Densho Digital Archive
Bainbridge Island Japanese American Community Collection
Title: Tatsukichi Moritani Interview
Narrator: Tatsukichi Moritani
Interviewer: Frank Kitamoto
Location: Bainbridge Island, Washington
Date: February 25, 2006
Densho ID: denshovh-mtatsukichi-01-0003

<Begin Segment 3>

FK: Okay, so how did, how did your -- I understand that your father was one of the first ones to grow strawberries on Bainbridge Island? Can you tell me about that?

TM: Yeah, I'll tell you what I know about it, but I don't know too much how he got into strawberries. Some people told me that he was one of the first ones to raise strawberries on Bainbridge Island, and I didn't know that. Just heard about it.

FK: So do you know why so many people on the island went into farming, the Japanese community went into farming?

TM: Well, there was, there wasn't much they could raise on this island, either strawberries or tomatoes or peas and some potatoes, I guess.

FK: So was, what was farming like in those days? Was it easy to do, or was it a hard thing to do?

TM: Yeah, it's hard, I guess. They just had all fresh market, you know. In the summertime, strawberries being raised in Bellevue, and Vashon and all around, they all had to, went to Seattle market, you'd think it wouldn't take long to get a saturation point. There were, everybody had a belly full of strawberries. That's why price used to go rock-bottom midseason, because they had to think of ways to get rid of that surplus there. So we had some of the early canneries were, like, National, and they used to... I guess they used to get a lot of the berries from the fresh market there, and then, and put it in a barrel, I guess. That's how the, cold pack started, I guess.

FK: So did all the, did all the boys work on the farm, or how did you spend your time growing up?

TM: [Laughs] Yeah, I guess there wasn't much to do in the Depression there. Only thing to do was go work for the farm or the greenhouse or some other thing like that in the wintertime, and work on our own place in the summertime.

FK: So you worked in a greenhouse in the wintertime? Tell me about working at the, at a greenhouse, whose greenhouses and what you did there.

TM: I worked at Pleasant Beach Gardens, run by the Furuta family. It's right out here in Pleasant Beach there, and they had eight houses there. They raised -- when I was there they raised chrysanthemums and tomatoes.

[Interruption]

FK: Were you in high school, or you were, how old were you when you started working in the greenhouse?

TM: Oh, around eighteen, I guess. No, I didn't work in the greenhouse when I was in high school. So it was after 1935 I worked in the greenhouse, after I graduated.

FK: So, so tell me about going to school on the island, then.

TM: Well, we were about two miles from the high school, so we walked to school.

FK: Which high school was this, then?

TM: Bainbridge High School. Winslow High School was right near our house but they were phasing it out. There used to be two high schools on Bainbridge Island, Olympic High School and Winslow High School. Olympic High School was right down by Day Road there, there was an electric substation there, and around... and all the Rolling Bay and Port Madison guys went there, I guess. Winslow High School had all the Winslow people, and the Eagledale people and the Pleasant Beach people, I guess. Those guys up here, Port Madison and Rolling Bay, they went to Olympic High School until 1927, I think. No, what was it? 19-... what the hell was it? Yeah, I think it was around '28 when Bainbridge High School first opened up.

<End Segment 3> - Copyright © 2006 Densho. All Rights Reserved.