Densho Digital Archive - Doreen Rapada Interview

<Begin Segment 1>

DG: All right, Doreen, so I just want to start off with just personal background. If you can tell me where you were born and who's in your immediate family, what your parents did and what your grandparents did?

DR: Oh, yeah, well, actually, I've lived here on Bainbridge my entire life. My mom and dad met one another on the island on one of the berry farms when she came over to pick berries from Canada. And that summer they got married, of July 15, 1942. And I was born August 3, 1943. So I've lived my whole life on the island. Oh, 'course, I went over to Seattle, to Seattle General Hospital to be born, but I've been here ever since. I haven't left.

DG: And what did your parents do?

DR: My dad was a strawberry farmer and a welder as well. And my mom was a homemaker, and raised and took care of us. She was Canadian Indian, First Squamish Nation, and my dad was Filipino. And, well, before the war broke, well, how my dad got here on the island, he came over from, well, first he landed over in San Francisco. Then he worked over there as a houseboy and chauffeur and a cook for this one man over in San Francisco. And from there, he went over to Oregon where he farmed for a while. Then he went to Seattle where everybody, like the Chinese, worked on the railroads. The Filipinos worked at the fish canneries in Alaska. So, basically, most of them stayed right there right in Chinatown in the International Hotel. Stayed there in the winter months, then went to Alaska in the summer. But then they found out the Japanese farmers had, you know, cabins over here and berry farms, so they needed workers. So they came over here and they worked, stayed in the cabins and worked the berries over here. And then Dad decided that he wasn't gonna go back to Alaska again, so he, he and Tom Almojuela leased a property, the Furukawa land, and they did some strawberry farming there. And that's about the same year that my mom met my dad and Tom Almojuela met Dorothy. And they all got married that summer.

DG: All right. I want to sort of back up a little bit and hear more about your father's background and even life in the Philippines.

DR: He was saying life was okay but everything was so limited, you know, and he said it was a very poor country and his family seemed to have, have more than a lot of them did. But it wasn't, it wasn't the life he wanted. He wanted to be free and come over to the U.S. So, actually what he did is my grandfather wouldn't let him come over, but he got a passport. And he went and jumped on a ship, and so he was a stowaway. And then the cook decided he liked him, he liked him, but he took care of him, he fed him all the way across to United States.

DG: And then he got off in San Francisco.

DR: Yes, he did. [Laughs]

DG: And what did his, his parents do for a living in the Philippines?

DR: Actually, they had a rice plantation and fruit... just a, they had a rice plantation and then they had, they had a lot of tenant farmers working on their property, you know, and they just got a percentage of the produce from those farmers. So they did have that.

DG: So your, your father had a background in farming...

DR: Yeah, he did. He did. He had a... yeah, he did.

<Begin Segment 2>

DG: All right, and so he came to the U.S. and he first was in San Francisco and then he came up to the Seattle area. Let's see, can you tell me more about when he arrived on Bainbridge Island? Did he talk about what his living conditions were like and working conditions?

DR: He said the working conditions were fine. They stayed in cabins, and I, that's a lot of, what a lot of the Filipinos did. He stayed in the cabins and he worked in the winters and saved his money. And he said that the one thing he really learned how to live on the island is, he said that he learned from the Japanese farmers that all you have to do is go to Chinatown, get two hundred pound sacks of rice -- [laughs] -- and you could live off the land, you know, fish and whatever else... shellfish.

DG: Did he ever tell any other stories of interactions with the Japanese farmers?

DR: Oh, well, he, yeah, he really did. He... very respectful for the Japanese farmers and everything and then, like with Akio Suyematsu and stuff, during the war, Dad took care of his Olympic berries, you know, just that part of the berries. And, beside doing his own farm, too, at the Furukawa, at the leased land he got from the Furukawas.

[Interruption]

DG: Okay, so Doreen, if you could, too, tell me more about your father's first experiences on Bainbridge Island with farming with the Japanese and what sort of things did he take away from working with the Japanese in the early years?

