<Begin Segment 11>

JN: Before we get into the memorial, can you tell us a little bit about just how... what Bainbridge Island looked like, looked like when you were farming and where the, where the Japanese farms were, and what, what was the general setting of the area.

LK: Well, it was a lot more open farmland. It amazes me to see all that housing that has been developed, or had gone up on all the farms. There were lots of large berry, strawberry fields, there weren't any signal lights on the roads. We all knew... even now I'm, there's so many more roads and lanes on the island that when someone tells me where their address is I have no idea what part of the island they're talking about. Whereas before I, we knew almost every nook and cranny of the island. But mostly it's because the school bus, there was just one, the bus went all over the island to pick everyone up. I think we went from Fort Ward clear to Port Madison, and that one bus picked all the kids up. And so it wasn't like one bus for a certain section of the island, and that's how I knew the island. I remember my mother saying if we were at a stop sign in the road and three cars went by, she'd say, "Oh, the ferry must have come in." [Laughs] I mean, now there'd be... I mean, I have a hard time getting out of our driveway no matter what time of day it is now. And so things were, moved a lot slower and it wasn't, it was a lot more country.

JN: So, did you have to work on the farm or do chores before you went to school? Or just afterwards, or was it just a seasonal thing?

LK: We did chores like weeding, and... we had chores, but not before school so much as after. Our chores were... well, it was either my sister and I, I remember we had assignments that every other day one washed the dishes and the other worked out in the field. And so, but my sister liked to cook and I'd rather be outside so then we got... we just said, "Okay you do all that and I'll stay outside," and that was the arrangement we had. And I remember... I was talking about having something different for dinner every night. In those days, we ate what was ripe. We had beans every day, or, and almost, you know, lunch and dinner if it were the weekend, because that's what was being harvested. And even... or peas, whatever was available. We didn't have this variety of fruit or vegetables, we ate what was grown. I remember visiting family friends in Seattle and seeing this big bowl of grapes on the table and being so stunned and amazed that they had grapes on the table, because it wasn't, the grapes weren't ripe at our house. [Laughs] But that's how it was back then. And then if when, if a produce was grown for the market, then we ate what was overripe and was not suitable to send to market. We had the overripe peas and the overripe beans, and the strawberries that were not perfect, they were culled out of the baskets because they had... were smashed a little. That's what we had for our meals; the best went to the market.

JN: Did you have to cook for the workers on the farm?

LK: No. They, they lived in... the house still stands, I mean, barely standing. But that house by the side of the road was the, we called it the Filipino house, and all the Filipino farmhands lived there. There must have been three or four of five of them. And they cooked their own meals there, and I can remember going to eat with them sometimes as a little girl. And they ate with their hands, and I remember being so impressed that they ate with their hands. But since then I've learned that they eat with their hands in other countries, too. [Laughs] But it was something to see the Filipinos... and I just thought, "Well, that's 'cause they're bachelors and they don't know any better," that's what I remember thinking. But the Filipino men, I was like... they were like an uncle to me. 'Cause I... at that time, there was a grocery store right there on the corner of Miller and Fletcher Bay, I mean, on Battle Point Road. It was part of the Bainbridge Gardens complex. And the Nakatas and Ed Loverich were there, and... but I don't know if it was there -- anyway, I think the Haruis were there before the war, I mean, the Harui-Seko family, they had the grocery store before the war. And I remember Elaulio or Felix buying me an ice cream cone there and so, and I remember that. They treated me as, well, as I was one of their own kids. They spoiled me, actually.

<End Segment 11> - Copyright © 2007 Densho. All Rights Reserved.