<Begin Segment 15>

AI: Okay. Well, then I think I will back up a little bit and ask you, before the evacuation time, a little bit about the Japanese American community and some of the activities that went on and what you and your family were involved in.

CN: Well, I didn't participate in any of the... what am I trying to say? The athletic events because, well, I wasn't all that good and none of my friends took part in it. We played baseball and that kind of thing, but just having fun. Lots of activities during those days that we were at Japanese school. It was fun to get together with, with friends that you, I hadn't seen for a whole week. And, of course, the Japanese community there had their picnics, and also the Japanese films were shown there. And the whole families would go, and if the little kid got sleepy, why you just fell asleep with your head in your mother's lap. [Laughs] And so, and it was, it was fun. None of us drove so we really used the Japanese school time to get together. And as we got older -- I kept on until evacuation, but some of my other friends dropped out so that they could do some other things whether it was helping at home or, or what, I don't know.

AI: So it sounds like there, on the Bellevue eastside there was quite a lively Japanese American community.

CN: Yes there was, lots and lots of fun. And, and we would go to those... watch the boys do judo, the judo matches and the kendo matches and all. So any, any activity was a good way to have the whole community enter in. And my sister and I did start taking lessons in naginata and also flower arranging with Mrs. Fujikado and so...

AI: And what were those flower arranging lessons like for you? Was it a very foreign kind of activity?

CN: Well, it was not so foreign. It was, you know, we were very restless and wanting to get this over and done with. I hate to say this, but it's true. And with flower arranging as well as with judo and kendo and naginata and all that, that you really have to center yourself first, and none of us -- well, maybe I should talk about myself -- did really get the meaning of all that, though this would be drummed into us. But looking back, though, we, I really enjoyed it. And it was fun and we did, this was another way to instill the Japanese culture as well as etiquette and all, because we certainly learned a great deal of that, too. And I should say that our Japanese school teachers were, were really wonderful. And I'm sure we gave them a bad time, but I think every one of us appreciated all the time and effort that they put into educating us even if now we can't remember too much of what we learned. [Laughs]

AI: So, by the time you were in high school it sounds like you were quite busy. You were very active in school activities, you were maintaining your ties of the Japanese language school, and activities with the Nikkei community on Saturdays. And then you also had your work in the florist shop on the weekends.

CN: So it was, it was busy, but it was fun. And I got to know something about living in the city on the weekends. I was still very much a country girl, but -- and loving every minute of it, of course -- but I really did appreciate all of that. And I'm not just saying it to be saying it. I really did, even if I did grumble quite a bit about it. [Laughs] And I, well, we really had fun. And I look at some of the young people now and wish that we had the opportunity to share some of that with them. They wouldn't like as much as we got because the young people now are involved in the wider community as a whole, but it, we gained a great deal, I think.

<End Segment 15> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.