DR: Oh, he said, well, he said the Japanese farmer were very hard workers. And actually, the Filipinos were hard workers, too. And he just learned that if you just work hard, you can do anything you set out to do.

DG: Do you know if he developed any personal relationships with the Japanese?

DR: Well, he had a fondness for the Suyematsus and for the Takemotos, our neighbors. Because I remember we always went up to Canada during the salmon season and then we'd get salmon from Mom's family, we'd get, and bring it down, we can take as much down as we wanted. I remember he used to go and bring salmon over to Mama Takemoto and Mama Suyematsu, bring them salmon. So that was outreach there. And actually, too, during, during... your grandfather, I remember, after the war and stuff, and your grandfather had that, what was it, the store that he had over in King Street, I think it was, or Jackson, or King street, in Seattle. So they got on the phone and I don't know whether it was, maybe Felix Narte, and everything, the word got out. So they got their settlement for their strawberries and stuff and they, they went over there and that's where we got our first refrigerator, was from your grandfather, from his store. And I think we got a TV there, too. We were the only one on the whole block, the whole neighborhood that had TV. Everybody used to come over and watch Mickey Mouse Club with us. [Laughs] But, that, yeah, so they actually all kind of wanted to support, you know, in any way they can, and that was one way.

DG: Okay, can you do me a favor? That was a great story. Can you tell me that story again and instead use Mr. Kitamoto, or -- I don't know what they would have called him -- just so we could use it. Do you mind re-telling that story? It's a great story.

DR: Oh, okay.

DG: Here, I can give you a prompt. Can you tell me about how the Filipino community and the Japanese community might have worked together, supported each other together?

DR: Well, yeah, well... Mr. Kitamoto, when he came back to the island and he went and had that, opened that store in Seattle on King Street or Jackson, whatever it was. And then after the Filipino farmers got all their, their settlement from the cannery, you know, for the strawberries and what have you, I know they, I think it was Felix Narte, called my dad and everything, so when they, they went over there and they bought things from, from Mr. Kitamoto. Like we got our first refrigerator, and then we got a range, and I think we got our first TV from him, too. Yeah. So they wanted to go over there and just support, be moral support for him, help him out.

DG: Good.

<Begin Segment 3>

DG: And again, I'm gonna kind of back up. So, your father is a young man and he's come to Bainbridge to farm on other Japanese farms. At that time, what other sort of work was he doing, when he first... before he had settled on Bainbridge, I guess.

DR: Well, he was working in the fish canneries up in Alaska. And then he'd come back and, like I said, then he'd come and stay in Seattle and that's how he found out that the Japanese farmers could use workers, and that's where they learned to work and farm the berries over here, from the different farmers. And it's just like, I know that Art Koura was asking if there was any descendants of Thor Madayag, and they live right over here. That's Pinky and Eddie, and the two girls, Gina and... Gina and Anita. 'Cause he said that he, Thor Madayag was his foreman during the war, for the strawberries on his farm. And I know, too, that Chiharas, Garcia Almojuela, he took care of their farm during the war. And so the Chiharas, I know that when he went into the nursing home, he wanted to go and visit him. So, there was... it was there.

DG: And what was your father's life like, when he first got to the United States and was...

DR: There was a lot of prejudice, there really was. They weren't accepted, called "brown monkeys" and whatever else. "Just go back where you belong," and things like that. But there is a lot of nice people, too, so we can't just put it into one camp. But what made my dad decide to come over here and just really farm and farm, is because they worked so hard in Alaska canneries, they could work twenty-four hours a day and just for nothing, you know, and get paid very minimal, minimum wage and stuff where everybody else got paid more. So they wanted to get a union, and they were at a union meeting in Seattle, trying to form a union for the cannery. And my dad and his Filipino friend were walking on the piers and pretty soon all these, this gang appeared. They had flashlights and torches and clubs and they were just chasing, chasing them and hollering at them, so they ran. My dad ran one way and his friend ran the other way. My dad went under the pier on about, I think it was Pier 60, and he was holding onto the posts and he saw the flashlights and lights going on and all the noise. He was in there shivering and pretty soon he, pretty soon it got real quiet so he got out of there and he went looking for his friend and his friend didn't make it. They clubbed him to death on the pier and he died.

