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JN: Can you remember, tell us a little bit about your father, because he came from a family that were not farmers, and how, and maybe a little of his struggles when he got here to, 'cause he couldn't go in, he was, if he was limited in what he could do?

MN: I remember Dad, you know, he was gonna go back, go back home and go back to school again, but he already had two girls and another one coming. And then they were farming on another part of the, on the other side of High School Road, between Sportman's Club, house, there was, we had, lived there for a while, we had a strawberry farm going there. And Dad and Mom never, they didn't know a single thing about farming. They had to start all over again, they never had touched the soil in their life, and they had a very good friend that lived on the corner of Wyatt and Finch Road, and he decided that since Mama was teaching school in Seattle, Japanese school, and Dad was working, but they knew that they had to get going on something in order to support the family. And so the friend told him, "Come and we'll get," you know, this Mr. Sakuma had them started and they said they'll help. So they helped them get started on the strawberry farm, and that's how they got going. And it was really rough.

I remember when we were, I remember I was about six years old, since Dad never went back to Japan, the father had sent his, one of the brothers to come and check on Father to see how he was doing. So he came through Europe and came to Bainbridge, and he knew how much Grandpa was... and at that time he already had three girls already, and then the fourth one coming, and so there was no way that Grandpa could leave. They decided that they were gonna stay and farm. And that's how he got started, not knowing a thing, but never touched the soil in his life, Mom never did either.

But my mother, her father was in the, way up in the army, and so they had, well, she was, she went, got to go to school, both of them went to university. And so Mother was a school teacher, and she taught school in Japan already. But her parents was very wise, and they had a maid already at that time. And so on the weekends, whenever the maid had taken the day off, my mother and the sisters, they had to do the housework in Japan. So they knew how to cook, they knew how to scrub the floors and tend to all these housework things, so Mother was prepared. So she, when she came back and she had to go on the farm, she just about knew how to go about doing housework, so that's how she survived. And then father had to learn all over. And by their friends, they were able to... another family that really helped him was the Suyematsus. They would help, give them money to get fertilizer, plants, and then that year the berries came, then they would pay off with that and get going. And people all helped one another getting started, planting and things like that, and that's how they survived. Without their help, I couldn't have managed, which they were very grateful that they have wonderful friends who took care of them.

JN: Did your parents ever express regret that they left Japan, or did they ever make you, make you feel that they really, this was too hard of a life for them?

MN: No. They decided now that the family came, they're having a family, they decided that they're gonna be American citizens and they're gonna start a new life here, so that's when they got started. In fact, after they came home, we never said "okaasan" or "otousan," we got to say "Papa" and "Mama" in English. And they sent us to Sunday school, and made friends. So they were, and then after they got back from war, they decided they're gonna apply for American citizenship, so they both became Americans, they passed the exam. I remember them going to Seattle to take the test. I don't know how they did it, but they did it, they became American citizens. They were so proud.

And so they, and then, we had missionaries. You know, you think missionaries from Seattle sounded strange, but they called from Japanese Baptist Church. We were taught missionaries went far away, but they had this Japanese-speaking woman missionary that came to take care of the Japanese on the island, and so she came and spoke to them in Japanese. And I remember she's driving a car, coming across on the ferry, coming to our home to visit and talk to Mom and Pop. And so they, Grandpa and Grandma joined the Seattle Japanese Baptist Church. Through that we were able... so we became member of the Japanese Baptist Church, we were baptized there. And so when we got into trouble with strawberry picking and all, our reverend in Seattle, Reverend Andrews, would bring truckloads, a busload of kids to help us, come and pick berries and get us out of the mess we were in. So our grandma was happy that they became American citizens.

JN: Tell us a little bit about why, why they couldn't become American citizens before, before the war. There was a, there was a law that said that unless they were American citizens, they couldn't, they couldn't own property. So how did they buy their property?

MN: Dad had a, our neighbor had a son that was American citizen, twenty-one, you had to be twenty-one, I think it was, in order to buy. And so he bought the land in his name, and that's how we survived. And then when my sister, oldest sister got to be twenty-one, then she was, he transferred it to her name, and that's how we got the land. So, our friend's son that took over...

<End Segment 15> - Copyright © 2006 Densho. All Rights Reserved.