Densho Digital Archive
Bainbridge Island Japanese American Community Collection
Title: Tomiko Hayashida Egashira Interview
Narrator: Tomiko Hayashida Egashira
Interviewer: Joyce Nishimura
Location: Bainbridge Island, Washington
Date: March 24, 2007
Densho ID: denshovh-etomiko-01-0002

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JN: You kind of mentioned that your father worked really hard and came home and was tired. But, do you remember anything you did, that your family did that was fun that you did together with your relatives or...

TE: Not really. Well except, my cousin Lilly came over occasionally. I think her mother used to say that when they came, if they saw the porch light was on that means that -- oh, Uncle Frank used to work in town -- that meant that he was supposed to stop and pick them up to go home. So, but I don't really remember that. So occasionally, not very often, my cousins from Seattle, the Arimas, would come over. That was mostly during the spring or summer that they came, maybe once or twice a year that they came.

JN: Well your family now is known for having your big picnics and your big Easter gatherings. Did that happen when you were growing up as well?

TE: No, I don't think so. We didn't have... the only really big things I remember was a picnic, like the whole Japanese community at Foster, down on Fletchers Bay. But, I don't remember too much about it. I just remember there was just a lot of people and my mother was busy making food and stuff to bring on the picnic as most Japanese do. [Laughs]

Off Camera: Can she describe... it says here that the three Hayashida brothers all farmed together and all lived in the same house. Can you talk about what that was like, living with so many people. Did they own the farm?

JN: Tell us about your three uncles, the Hayashida brothers, that all farmed together and lived in the same area, lived in the same house. How did that work out and how was...

TE: Well, one was a bachelor and he had his own room. Then there was one larger bedroom upstairs, which was Uncle Sub and Auntie Miyan, who everybody knows as Fumi now. They lived there, well, that was before the war. They only had Neil then. Oh, and then Natalie came later. Well, my uncle, bachelor uncle, he usually farmed up in Burlington, so he wasn't home that much. Then, so my Uncle Sub and my father used to farm the other area in Manzanita. But they used to farm where I live right now. Used to be, this is where they first started. I think, one year, my mother said that she used to watch the Canadian pickers over on this field, by the house. And then my father and the rest worked the other field, I mean, they weeded and hoed and everything. But, for, to keep track of the pickers, then she was one that stayed here.

JN: Did you own the farm, up in Manzanita?

TE: Yes, yes. 'Cause Uncle Sub was old enough to be put under... he was over, he was over twenty-one. So he could... 'cause nobody could own a farm, a Japanese if you were under twenty-one or a Japanese native could not own property then.

JN: Do you remember any community or church events that happened in that time and how your family was involved in those things?

TE: All I remember was... seems to me there was a lot of funerals. I think there was a lot of influenza or some kind of sickness that was around that quite a few people passed away. I just remember going to see them and that I had to look at the body, which I didn't really care to do too much.

<End Segment 2> - Copyright © 2007 Densho. All Rights Reserved.