DG: That's awful. Now, and when did your father tell you about this?

DR: Well, I was pretty much almost a teenager when he told me that. And I wanted to ask my mom what year was it, what his friend's name was, and Mom says, "You know, this is the first time I've heard this. And you can't just... you know, just respect that."

DG: And so you think that incident had something to do with him coming to Bainbridge?

DR: Oh, it did. It did. He said, "That's it. I'm not going back to Alaska again." So he came over here and that's when they went and leased that land, and farmed. And then during the war, too, they, they worked down at the Hall Brothers shipyard, too. A lot of them got their trade over there. 'Cause, from there my dad went over to -- became an American citizen -- and became a welder over at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and retired there.

DG: So your father had two jobs?

DR: Oh, yeah. He, he loved working swing shift over at the shipyard because he can work on his berries during the day. My mom called him a workaholic. [Laughs] He just loved working on his farm and he said it was just really his way of relaxation, too.

<Begin Segment 4>

DG: All right, now I'd like to know a little bit about your mother. And so, if you could tell me about her life in Canada.

DR: Well, my mom was born in 1923, and when she was five years old -- that was the time that they had the stock market crash and there was very little jobs and very little money. So, what they did is they had Saint Paul's Catholic Boarding School, Indian Boarding School. And my mom was there from age five to age sixteen, and so she was raised by the nuns. There was a funny thing about that, too, is because my mom was just so Catholic, we always had to be at church and everything else. My mom, oh, my mom was so... really good. She could really sing. She was in the choir and she sang in the choir and everything else. But the thing that they did is that they would not let them speak their Indian language and that's the only language they knew. So when they... they didn't speak English, and they spoke their own tongue, they put their hands out and they got rulers slapped on their wrists. 'Cause they didn't want them to speak the language they knew; they could only speak English. But the funny thing is, and when they were singing in the choir and stuff, they were singing all the hymns in Latin. I says, "What's wrong with this picture, Mom?" I says, "Here you go and you can't speak the language you do know, but it's okay to go sing in Latin, the language you don't know?" [Laughs] I said, "Oh, my." She said, "Oh, Doreen, be quiet, sacrilege." [Laughs] But then she came over when she met Dad and then they married, it was "death do us part."

DG: Can you tell me why your mother and her siblings were, had to go to the Indian boarding school?

DR: Well, it was pretty much that way all over, I guess, even here in the United States. 'Cause I hear a lot of them talkin' about going into Catholic boarding schools -- not Catholic boarding school, Indian boarding schools, here in the States. Over there, they have... I know there's Mission that's down in the Stalo Nation, that's an Indian boarding school. And then there was Saint Paul's, that was right there in Mission Inlet in North Vancouver. That was the one my mom went to, and her siblings.

DG: And why were they sent there?

DR: They were sent there because the government sent them there. Or if you didn't... you had to be in school and then that's where they put them, at the boarding schools. And if you didn't... well, they didn't have any money really, 'cause my grandparents had to go down to the booms and kind of steal logs there just to, for firewood and stuff and there wasn't any food because it was depression years. And so they all went there. But, I finally found out too, like if my mom lived in... all those ones that were put in those boarding schools, Indians that were put in the boarding schools, are gettin' paid for each year that they were in there, from the government.

DG: Because they were forced to...

DR: Forced.

DG: And do you remember any other stories your mother shared with you about life in the boarding school?

DR: Oh, she was saying, yeah, she said sometimes there was prejudice, too. 'Cause they all had their Indian boarding school uniforms and they'd go on field trips and walk on the waterfront. And there was kids comin' out there, "You dirty Indians," and everything else, and throwin' rocks at them. And like one of the nuns told my mom, "You know, don't listen to them, because there was never any germs here in this land until they all came over." And that was Sister, I think, Veronica, Mom said. She was from, she was from France. She said she was a really nice nun. [Laughs]

DG: And what age was your mother when she was, while she was there?

