<Begin Segment 8>

DG: All right, I guess I'm going to go back a little bit to World War II again, and you mentioned that your father helped farm the Olympic berries at the Suyematsus' farm. Do you know how that relationship or partnership began? Why the Suyematsus had asked your father to...

DR: You know, I really don't know. But the one that would know all this would be Dorothy Almojuela, Colleen's mom, Mrs. Tom Almojuela. She was there and she said that she remembered when they went up there to pick Olympic berries, and she says, "Oh, yum, yum, yum," they were so big and delicious. But, yeah, she has running knowledge of that one.

DG: Do you know if the Japanese farmers helped the, your father and other Filipino farmers get their farms started?

DR: Probably, they learned an awful lot from the Japanese farmers, what it takes, the fertilizer, and everything else. I know my dad, Akio Suyematsu used to call my dad now and then when they had a farmers meeting or something like that, agriculture meeting, about the different kinds of fertilizers or whatever is going on in different berries. I don't know whether that was through the cannery, the berry canneries or something, some information meetings, but he used to go there.

DG: And, getting back... well, let's talk about the Filipino Farmers Association a little bit more. What was the role of that in terms of farming?

DR: Well, actually, it was the farmers that bought this, the hall and stuff. And that's through, through the farms that they made the money to, to start this hall.

DG: And what part, not just this hall, but I guess there was another... was there other facilities that they used to help them with farming? Either, I don't know if it was canning or packing sheds...

DR: Oh, yeah. Well, the first cannery is the one that burnt down there, it's down by Weaver Road. And then we had a cannery right over there where the Pavilion Movie Theaters are now. That's where they used to have the berry cannery. A lot of people working in that berry cannery during the summer. And that closed down, but then we always had this berry station right over here behind the Filipino Hall. That's where we brought our strawberries and got it weighed and delivered every day during the summer months.

DG: So the Filipino farmers worked together to deliver their berries into Seattle?

DR: Uh-huh. Well, before that they used to deliver to Seattle. I remember my dad and his old truck was going over there. It was low tide and stuff and all these cars were having to -- or high tide -- all these cars were going up and down on it. Here my dad with his old truck, old black truck, was "putt putt putt putt." He managed to make it on the ferry. [Laughs] We just laughed about it. My uncle just thought that was a real joke.

DG: And did... I guess I'm trying to get a picture of how the Filipino community and maybe even with the Japanese community together might have worked together to, with the harvest of the berries, or....

DR: Oh, yeah. Well, my dad had strawberries and we had our pickers, too, then we picked, too. And I remember Mama Kitamoto calling up and saying, "Felix, I need some berry, I need some berry pickers. I'm behind in my berries, my raspberries." And Dad said, "Okay, we'll be right over there, after lunch." So here we thought we were finished picking berries for the day. "Come on, wash up, have lunch, you're going over to Mama Kitamotos to pick some raspberries for the afternoon. And she needs you tomorrow 'cause our crop isn't, is not ripe yet. So you guys will work there tomorrow, too."

DG: So that was you and your sisters and...

DR: Brothers and cousins and whatever else. I remember my husband was saying that they -- my husband's one of thirteen children -- he said they were always down there picking berries, too, when their farm was picked and harvested.

DG: That just reminded me a little bit more, too, of what your mother and her, the other First Nation women... what, can you describe more what the places were like that they lived in when they came here? The picker houses?

DR: Oh, the cabins? Oh yeah, the picker cabins. Well, my mom, like I told you, I mentioned before, that when she came down, Dan Bucsit... they didn't have all that cabins so they, she stayed in an army tent, first year she was down. They she married Dad and she lived in their own house. [Laughs] But, yeah, all my family... a lot of my mom's family and different, different tribes used to come down and stay in our cabins to pick berries. The cabins, what they had is just a wood stove, beds, that's about it. Like campin' out.

DG: And a lot of people who came down were your relatives?

DR: Yeah, a lot of them were, uh-huh. Yeah, they were from the Squamish Tribe.

DG: All right, let's see. How about your, your father's -- no, your husband's -- sorry -- your husband's father? Do you know many stories... has your husband, or have you heard any stories about your husband's father, over the years, who also...

DR: Oh, yeah, he came over here. Well, actually... my father-in-law married my mother-in-law a lot earlier than that. Because my oldest was born in '38 -- my oldest brother-in-law-- and my husband was born in '41. Well, they were down in California, they were down in California, and that's where my husband was born, Salinas, California, he came up here when he was nine months old. And I guess they got a letter from his brother-in-law saying that there was a lot of work here on the island, on the berry farms and stuff, the Japanese have a lot of berry farms and stuff here. And you could find work to pick over here because he was down there working in Monterey and Salinas, picking crops down there. So, Papa Joe came up here and he started working up here, too, off and on for the Japanese farmers and finally getting his own place. And working down at the Hall Brothers, too.

DG: Did you ever hear him recall a story of when he first arrived here and how he got his start, and who he had worked for?

DR: You know, I really don't know. I haven't really talked to him. I just know that he came here, he was down in California first before he came up here.

DG: It seems like there's a lot of stories of these young men who were very migrant and working either in, working different crops up and down the coast, and going to Alaska in the canneries. But then a lot of them chose to come and settle on Bainbridge Island. Do you know what sort of thing spurred them or gave them the idea to come here and actually settle and stay here?

DR: Well, actually probably, the Japanese community were, really made them see that because they had all the farms and things here and that's probably what the whole thing was, and it's a friendly community, and accepting.

<End Segment 8> - Copyright © 2007 Densho. All Rights Reserved.