<Begin Segment 41>

DG: Well I have a statement that I think is important. Betty says that what she appreciates the most about you is that you're a realist.

FN: A realist, now what does she mean about that? [Laughs]

DG: That no matter what happened, that you, you carry on with what's possible and just go on and not worry about what happened or the past.

FN: No. I really don't worry too much about the past because... try to, you know, try to do the best you can yourself, you know and --

DG: And I think you've done it with such grace.

FN: And then I don't, Even the children. Actually there's time that I would like to have said something to them but they go, oh, what's the use. You can become enemies to people too that way. So.

DG: Well is there anything else that you would like to add?

FN: Well the one, the one thing after we started to grow things in the greenhouse. Well there isn't too many crops that we could grow just right away. So that he grew cucumbers and tomatoes that we were able to raise from seed, see. And so when the time for marketing came, that was a problem again. Who was, who were we going to sell to. So he did go around to different stores and no one would even less, would take anything. They wouldn't buy it from Japanese. That attitude. And so, but finally down in the market role there was one Italian fellow that he said, "Don't worry Mr. Noji." He said, "I'll, I'll help you." He said, "Bring all your things to me." Well you know, things like that, so. Those are the kind of things that you really remember.

DG: You've mentioned a few of those points in your life like the colored man that helped you on the train and different people who have come out.

FN: Yes, there have been, different people have come out and done things. And those are the things that really remain in your mind. You don't think of the...

DG: Wonderful.

FN: Bad things, you can't think of the bad things, what's the use.

DG: That's good.

FN: And when we first came back too, since we had the truck, we used to go visit, there was Japanese living over in Bellevue, quite a few Japanese settled in Bellevue. When we first went over there, there was a lot of those signs yet, no Japs, no Japs allowed or something like that. And I said, "Those are the kinds of things that do stay in your mind." But that, that didn't last too long. There's good and bad. [Laughs]

DG: That's true. Well thank you very much for --

FN: I don't know I, what I've... there might be small incidents that I've forgotten. But those that remain in my mind I thought, well, I...

DG: Sure.

FN: Okay. Thank you for doing it. I don't know. [Laughs]

<End Segment 41> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.