DR: Age five to sixteen.

DG: And was her family Catholic before they attended?

DR: Yes, my grandmother was, 'cause she used to go to... my grandmother was Catholic. She was, yeah, Charlotte, she was the only grandparent that I got to know. Charlotte Baker Lewis.

DG: Is there anything else you can think about to explain what the boarding schools were for, why they were there, and how they, how they operated?

DR: Well, they were just trying to "civilize the Indians," I guess. I don't know. But that's, they did put 'em in there and then they did that over here in the United States, too. And it wasn't just Catholic, it was Methodist or whatever else, they were put in the schools. And they take -- they took their language away and they even, all their, the things that they used to do, their, their dances and their potlatches and everything else, they stopped that. They said it was... they couldn't do it because it was not... [laughs]

DG: So, how do you think, in the long run, that affected your grandmother? Did she really lose a lot of her culture and...

DR: Well, my grandmother, she didn't go to the school. What she... she wasn't in the school. And my great-grandmother, either. But all my, my mom and all them got educated, yeah.

DG: And did it, how about with your mom and your aunts and your uncles, did it affect them as far as their Indian culture?

DR: Yeah, it did. It took away a lot from it. Because I could see there was a difference there, where my oldest aunt, Nora, she didn't go to the boarding school because she was already married then. And I could see the difference between her and in my husband's mother. And there is a difference there, just the culture, the way they talk. And right now, that language... they're trying to teach the language and it's not really being said right because that was taken away from them.

DG: Did your mother continue to speak the language?

DR: She could, yeah, she could speak words and stuff. But when you don't use everything you kind of lose it. She had to think and she couldn't really carry on the conversation, a normal conversation, as she did as a child.

<Begin Segment 5>

DG: Now, let's see... after boarding school, your mother... can you tell me about her coming down to Bainbridge Island? What, how was she able to do that and at what age? What was that like for her?

DR: She was nineteen when she came down. Before that I guess she was working with, in the canneries over in Canada for a while. Then she decided to come down with her sister, Auntie Nora, and her brother Ralph, and Evelyn Williams, actually, she became Anacleto Corpuz' wife. And that was her best friend and they came over and they stayed in the cabins and picked berries. And that's where they met Dad, and the rest is history. [Laughs]

DG: Can you tell me the story of how your parents met?

DR: Oh, they were at... Mom and them were down in Winslow where the library, Safeway, and everything was, that was Dan Bucsit's big farm down there, it was all in strawberries. And even that irrigation pond they call the Blue Heron, that was an irrigation pond. [Laughs] Anyway, Mom was in this... they had this big old army tent, and that's where my mom and my aunt and her friend stayed. And my dad went down there to see Dan Bucsit and he saw Mom and caught his eye, and that was it. That was history, then he was courtin' her, helping her pick berries. Before you know it they were married.

DG: So he came over to Dan Bucsit's land to help pick berries?

DR: Help my mom. [Laughs] Help my mom pick berries.

DG: And can you tell me about that summer and their wedding and the other marriages that occurred that summer?

DR: Oh yeah, there was big weddings and stuff. I remember where the Furukawa land where dad and them were leasing, they built a big platform so there could be dancing and everything else there for Tommy and Dorothy's wedding. And that's about what they did.

DG: Do you know why so many First Nation women came down to help work the farms on Bainbridge Island? How that got started and the history of that?

DR: You know, I've never really... actually, they were coming down on the farms... like I know a lot of them met over there in Mount Vernon, too, 'cause they were doin' the hops and different things and they just kind of followed the crops because there wasn't very many jobs, for just about anything. And I don't know how it started, but I know that a lot of the native families came down to pick berries for the Japanese farmers, too, Koura and I think your grandparents, too, the Kitamotos. And they came over to our farm, too.

