dad would tell you the whole story of the Donner party. [Laughs] And then, of course, there's the monument there, all those people. And these people all came over that mountain and got caught in the snow and they died there. [Laughs] It was, I mean, my dad made this, not made it up, but anyway, this is the way he was told, so he tells it. And then he'd take us to Lake Tahoe quite often. It was about, I don't know, two hours' drive or something in those days. So he'd take us up there, and so we spent, like on, especially after the harvest, well, that's what we worked for, and my dad promised that they're gonna take us to Lake Tahoe. And if it's a nice summer day, you could still get in the, go in that cold mountain water. And we used to... of course, we didn't have fancy bathing suits or anything like that, but I remember going in the water and swimming. Not swimming, I don't know if I ever... well, I will say that I learned to swim because we had American River go right through our area. And on Sundays, after church, my dad would, my mother would make some nigiri and okazu, something, and we'd go to the American River with the Otanis and the other families. And they'd take us kids and then just let us play by the water. Well, as I grew older and older, I learned to get across the river, because the older kids were all on the other side of the river, and the river is swift. And so that's how I learned to swim, dog paddle all the way across and get on the other side.

TI: Well, that's sounds dangerous.

CH: I know. Because rather than go across, it's like going down, further down. And my dad used to... he was a diver. As big as he was, he'd jump off the rock on the side of the hillside and then make a big splash. [Laughs] And yeah, so us kids, they left us alone and we just grew up in the water. So that's how I remember swimming. To this day, I don't have any particular stroke or anything, I'd just swim across.

TI: But to this day, you still swim. Earlier you were saying that you used to swim like half a mile.

CH: I used to, yeah, when I was younger. And I can't do it anymore.

TI: Going back to Lake Tahoe, when you went there, did you stay in a cabin?

CH: Oh, no. That was just for the day trip, I'm talking about. But there was a time that my dad rented a cabin. It looked like there was a lot of little cabins around, in and amongst the trees. Not a cabin, it's a tent with a wood floor, I mean, it was wood on the floor. So we had folding beds.

TI: Cots.

CH: I remember cots, yeah. I remember sleeping -- this is after we got older, now. I remember sleeping on a cot in one of those tents, and it got quite cold at night, because it's up in the mountains, it's cold. And then my mother would get up early, and then the camp fire was near the tent, and get a fire going, because they have little rock piles all ready, and the wood there at this camp site, they give you the wood. So that's how we cooked our breakfast. Yeah, it was a treat to go camping, and that was our camping trip. We didn't have any fancy camping gear or anything like that.

<End Segment 14> - Copyright © 2014 Densho. All Rights Reserved.