<Begin Segment 3>

AR: So I take it that you grew up in your younger years speaking Japanese in the home or only Japanese, is that correct?

RE: Yes, you know, up to the time that we were able to go to Sunday school, we had no reason to learn English. We pretty much kept to ourselves. Our social activities were limited with other people, other than the Japanese families. So we certainly were pretty fluent, growing up pretty fluent in Japanese.

AR: Uh-huh. And did your father know, speak English very well or did your mother?

RE: No, you know, my mother, again, having very limited outside contact, never made any effort to learn any English or any other language. So I just recall that she spoke Japanese primarily. She could understand a few English words, but beyond that she couldn't carry a conversation. Even after we moved to Cleveland that was the situation. My father could pick up Spanish because he had to learn Spanish for some of the coal workers there and the railway workers, so he had to learn that, but he could speak in broken English pretty well.

AR: Uh-huh. All right. Did you and your family celebrate Japanese and American holidays? Are there any of those that stand out in your mind?

RE: Oh yeah, absolutely. New Year's Day was the biggest day, obviously, even in Japan. So we always... even kids looked forward to that, adults as well. On New Year's Eve much preparation went on. The families took turns so one family would be designated to be the host family to do the mochitsuki. Mochitsuki is the pounding of the hot steamy rice in making little rice cakes with it. Obviously it was a big entertainment for us kids to see that. Men with wooden mallets pounding the thing in the shallow thing... I forget what it was called. But anyhow, that plus they made all the, women made all the sushi and all the sweet things and it was just a wonderful occasion to celebrate.

AR: Uh-huh.

RE: New Year's Day, it was time for the menfolk to get drunk, I mean, drink sake and, oh wow, it was always something. And we would go from so-called house to house or quarter to quarter of the Japanese and by the time I recall when it all ended up, my father was so stoned that my brother and older ones had to drag him back home. He was happy as a lark, always singing away, but...

AR: Was there much drinking or gambling on other occasions, was that the pastime of the guys in that group?

RE: I don't know. It was said that perhaps some of the men did like to play Japanese gambling games, I don't know what they were. But as a youngster I never witnessed people gambling. Fourth of July was celebrated with fireworks and firecrackers and that was a good time as well.

AR: Now was that with the larger community or in the...

RE: Within that compound, yes. In the park where the goldfish and the little pond was there, right adjacent to it where they would set off the fireworks and it was fun.

AR: All right. Do you recall anything like in Japan they celebrated Boy's Day and Girl's Day?

RE: You know that was not so much our family. But we would go in there and they would fly these... oh, I don't know, they looked like fish.

AR: Paper kites.

RE: Kites and things of that... there were Boy's Day celebration, Girl's Day celebration, not certainly with our family, I guess we'd sort of gotten away from that having converted to Christianity.

<End Segment 3> - Copyright © 2008 New Mexico JACL and Densho. All Rights Reserved.