DG: And do you know what the impact World War II had on the farms here on Bainbridge Island? Do you have any idea, or any ideas on what that did to, to farming for Japanese farmers as well as Filipino farmers?

DR: Well, it just seems like a lot of the Filipino farmers, Filipinos, were working on the farms, the Japanese farms at the time, and it just seemed like when they got taken away is when a lot of them became caretakers of different various farms. And then they, the Filipinos, the Filipinos were working down at the shipyard, too, Hall Brothers, during the war. A lot of 'em got, lot of them got their trade down there. My father did.

DG: So it provided an opportunity to get a different, another trade?

DR: Yeah.

<Begin Segment 6>

DG: Did your father ever share with you where he was at, what he was doing on the day Pearl Harbor was bombed, and what his reactions were?

DR: Well, he said that it was... he knew they were going to war and everything else, but he said, well... he didn't really say much about it, but he, but when everything else happened, though, when the Japanese were taken off the island, he really felt bad. He didn't think that was right because they were American citizens, just like they were going to be American citizens, too, and that just wasn't right.

DG: And how about your mother? She was not in the United States when Pearl Harbor was bombed, is that correct?

DR: Oh, my mom? No, she wasn't. She was in Canada at the time, and then she came about the following year. 'Cause that was in December, wasn't it, '41? And then she came in '42, in June.

DG: So your father, at that time of the war, did he share feelings in general about the... it sounds like he had, he had an opinion on evacuation and internment. Did he share with you, in general, how the Filipino community reacted? Were there differing opinions on World War II and internment, or...

DR: Well, they didn't think that was right. They didn't think that was right... that that should happen. Because it has happened, you know. Just like, like if you talk about my mom and what she went through as a child, and taking her language away and everything else. And you can't be blamed for things that happened, but you can't change it, too. And Dad didn't like that. That he really felt bad about the whole thing. But what is your opinion, really? When you're a minority, what can you say?

DG: Well, it's interesting. Do you think that there was a special relationship between the minority communities on Bainbridge Island, because they were minority communities?

DR: I think so. I think so, They just, we all gave, you know, respected one another.

DG: Do you know if the two communities interacted socially, or was it purely a working relationship?

DR: I think basically, well, socially, some socially and some working relationship. I know Felix Narte, he really was part of the Kitamoto family, too, it seems.

DG: Do you have any stories, either your father or mother told you, or that you remember growing up to, as examples of the relationships between the Filipinos and the Japanese?

DR: Well, I know our neighbor, Terry Takemoto it used to be, she babysat for my sister and I a few times. And it was just kind of a nice relationship. My dad used to, like I say, used to share whatever salmon or whatever he had. It was just, he just was very respectful for the Japanese community. Like he called them "Mama-san Takemoto," and then "Mama-san Suyematsu." He just really respected the whole, the Japanese.

DG: I was going to ask about that earlier, when you mentioned people calling them "Mama." Is that a cultural thing?

DR: I don't know. I just know it by that's what my dad said, you know. I didn't question it, But that's what he called them. I don't know whether it was, it probably was a sign of respect. I know it was, because he respected them.

DG: I think my grandmother was known as "Mama-moto." [Laughs]

DR: Well, your grandmother... my Aunt Nora's granddaughter was, we had a baby, I had a baby shower at my house and your grandmother came to the baby shower. Mama Kitamoto. [Laughs]

DG: And what was, it must have... can you describe for me what it was like for your mother, coming down here for the first time as a nineteen-year-old and then getting married that first year. And so now starting to live here. Did she share with you what it was like for her to start to live here?

DR: Actually, it was fine because a lot of the other native ladies got married, too, to Filipinos, so they got together. That's how this Filipino Hall came, came into play. And we had dances and parties and birthdays and weddings here.

<Begin Segment 7>

DG: So can you tell me about the history of the Filipino American Hall, how it got started?

