Densho Digital Archive
Emiko and Chizuko Omori Collection
Title: Hisaye Yamamoto Interview
Narrator: Hisaye Yamamoto
Interviewers: Chizu Omori (primary); Emiko Omori (secondary)
Location: San Francisco, California
Date: March 21, 1994
Densho ID: denshovh-yhisaye-01-0016

<Begin Segment 16>

CO: What do you think the effects were on your father?

HY: Let's see...

CO: What became of him afterwards?

HY: Well, he went out with friends to a cannery in Utah and he had been cooking in the camps. And from there he came back and since we were no longer farming, he wasn't the one in charge anymore. So he went to work as a janitor down in Little Tokyo for a while. And then he was working in Pasadena as a dishwasher for a while at a Chinese restaurant. And then he, I don't know how he got to Las Vegas, but he got a job in a Chinese restaurant in Las Vegas washing dishes. And I've sort of based one of the short stories on his experiences there. And well, it was ideal for him, I mean, he loved gambling, like a lot of Asian men. And he was there eight years, didn't save a penny. He was having a lot of fun, too, I guess, on his off time. But he got sick and came home to die.

CO: Well, these jobs that he had after camp, I mean, would they have been different if there had been no camp?

HY: I'm sure he would have kept on farming. You know, with the boys to help him. I don't know if the boys would have kept on farming with more education, but...

CO: Did, did he gamble before the camps?

HY: Oh yeah, now and then. Yeah.

CO: Was there gambling in the camps?

HY: No, but well, I won't -- [laughs] -- I won't say where, but he did gamble before, too, whenever he could.

CO: You didn't detect gambling in camp?

HY: I don't know. I guess not. No, it wasn't permitted, I suppose. But I wouldn't be surprised if it did go on.

CO: You told me about one bad habit that you picked up in camp that you still have.

HY: Which one? Oh, no, I was smoking before I went to camp.

CO: Who learned? Wakako?

HY: Yeah, from me. Other kids, other women picked it up from me, I think. But she's quit. I was really sorry about that, but... you know, you didn't -- no, no. About them imitating me and smoking. But we didn't have all that publicity about lung cancer and everything when I was going to school. It was just a sophisticated thing to be doing.

CO: Do you still have dreams of camp?

HY: Never. Not that I can recall.

CO: Do you have dreams of your brother?

HY: Not that I can -- I dream, I remember very little of my dreams if I do dream.

CO: And nothing as vivid as the one with your grandfather.

HY: No, uh-uh, not since my childhood.

<End Segment 16> - Copyright © 1994, 2003 Densho and Emiko Omori. All Rights Reserved.