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JD: Actually, one thing that I, that I'm interested in and I think others might be historically, is the Japanese came here first, they were farming. The Filipinos came here at some other point, we don't know about, and for what reason, and how that relationship sort of formed. I'm assuming the Filipinos who first arrived were just young men wanting to work, they had no prospect except to make some money here and then maybe bring a bride over and establish a family. But that whole thing and how it evolved into the, the communities that sort of co-existed is really interesting to me...

Lucy Ostrander: And they came mainly in the '20, and early '30s during the height of the Depression, and there were no jobs.

FK: Okay. Well, the Japanese went into agriculture, and they really felt... they were always looking for people to work on their farms or to run their farms. I mean, even in those days, I don't think you had very many people other than the kids on Bainbridge who'd be willing to pick and as most of the Japanese farmers said in those days, kids weren't really very dependable. They would come when they wanted to come and, and eat the berries more than pick 'em, and maybe play catch with the berries or throw 'em at each other rather than pick 'em. So I think in the late '20s, a lot of the Filipino men were looking for work, and actually were migrating along with the farm seasons down to the Yakima Valley or down in southeast Washington and so forth. And somebody said, "Well, you could go to Bainbridge Island, and, and work on the farms there." And I think they saw that as really a good opportunity because it was really close to Seattle where most of them were and most of them were staying when they weren't working in Alaska or in the fields. So they came to the island to work and it was, it was during the depression time when the farmers were struggling trying to make, make things, make ends meet. They, they'd actually borrowed money to... or borrowed plants to plant their strawberries and so forth. So any help that they could get would, was something that they really cherished. And, and when these men, men of Filipino extraction came, they were willing to work and they were dependable, you didn't have to depend on kids of kids or that kind of stuff, or people that didn't really want to be farming or just saw that as a hobby. So it became more and more a reason for the farmers of Japanese descent to hook up with a specific Filipino person who was willing to work on their farm. And I think almost every farm, farmer of Japanese descent on the island had a specific Filipino person who, who helped manage his farm and would help with overseeing the pickers and, and work year-round to get the crops ready and so forth. So, this relationship existed at that time.

And then when World War II came, it was... unless you had someone you could turn to who was a good family friend who was Caucasian or so forth, it was probably a natural progression to look at somebody that was working for you and say, "Hey, would you be willing to look after the farm if, if we were willing to share profits with you?" and, and to do that. So, you, you took your most trusted person which was probably somebody that'd worked on your farm for a while, and, and asked them to do that. And say, "You know, you could stay in the house and do that and we'd share profits with you." And I think that's how the relationship kind of developed. I don't think we, there was ever a time when they saw each other as partners or saw each other as equals or... the, I think the Japanese American farmers probably saw them as employees, trusted employees, people who could be foreman of their places and all that, but probably never a partner. They were probably seen as caretakers of the, of the land while they were gone. And that's of course if you owned your own land. 'Cause, I'd say half the farmers on the island were leasing because you couldn't own property in those days unless you were a citizen of the United States. So, and if you were a person of Japanese descent, you weren't allowed to become a citizen 'til 1952, I think. So, although people were thought of as being aliens, they were aliens because they weren't allowed to become citizens.

So, I think that's how the natural progression happened. I don't think... and after the war, a lot of the Filipino men, I think, realized that they could probably own farms of their own, that they didn't have to work for somebody else, and struck out on their own. They probably also made money at other jobs like the shipyard and so forth. So they started their own farms, and, and in a lotta ways, at a lot smaller scale. So it wasn't like it was competition, it wasn't like they were fighting against each other, but they, I think they kind of took the model of what the Japanese farmers had done in the past and took that model to do what they were going to do, and develop their own civic pride in what they were doing. At the same time they were getting married, having children and so forth, so I think they saw that as something that they had to do, that they couldn't just be bachelor men all the time. So they had to set, set down some roots and become a force by banding together and doing things.

And, and I think as far as how close the relationship was with the various farms, it would depend on the individual. It would depend on how close they were with the family ahead of time. Like in our case with, with Felix, I mean, he was... Felix and Elaulio were actually with my grandparents, so it had been a lot of years, you know, that they'd been trusted people working. And, and that would have been my mother's side of the family and since my mother was running the farm, I'm sure she felt really comfortable with them being close. And I think my, my dad realized how, how critical it was how they looked after our farm at that time, and, and decided that he just needed to reward them for doing that. But I, but I know my mother and, my mother and Felix were always real close. And that might have been an outgrowth of the, him working there for so long.

<End Segment 22> - Copyright © 2007 Densho. All Rights Reserved.