DR: Well, there was... the five main founders were Felix Narte, Felix Almazon, Toby Membrere, Dan Bucsit, and Anacleto Corpuz. And they did put the money down here on this hall to start the community to bring everything together, for the Filipinos. And it did, and then all, everybody else joined. So there was quite a few of the Filipinos on the island at one time.

DG: So can you put that in a time perspective? What, what was going on in the community at the time that they wanted to form the Filipino American Hall? What spurred that on?

DR: Well, this, this... they started in 1941 when they were first on the island and a lot of them had farms, too. Like my dad already was farming on the island when the war broke out. 'Cause his partner was Tom Almojuela. They just leased that land and did berries and stuff. And then there was quite a few, quite a few Filipinos on the island, too. And a lot of them married, so, so that's when they formed this. They got together and, first it was the Filipino farmers. Then after they sold that to Strawberry Hill for the army, the Nike site -- they sold that. Now it's Strawberry Hill Park -- but after they sold that part, then they regrouped and called their self the Filipino Community. And I know they got so much money from the army for the land that they took for the Nike site. So they took that money at the time and they invested it in Town and Country, it was being built then. So, the five invested in that, bought stock in that.

DG: Do you know why they bought stock in that, in the...

DR: I really don't know. They just got together and they did it. There was, like I say, there was Felix Narte, Felix Almazon, my dad, and Anacleto Corpuz, and Toby Membrere. Yeah. They just all went and did that.

DG: And why was it important... these five men put money down. So it was quite an investment to form the Filipino American Hall and the Filipino American Farmers Association. What spurred them to invest in this for the community?

DR: So they could have a place to go socially. Before, where they were having dances for the Filipino community, they were doing it down at Stanley Park down... was it Mrs. Stanley? They used to have that hall down there? That's where they were meeting before they got this hall.

DG: And so can you describe what... the events that occurred in the Filipino American Hall when it first started up?

DR: Oh, there was the, there was dances, they all had dances every Saturday night here. And then they just did things like having parties or weddings or birthdays. We had, always had a Christmas party here for the kids and the Filipino kids. And we got candy and oranges and apples or peanuts and whatever. They always managed to do that and get a Santa Claus for us, or we had our Easter party here, too. Different events that would come up.

DG: And so you have many childhood memories of the hall.

DR: Yes, I do. [Laughs]

DG: And how about for your children? Was the hall...

DR: About that time, I mean, the community just kind of seemed to come to a standstill after the older ones passed away. And I don't know, it's just, it's here and it's startin' to come back again. Everybody is startin' to realize what, this is our roots, you know. So, it's gettin' better and the kids got to understand that, too. And they are startin' to come around.

DG: And can you tell me about, I think you said it was 1949, when the delegation from the Philippines came to Bainbridge?

DR: Oh, yeah. That was in 1949. That was over at the Toby Membrere farm. And actually, Toby Membrere owned 50 acres and it started where Commodore Lane is now, all the way down to where the Stanleys, where Weaver Road is. And he... and that's where they had it. And a delegate came from the Philippines and so they decided to have a great big party. So they had a... so they killed pig and everything, they had all the different kind of Filipino foods cooking over there and the tables out. And my mom and them were all there helping, and it was just, there was a great big... it's, a great big group that was there. And they had a, it was really nice. And that's probably the only pictures that we really have. And my mom had them because my cousin had a photography shop in Seattle, and he came over and got on top of there and took pictures of it. So I donated that to the museum in my mom's name.

DG: And do you know why the delegation from the Philippines chose to come to Bainbridge Island?

DR: Probably heard they had a lot of Filipinos here. [Laughs] And I really don't know. My dad and Toby and Felix and all them, they got together and all of them... I don't know how that happened, but it did.

<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.

<Begin Segment 9>

DG: How about the Bainbridge community at large, even the Caucasian community, was there a good relationship there or prejudices, or both?

DR: Well, I think there's, there was prejudice, yeah, there definitely was. And yet there was a lotta nice people, too. So you can't really put it all in one barrel. Yeah, there was prejudice and we kind of just kindly went our own way. We always just, seemed like we all, two of us worked together all the time, just for safety. That's probably why we have a community now, too, because of that. We'll get together without any prejudice and just have a good time.

