Densho Digital Archive
Bainbridge Island Japanese American Community Collection
Title: Michiko Amatatsu Noritake Interview
Narrator: Michiko Amatatsu Noritake
Interviewer: Joyce Nishimura
Location: Bainbridge Island, Washington
Date: February 26, 2006
Densho ID: denshovh-nmichiko-01-0014

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JN: So, can you tell us a little bit about what your farm life was like before you, before Pearl Harbor and what you did on the farm and how, what life was like?

MN: Oh. We were doing really well, us girls, four of us and Mom and Dad. We worked hard, but we had it going, we had five acres and then my dad cleared another three acres, down below, with that dynamite we had, and we used to all, wintertime, we had to use the dynamite to get the stumps out. And so us girls would, Dad would do and then we would go down and help him clear, you know, get all the barks and stumps and, and then we had a horse, so the horse would, we used the horse to get the stumps out and pile it up on the edge of the field and things like that. And that farm that Grandpa -- my father, I always say "Grandpa" -- 'cause I always told them "Grandpa," so... anyway, we had a beautiful strawberry field, after we cleared the bottom field. Just gorgeous. And we really worked hard, and it was through the horse and the dynamite. And then us gals helping, we all worked after school, and cleared the land. And then the other land that we had cult-, was already cleared. I don't remember ever, you know, but anyway, we had that 5 acres then. And so us girls and Dad would get sick during the, you know, beautiful strawberries, and then during June, Grandpa -- my dad -- would always have asthma. So us, the girls, the four of us and Mother would have to hoe, and do all of the work that Dad and we all used to do. Well, towards the end, we had to do, the girls and my mother, and we got it going good. And then when we cultivated, I think Grandpa was able to still do that, we were raising the berries.

JN: Did you get help with picking the berries, and what did you do with all the berries?

MN: Oh yes, we had pickers come. We had to go, we used to get pickers from Canada, I think, Canadian Indians used to come pick, and then we had place on the bottom fixed for tents to, they lived in tents, and then I remember we had some, we had a little, we had that Japanese bathroom, and there was another room behind there. That, so we had some living, Indians living in there'd come to pick berries for us. And we had a, between the girls and us, we had it going pretty good. So it was alright, and then we helped get that other part ready, and it worked out just fine.

But during the time when we had to harvest, my dad used to get asthma. And so the four girls would have to... my youngest sister and the oldest sister would, we used to have the pickers pick and then crate, crate 'em and then take it to the cannery and put it on the pick-up we had, the girls would take it, take it to the cannery. And that's how we continued the summer because Dad couldn't help during the summer berry-picking time.

And then we hoed, and then, and then after the fall, then my other sister would go, the, see, there was four girls, and my oldest sister stayed and then Kay, the second one, would go to work. And I think I was still going to school and Iku was going to school, so Kay would go to work during the winter in Seattle, do housework, and then helped that way for the winter. And that's how we survived.

JN: And after the war, the strawberry fields weren't really being taken care of, then? You had to start over from...

MN: Uh-huh, we had to start all over again. Oh, and then we had Filipinos helping, so that was a big help. Hoeing... but my oldest sister always stayed on the farm. I remember 'til October we would work in the strawberry fields, and then take it easy winter, and then start all over again. And we had to keep going, and Dad would cultivate. And after we came home, we, I think, concentrated more on that new field that Dad had cleared.

<End Segment 14> - Copyright © 2006 Densho. All Rights Reserved.