<Begin Segment 10>

TI: Going back to the Japanese language school, so this would connect the language school with your father. In my notes I have that your father helped start the Japanese language school, according to the notes.

WM: I think so.

TI: Which says to me that your father was probably a pretty important person?

WM: Yeah. And my dad did everything for them. Like fire time, he had to go start the pump, the fire, you know. Every morning, if the fire, go over there, and early morning, something.

TI: And what are some other things? So he heated, helped heat the building by starting the fire.

WM: Fire start and then we had a night watcher, they take care, and then fire, then he'd ring the bell or something, and my dad got to go pump that water someplace.

TI: Oh, maybe I misunderstood. So you mean like a fire started and he pumped the water to --

WM: Yeah, they got pumping water someplace in the...

TI: To put the fire out?

WM: Yeah, water.

TI: Oh. So if there was a fire at the language school...

WM: Yeah. But Walnut Grove, Japanese don't make too much fire. They're safe over there. But next street, the Chinatown all burned down.

TI: And so in Chinatown, did they also have, kind of, people, like a volunteer fire group?

WM: No.

TI: Okay, so this is interesting. So your father, though, it sounds like he was part of this volunteer fire...

WM: For Japanese side.

TI: For Japanese side. And so if there was a fire someplace...

WM: But only Japanese side, they went.

TI: And who helped your father do this?

WM: I don't know, he was, it's small (town). But I know he used to go all the time, fire time, he'd go pump the water.

JS: So would there be an alarm? You would hear a fire alarm?

WM: No. The night watcher would go around, and something find, he'd ring the bell or something, I think.

JS: To let him know?

WM: Yeah. Give warning so everybody come out.

JS: Do you remember the big fire in the 1930s?

WM: No. Japanese town had no fire.

JS: But do you remember the fire in Chinatown on the Chinese side?

WM: It was '36 or something, I forgot.

JS: Uh-huh. Do you remember that? Do you remember when that happened?

WM: No, I don't know how it happened, but it burned. It was a big fire that day.

TI: So it's kind of interesting. So at night, there would be one person who would walk around, a night watch, and if a fire started, they would ring the bell.

WM: Yeah, something, I forgot.

TI: And your father would have to wake up, and he would help pump the water to put it out. So how, where were the water pumps located?

WM: The pump, something, I don't know. About two, three block, you got to go in.

TI: And so did they have, like, hoses that they would put on the water pump?

WM: Yeah, then they got the hose, they got stories, two place they have it. And somebody take care of this and one guy... they put together and put it on.

TI: Well, it must have worked, because the buildings are still there, so they were able to save that. How common were fires? I mean, was it because of how they heated the houses that it would burn? Or what caused the fires?

WM: I don't know that. They were small.

TI: So for your father to do this, for someone to walk around, all this would take planning. Someone had to think this through, like, okay, so make sure someone always walks around, and if a fire, they ring the bell and do this. Who, how did the community figure this all out? How did they decide who would do what?

WM: I don't know that one. They used to watch nighttime.

TI: Did you ever see your father go to meetings where they would talk about things maybe like this?

WM: I think they had it, but he just never said that. But my dad would go every time and play pool. [Laughs]

TI: Oh, maybe that was their meetings. [Laughs] Like in the Japantown, was there, did they have something like, in towns today, they have like a mayor, someone who's in charge. In Walnut Grove, did they have --

WM: I don't think so.

TI: -- something like that? So how do you think they decided things like that?

WM: I think they had it, but I didn't...

TI: How about something like a Japanese Association?

WM: Churches.

TI: Church, okay, at church they did that. Now, in Walnut Grove, they had...

WM: Two churches.

TI: Two churches. So the Buddhist church and the...

WM: And the Methodist church.

<End Segment 10> - Copyright (c) 2009 Densho and Preserving California's Japantowns. All Rights Reserved.