DG: Can you tell me some stories of examples of that prejudice?

DR: Well, it's just... for once they called me, one time they called me a "brown monkey," why don't I go back to where I belong. And then they said that and I thought to myself, hmm. It really hurt my feelings. Then I thought to myself, "I should have just came back and told 'em, 'Hey, my mom's people were over here at Plymouth Rock when you landed. You go back.'" [Laughs] But you just don't say things like that.

DG: How about, how was it like for you going to school on Bainbridge Island, growing up through the schools?

DR: Well, you know, it was kind of, it was okay. It was okay. We did go, but we just kind of... I think you have to kind of have to keep to yourself, really. I think that's what everybody else did, too. Just keep to yourself and then don't say anything. And then just be... we were just kind of with ourselves, you know.

DG: And did you notice a similar thing with other minorities on the island, such as the Japanese?

DR: Yeah, yeah, the Japanese have always been with their self and respectful, too as we were, too. And lot of... well, lots excelled, too, at school and different things, but they said there was a lot of prejudice, too. Because my friend Florenda Membrere, Toby's daughter, she graduated valedictorian, too. And she told me she really was hurt... she was sitting there shaking hands in the line when she graduated and this lady came to her, "Now you're smart enough to marry a white man." Things like that.

DG: And I remember hearing a story of some young men, before the war, coming over and staying in some bunkhouses and experiencing some trouble at the bunkhouses?

DR: Oh, yeah, there was, there was people, sittin' there throwing rocks on 'em, tellin' them to go home and everything. It was, it was things like that, you know. We weren't very accepted. So you just kind of just stayed out of everybody's way and...

DG: Yet through all that they still stayed here and settled.

DR: Yeah, they did.

DG: So what do you attribute their staying power to?

DR: [Laughs] It's a new life. It's a life that was better than... 'cause they, like you said, they traveled back and forth from California all the way up. And there's, like you say, safety in numbers. There was everybody... the community was all together. And that's how we have this Filipino Hall now.

<Begin Segment 10>

DG: So the Filipino American Hall was a very important part to many people's lives. Do you have anything else you'd like to share about the hall or memories?

DR: Oh, they always had their dances. And of course the Filipinos had their, the old payaner band had a five-piece... they used to play "In the Mood" and all those different things like that. They always had a good time, they danced and everything. And it was, we're over here and we used to have our Christmas parties and everything. We were all together. There was quite a few families.

DG: It seems like a lot of pride in the hall?

DR: Yeah, there was, and it did go in very bad disrepair for the longest time. Because out of, I don't know how many, sixty some Filipinos and there's only two of the old pioneers left, and that's Racindo Borganio and Tony Oligario. All of them are gone now.

DG: And what would you like this hall to be for your grandchildren now, in the future?

DR: Well, I'd like them to just realize and be a part of it. Because right now, the grandchildren are doing great, but they all are into sports and different things, where I don't know how we're gonna balance that. We can bring 'em over here and just get 'em interested enough to, you know, have parties and stuff or be part of the different programs we, we're trying to do now. A lot of them came to the Christmas party, that's something. That's a start again.

DG: How is this Filipino community unique to Bainbridge Island in comparison to other communities in the state and the area?

DR: You know, I really don't know. But I know, I believe that Bainbridge is the oldest Filipino Community Hall in the state of Washington, and I think the second is Yakima.

DG: So they started something pretty amazing, those five men who invested their money.

DR: Yeah, they did, they did. And then everybody came together, this hall was just full.

DG: And even though it's called the Filipino American Hall, it also... there were several young First Nation women who, at that time, were also a part of this. So, how, can you explain how it was important for them?

