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BN: Now, you had two older siblings, a few years older.

BS: Right.

BN: What is your sense that their adjustment was harder or easier than yours?

BS: I would say it was about the same. When they graduated, they went to the local community college, which today is the Eastern Washington state college. My older brother at the time was also in the Air Force National Guard and they were activated during the Korean War, and so he met a lot of California Nisei. And after they got through, all of them went back to California, and a lot of them went to UC Berkeley. And so my brother and my sister decided to follow them to UC Berkeley, and that's where they went to college. And that's why I was influenced to go there as well.

BN: Did you and your siblings have to help out on the farm?

BS: Oh, yeah, every day. In fact, during the fall when we were still harvesting, they even had me take time out from school in order to work on the farm. That was hard work.

BN: What did they grow?

BS: They grew mostly vegetables and fruits and things like that, lettuce, radish, green onions, squash, you name it. One of the best things they grew was Hearts of Gold cantaloupe melons, the best melons you'll ever eat.

BN: Do you know how that was marketed?

BS: Well, they had a few produce markets in downtown Spokane, so we would have to take the orders into downtown Spokane, to the produce section. But certain things like those Hearts of Gold melons, they would actually ship to the East Coast because they were considered prime fruit.

BN: Do you know now many acres?

BS: They had about 30 acres all together.

BN: And this was leased, you said?

BS: What's that?

BN: You said this was leased?

BS: Yeah, that was all leased.

BN: Did your dad become a citizen?

BS: Yeah, he did. When the 1964 Immigration Act was passed, they forgave a lot of the illegal immigrants to allow them to become regular residents. I don't remember him ever taking the citizenship exam, but he must have, because he became a citizen. My mother was a citizen by virtue of being born here.

BN: While growing up in this small town, rural area, did you have other exposure to the outside world in terms of being able to travel places?

BS: Not really. In fact, the first time I really went outside the area was when I went to college at UC Berkeley because that was kind of a dreamland for me. That's one of the reasons why I decided I wanted to follow my brother and sister there. It was called Lotusland.

BN: So they would tell you about it?

BS: Well, no, I would see about it in the movies and in the media. So I had this vision of this Lotusland called California.

BN: Now, did your parents stay... because eventually all their kids, at least you and the older ones, moved to California. Did they stay out there?

BS: Yeah, they did. (In) my senior year in high school, they bought a property west of Spokane about twenty miles away from where they were. That was much more suitable to growing the crops they were growing. They stayed there until my dad retired. My mom died at a fairly early age, at fifty-five, when she was diagnosed with polycystic disease.

BN: Was it your sense that they did fairly well as farmers?

BS: I would say just barely made it. When my dad finally retired, they were able to buy a home in Spokane, which was a fairly good home. But other than that, I don't think they had very much.

BN: The other thing I was wondering is as the only Asian or Japanese American family in town, did they subscribe to Japanese American newspapers?

BS: Oh, yeah, they did.

BN: Did they kind of attempt to remain...

BS: There was a Japanese American community in Spokane. They joined the Christian church there, even though they had previously been Buddhist. They thought it was wise to become Christians, and so they started going to the Christian church there and they had a lot of social interaction with them.

BN: Because you said it was about 15 miles or so, so they were not too far?

BS: Not too far, yeah.

BN: They were the only ones in town.

BS: Right, right.

BN: Were you exposed to that also?

BS: A little bit. I used to go to some of their functions, weddings and other things like that.

<End Segment 6> - Copyright © 2018 Densho. All Rights Reserved.