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TI: Okay, so let's go after Heart Mountain. What did your grandparents do after they left Heart Mountain?

LI: Well, my dad and my grandfather were some of the first to leave Heart Mountain and return to the valley. Probably only ten percent actually returned to the Yakima valley.

TI: See, I was going to ask you about that. Because a very low percentage returned to the valley. In general, it's interesting, we look at the statistics. I mean, in general, fewer people returned, Japanese Americans returned to Washington state than places like California. But even within the state of Washington, Yakima, the return rate was really, really low.

LI: Well, because their neighbors kicked them out. You know, their neighbors, prior to evacuation, people were burning down houses and really doing pretty bad things. The Japanese Association building burned to the ground mysteriously. And so a lot of things were going on that, if people are treated you like that, why do you want to return?

TI: Did your dad ever tell you any stories about that kind of treatment in Wapato?

LI: I heard stories about so and so's barn got burned down, so and so's workers were intimidated, and there was a lot of those kind of stories.

TI: So when your grandfather and your father, one of the first ones to return to the valley, what was it like for them? I mean, what did they do? Because, one, they had no land, were they able to, were their possessions here like farm equipment and things?

LI: Well, some of their things must have been here. They went back to get their car, which was stored at Matson Motors. And so Don Matson, that was the first thing they went to do, and Don Matson said, "Why'd you Japs come back?" And so when they got their car, it was new when it went into storage, and when they took it out, it was pretty much beat up, obviously had been used pretty heavily. And so they left, and they went to Logan's Feed, he was the local feed and seed dealer, and it was a hundred percent different. Wilbur Logan pretty much told him, he goes, "Take whatever you need, pay me whenever you can." And he reached into his pocket and grabbed the keys for a brand new Dodge truck, and handed it to my dad and said, "Pay me whenever you can." [Laughs] And so when you see that kind of generosity, that kind of kindness, we bought seed from the guy 'til he died. And we continue to buy seed from his grandson to this day. Yeah, and it was tough. My dad had stories of sitting down with his friend at the local cafe, and he would sit there for a half an hour and nobody would serve them. And so eventually they got, walked up and left. But there were signs all over the place that said, "No Jap trade wanted." But people like Wilbur Logan were really super great to him. Esther Boyd, who, her family owned the local hardware store, were also very nice, very supportive of the Japanese. Orchardist Dan McDonald, he took several Japanese families under his wing, and he had stored things from him. His grandson Paul, I think they still have some stuff that his grandfather had stored for Japanese families. And so... but those kind of people were pretty rare, pretty special. But my dad and my grandfather went to the tribal landlord, who they were leasing ground from. And it was the Hoptowit family, and they had leased ground from the Hoptowit family for a number of years prior to the war. And so when they were evacuated, they came back to that place that they were farming prior to evacuation, and they asked, "Can we re-lease this piece of ground?" And Fred Hoptowit and his brother, they said, "Well, you know, we don't have that piece of ground available," but I kind of pointed out that piece over by Leo Gasseling's and he said, "We have that parcel, you're welcome to lease that." And so if it wasn't for the Hoptowit family making that offer, maybe we wouldn't have stuck around.

TI: So it sounds like really, in terms of the, I'll call it kindness of a few people, that allowed your grandfather and father to get reestablished. The story of the seed guy and the hardware guy and the land. And I'm guessing it must have been difficult in these first years after the war.

LI: Oh, man. That was kind of the history of the Japanese in this community, you know, but I always heard this thing that said, "If it doesn't kill you, it makes you tougher," and I kind of believe that. The Japanese ideals of perseverance and the term gaman, right, it's like of like, "Don't give up." You fall down, you get up, and you keep going. I think those are the principles that my dad went by, with the shikata ga nai term that my grandma kept telling me. It can't be helped, you just get up and go, go back to work.

<End Segment 14> - Copyright © 2023 Densho. All Rights Reserved.