DR: Yes, they were, they even, the first year they formed their own auxiliary, the women's auxiliary, and then they did, they did different things like having booths, you know, in a bazaar or something like that. Just raising money to buy dishes and stuff for the hall to use. And, well, to get everything started is what they did. It didn't last very long, then they just became one, the whole community. There was, I think way back when it was five dollars per family to be in the community, their dues a year. Now it's not that, but, anyway, that's the way it was. Yeah, Mom, Mom really worked hard. And she was the one that always ordered the doughnuts for the dances on Saturday. And that used to be from the Stotts, when they used to have a doughnut, make doughnuts. So we'd have, she'd order all the doughnuts and bring it for the dances for Saturday nights, and she did that for many many years.

<Begin Segment 11>

DG: So can you tell me about what happened, or describe what it was like for the island and the community when these Japanese American farmers started to come back after the war?

DR: Oh, it was a good thing. They were just glad that they were home, they were coming back, because they shouldn't have been there in the first place, they didn't feel. And by that time, the Filipino farmers, too, you know, like I said, during the war, they got their, they got their trade by working down at the Hall Brothers shipyard and stuff, and they were raising their berries, too.

DG: So, did the... was the war, did the war good for -- well, I shouldn't say good -- what opportunities did the World War II have for the Filipino farmers?

DR: Well, as caregivers, caretakers and stuff for the Japanese farms and stuff, it gave them a stake to go ahead and buy their own farm and things, instead of just leasing it or whatever. It helped them in a big way.

Lucy Ostrander: Just to follow up on that, Debra, were there any laws preventing them from purchasing the land? Did they have any problems...

DR: Well, the one thing my dad had to do before he bought his property is he had to become an American citizen. Because if you weren't American citizen, you could not own property. So, my dad became an American citizen and he bought his property then. And some of them, too, that like... they're, they wanted to buy land but they weren't American citizen, but their brother was American citizen so they put the land in his name, 'til he can become American citizen.

DG: And so how were they able to secure loans? Was that a problem to secure loans for land?

DR: Pretty much so. Land was so cheap in those days, too. But I don't know, I think actually what my dad did is he saved, saved his money and just, just made a promissory. It's not as complicated as it is now. You have to go through so much. Before it was just a handshake, almost. But, yeah, my dad did pay cash for the property he bought, that 5 acres, going off...

DG: So again, because of the war and the opportunities that the Filipinos had, they were... explain that again. What opportunities they were given...

DR: Oh, yeah. When they were caretakers, a lot of them were caretakers, because they were working for the certain Japanese farmers to begin with, you know, through the winter months and stuff, so they, they worked on their farms or just took care of their farms during the war. And were able, then gave what money they could to the... gave the money to the Japanese farmers from the land, you know, and things like that. So, yeah, that's pretty much how it went. Then after the war, they, a lot of them, like I say, bought their own property, too, and their farms.

LO: How was that done in terms of getting the money to the Japanese American farmers who were interned? Did they just send it in the mail or did they have to go deliver it in person?

DR: From what I understand, a lot of them just went over there to where the Japanese were and brought them the money.

DG: Do you remember any stories people told about what it was like to see the camps and see the Japanese in the camps?

DR: No. No, I didn't. I just knew it wasn't very good, though, so I've heard.

DG: Did your mother ever share any stories about the Japanese returning and getting to know them?

DR: Well, yeah, yeah. It's pretty much so. 'Cause, just like I say, that Mom knew the Takemotos and she knew Mrs. Kitamoto and she knew Suyematsu, Mrs. Suyematsu. They, we used to pick on, pick at Akio's too, Suyematsu's, pick berries there, too, when we weren't workin' on our farm. My dad didn't let us be lazy. [Laughs]

DG: So was it a difficult life for you growing up to work on the farms?

DR: Yeah, that's why we, I don't have a berry farm anymore. [Laughs] I don't even want to garden. My dad was always gardening, we always had fresh vegetables, we always strawberries to harvest and different things. But, it's a hard work. It is hard work.

DG: All right. Is there anything else? I think, I think that was great. [Laughs] Okay. Anything else you would like to add?

DR: I think I'm all talked out. [Laughs]

DG: Okay. You did great.