<Begin Segment 21>

SF: What did you guys eat for food? I mean, did you have all Japanese stuff, or -- what kinda -- what were your typical dinner and...?

TS: Well, when I first went out to Montana -- this was a Japanese gang, Koga's gang. He had a Japanese cook. And the people that worked in the kitchen were Japanese. And we had rice plus whatever else that they gave us. Can't remember exactly what we had. Breakfast -- every other breakfast was miso shiru, which even for me, we didn't do that in -- my dad and I, we never had miso shiru in the morning. But that's just one they did every other day. And I didn't particularly like that because when we had breakfast American-style, that meant that -- usually you had bread on the table. So I could pick up a couple slice of bread and butter or -- put jam on it, slap it together, [slaps hands together] and I'd stick in the, my overall, you know that little thing here? And I was young, eighteen. So I'd go out to work, and about 10 o'clock, when we'd take a little break, oh, hey, I got something to eat, which was nice. But with miso shiru and rice, what can you do with it? [Laughs]

SF: Right, right.

TS: That was a difference. And then after the war started, when I was on the Great Northern, then there was a company called Addison Miller, which was the commissary for the railroad. They had a kitchen and served the food.

SF: So how...

TS: It was all American food then.

SF: So they would bring the food out to you guys and then...

TS: Yeah.

SF: ...someone would ring the bell...?

TS: The table, yeah. We had a big, long table in a coach car.

SF: Well that must've been kinda tough, though, right? I mean here you're raised in Seattle and you have rice probably for dinner anyways, right?

TS: Yeah.

SF: And then did you guys get any rice anytime?

TS: No. But I mean you had to accept it. War -- and, you know, you knew that. And after a while, when I became a timekeeper for this Filipino foreman, he was a rice eater. And as a timekeeper, I didn't go out on the job. I was doing the paperwork. So about 3 o'clock I'd go in the kitchen, I'd get a pot, and get the rice, and I'd go back to the water car, and I'd wash the rice and put the right amount of water in it, and then take it to the kitchen. And then, why then, I'd tell the cook how to cook the rice. Then we'd have rice for dinner, this Filipino foreman and I. So that was -- and after that, when I got on different crews, I just, you just didn't have it. So...

SF: So did you ever get a chance to buy any Japanese stuff like tofu or any, any tsukemono?

TS: Not when I was on the railroad 'cause at that time we had no cars. Later on, after I got outta the army, I had a car. Why, then, even then I don't think we were way out in the sticks, so there was no place where you can buy this stuff.

SF: Sort of just accepted it as fact of life during the war, huh.

TS: Yeah.

SF: That you couldn't get it.

TS: Huh?

SF: Yeah, that you couldn't get it. So...

TS: Well, I think if you went into Spokane, you could, or like if you're close to Seattle. But today, I guess you can buy tofu at any -- lotta stores.

SF: Safeway.

TS: Yeah.

SF: Yeah.

<End Segment 21> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.