<Begin Segment 5>

NI: What do you remember from your childhood of your house in Mission?

BH: Well, I hated going out to the farm and working, but you had accept that.

NI: Why did you hate it so much?

BH: Well, there were a lot of hakujin people that were enjoying their summer holidays. Heck, we couldn't. But insofar as I was concerned, I was better off than the rest because unless it was a strawberry or busy thing, I wasn't required to go out and hoe the, weed the strawberry farm or things like that, or use the plow. But it's only during the busy summer season that I was made to work and so forth. My father paid me accordingly.

NI: He paid you?

BH: Yeah, well, the pickers got so much. I got the same thing, too, which I was able to use as spending money.

NI: How much did you get?

BH: What was that again?

NI: How much money did you get?

BH: Well, you know, on a good day, on a good day, probably, you're lucky if you, picking strawberries, $1.50.

NI: That's not so much.

BH: That's for a ten hour work. You got up at six, were out in the field by seven, and noon hour about an hour lunch, it took, it took about fifteen minutes for the workers to go from the thing to the house to get fed, and then go back out and get back to work in about an hour. So between twelve and one was lunch hour, and then from one o'clock to six they worked. From seven to twelve, that's five, ten, and the afternoon, that's ten hour work.

NI: Were the workers on the farm, were they all Japanese?

BH: No, some were Japanese. We had bunkhouses for them, and we had native Indians. They lived somewhere else, in a house provided for them. And that was it.

NI: Did you have any hakujin people helping you out?

BH: One year we had a schoolteacher from the prairies during the Depression years. They came by and we provided them with a separate house to, where they could live and things. But they, they were the only hakujin people at thing.

NI: And then how many people would be working for you in a typical season?

BH: Oh, about twenty Japanese.

NI: And how many native Indians?

BH: About ten or twelve.

NI: Okay.

BH: And that's during the height of the berry season. And we had, we had one permanent Japanese worker throughout the year, and we had two Chinese workers living separate house, living all year round. And my father paid them... during the summer, why, the wages were thing, but he paid 'em bonuses or extras during the busy season, but he kept them going. Probably the yobiyose rate for the first year was about fifteen dollars per month, probably that's what my father paid them all throughout the year, but during the summer season, why, they paid 'em twice as much or two or three times as much according to their work.

NI: That was good money for people...

BH: Oh, yes.

NI: Would your father pay for their passage to come to Canada?

BH: Oh, yeah. Regarding the yobiyoses, it's more or less written in this book. But the conditions, the terms and conditions of the thing, it's all written in there. And I was lucky to get that, because my eldest brother, who passed away, he had records of the thing which I was able to get. It was given to me after he passed away, says, "Well, here are these papers. Don't know what to do and it's a shame to throw them away. Could you see what they, what they are?" Well, the wife, the brother's wife couldn't read Japanese, and it was all written in Japanese. And I was able to read the thing, so says, "Oh yeah, this is very important." Says, "Oh, I didn't know this, I didn't know that."

NI: How long did they come to Canada for, then?

BH: Huh?

NI: The yobiyoses. How long would they come over to Canada for?

BH: Well, the yobiyose contract period is about three years.

NI: Oh, three years.

BH: Three years. And they paid for, the sponsor pays for the passage plus a little bit of spending money. And once in Canada, he has to look after, well, he pays 'em fifteen dollars per month for the first year, second year twenty, and the third year twenty-five dollars. And if they're -- he has to supply 'em clothes, too, room and board, and also if the yobiyose become sick, he has to look after the doctor's expenses, hospital expenses and this and that. Other than that, after the three-year period is up, they all move out.

NI: They'd go back to Japan?

BH: No, not necessarily, not necessarily. Quite a few remain and go elsewhere. Sometimes I wonder why, if it was, yobiyose was from Wakayama-ken I can understand that, because it was a fellow kenjin. But there were others from Fukuoka-ken and Hiroshima and others, and some established themselves. I don't know what happened to quite a few of the others. I suppose if I investigated, I would know whatever happened to them.

<End Segment 5> - Copyright © 2005 Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre and Densho. All Rights Reserved.