Densho Digital Archive - David Matsuoka Interview (denshovh-mdavid-01-0008)

<Begin Segment 8>

JS: So how many Chinese were in your class? So it was mostly Japanese and Chinese?

DM: (Yes), and the Filipinos. (That is why it was called Oriental School. No whites.)

JS: Filipino.

DM: And I think, I don't know if there was any Mexican or not.

JS: Mexican or Hindu? No? So was it...

DM: Mostly Chinese and Japanese.

JS: Mostly Chinese and Japanese.

DM: And a few Filipinos, I guess.

JS: Okay. And how did the Chinese and Japanese get along, the students?

DM: It was okay. We didn't have any problem. But... when was that? '38 or '39, the new school that we had, outside there was, Japanese had a carrots farm, he was growing, and the Chinese kids used to go there and pull the carrots and they would eat it. So that farmer told 'em, "Don't do that." Couple times, they would start doing it again, so the farmer started going after 'em, they started beating that old farmer up, Chinese guys. So when the Japanese guys saw that, man, they went after those guys and beat the heck out of those Chinese kids. And most of the Japanese know the judo, see, they even broke a guy's arm.

JS: So were there, those were the students that were beating up...

DM: Yeah, see, these Chinese guys were older Chinese. I guess you could call it Chinese Kibei because they're the ones that just came from China. So among us, they're two, three years older than us, same grade. But they beat the farmer up, so our older Japanese went after them. And that happened on a Thursday, so Friday -- they're from, Chinese from Locke. So Friday, none of the Locke Chinese showed up to school. [Laughs] They all got beat up. (Just the old time Chinese showed up and) the gals, but the guys didn't show up. But the local Walnut Grove Chinese, it didn't bother them, so they could come to school.

TI: So that's interesting, let me see if I can summarize all that, make sure I understand. So these Chinese, so there was a, at the new school, there was a farm right by, Japanese farm, with carrots. And so these Chinese boys would pick the carrots and eat 'em, the farmer said, "Don't do that."

DM: "Don't do that," right.

TI: But then when they still did that, the farmer came out to get mad at them, and the Chinese boys started beating up the Japanese farmer. So the Japanese boys saw that...

DM: All the Japanese boys, (yes). (Narr. note: Not all, we were too young to be involved in the fight.)

TI: And they went there and they started fighting with all the Chinese boys. And they broke one boy's arm, and then the next day, none of the Chinese boys came to school because they were all beat up or afraid?

DM: (Yes). Well, yeah, afraid.

TI: But it's interesting, so there was a difference between the Chinese at Walnut Grove and the Chinese at Locke. There seemed to be some difference.

DM: Yeah. Local Chinese people we'd get along with, no problem. But the one from China, they just came from China, I think. And we had a couple of Japanese from Japan, too, you know, Kibeis, I guess, they were in there because they're tough. They're the ones that think, broke your arms or something. But after that, that farmer didn't have to worry. Those guys never go to that farm.

JS: What else do you remember about the Chinatown in Walnut Grove, the Chinese side? Did you ever go to the other...

DM: Well, they'd had a big fire in that town. I don't know what year that was, but after that, they started building homes. And Chinese people always have a gambling house, like a keno, they called it. They had about four or five gambling house. And then most of the people that go was Filipinos. They're farm laborers, so they earned a whole month and blow it on the gambling house. But there was a few Japanese in that area, too.

JS: But as a young boy, did you ever go to any of the... were there restaurants there or any stores?

DM: No, no. There was one restaurant, we used to have lunch. When we were going high school, we used to go there for noodle, you know, bunch of guys go over there for noodles.