<Begin Segment 17>

DG: Now, can you tell me more about the grange and what was the grange and when was it that the Japanese and the Filipinos were not...

AS: The what?

DG: Tell me about the grange.

AS: Grain?

DG: The grange.

AS: Oh, grange? Well, they didn't want us in there so that was it.

DG: And what was the grange?

AS: Huh?

DG: What was the grange?

AS: You know, Four-H grange. You know what a grange is. It's a farm thing. You know, they have it here now, even.

DG: And when was it that they wouldn't let you be a member? Was it before the...

AS: After the war. You know when we came back, grange got a good farm insurance policies. Well, you gotta join the grange to be, to become that farm policy. Yeah, they wouldn't, they wouldn't let us in there. Now, I heard they'll let us in. I says, "Fine then. You're not gonna get me in there. You already turned me down once." I, I'm pretty stubborn, at certain things, get it? And, this, this is real wrong, I thought. God, you come back from the army, you spend your time there and you come home and they turn you down? Isn't that somethin'? That's my motto: I don't care. But they say, "Well, you can get grange insurance soon as you join the grange, soon as you become a grange member." I said, "Okay, fine then, I'll become a granger, then" No, they turned us down. Turned us and Filipinos down. You don't believe that, do you?

DG: I do believe it, but why? Why, why did they do that, do you think?

AS: I forgot, I don't know why. Don't ask me. You serve your two years in the service and you come back and they turn you down. I'm a hard-headed man, get it? You could stomp on me so much, and I got stomped on that one too much for what I did. So I don't know. Now, we could join it. I says, "Fine, you're not gonna get me in there. You turned me down once, isn't that enough?" I don't know.

DG: Did the Japanese and Filipinos work together then and help each other because you couldn't...

AS: After the war? Not too much, not too much. 'Cause it was only three, four farmers left. We all went more independent. We planted, you know, we used to plant strawberry, we used to help each other out, and that, that disappeared because we got a machine planter and, you know, went more modern. You know, more modern things, and so... I don't know. That's enough, isn't it?

<End Segment 17> - Copyright © 2006 Densho. All Rights Reserved.