<Begin Segment 2>

[Translated from Japanese]

NM: What was your family business?

TF: Our family owned farmland.

NM: It was a lot of land.

TF: It was.

NM: Your family members were working on the farm?

TF: Our family ran the farmland and worked on it. We also had helpers like a female house helper. She got up early in the morning to prepare meals and help my mother. A male laborer was helping in the field. We had nannies when the children were young.

NM: It sounds like a pretty big operation.

TF: Not quite that big.

NM: The farmland was pretty big.

TF: We were farmland owners and lived on the land.

NM: Is there anything the children were assigned to help with?

TF: No, nothing. All we needed to do is to play. [Laughs]

NM: [Laughs] I see. What did you grow in the farm?

TF: Mainly rice. We also grew wheat and colza in the winter after harvesting rice. Rice was the main type of produce. We also grew soybeans in an open field where irrigation water did not reach. I remember growing hemp too, to make paper and rope. I remember there was a hemp field.

NM: You had a variety of produce.

TF: We also had mulberry. We had a large barn to grow silkworms.

NM: Your family was also engaged in sericulture.

TF: Yes. I remember watching silkworms wiggling when I was a child.

NM: You did.

TF: I helped to feed them with mulberry leaves. I was always playing but sometimes helped when I chose to. [Laughs]

NM: So you were growing up in a nice environment with a lot of relatives around.

TF: I was.

NM: What was the first school you attended?

TF: It was Kasuga Jinjo Elementary School.

NM: Elementary school. Did it start with the first grade?

TF: Yes, it did.

NM: Was it a big school?

TF: It was the only school in the village.

NM: Did all the children in the village go to the same school?

TF: We did.

NM: So you knew everyone. All the children were like your relatives...

TF: Something like that.

NM: ...in the village. You probably never dreamed you would leave the village.

TF: [Laughs] I never did. I did not until I actually left.

NM: I see. Do you have any childhood memories you remember from where you grew up? Something you did or any social events in the village?

TF: The village, like any other, has special spots like a small forest surrounding a shrine and place for a guardian god. We had seasonal music and dance performances there and got together over a picnic on holidays. We had many events and gatherings. We visited those local spots with friends and always saw more kids hanging around there. We played hide-and-seek and running all over the village. [Laughs] I remember all the games like tossing marbles, running and kicking cans. We all played and sometime fought with each other. [Laughs]

NM: It sounds like you had very joyful childhood in a beautiful environment.

<End Segment 2> - Copyright © 2016 Densho. All Rights Reserved.