<Begin Segment 19>

TI: And when you got there, what were your impressions of Jerome?

KM: Says, "Wow, what a forsaken place," yeah. Way in the boonies, you find out that that was the lowest level of the community, was Jerome. And it was a Japanese internment camp, lot of new facilities, and people found, the citizens of Jerome found out the workers in Jerome were getting paid more than the people in Jerome were getting paid. Like the teachers were getting...

TI: Oh, I see. So the... not the Japanese Americans, but --

KM: No, no, the employees of the Jerome, yeah, the Caucasian, and, well, the government workers, actually.

TI: So that caused resentment amongst the local people when they found out that people were coming and getting more than they were.

KM: Yeah.

TI: Now, did you have much interactions with the locals?

KM: Locals? No, uh-uh. We had shopping trips to Fort Smith... was it Fort Smith? I think it was Fort Smith, yeah, in Arkansas, that was close to the Mississippi border, and we'd go shopping there, and, my god, go to a store, and the counters were just counters with merchandise on top, and then the floors were sand, sand floors. No asphalt, and no wood floors. Different type of living altogether.

TI: Did you come across, when you were on these shopping excursions, sort of the segregated South? I mean, did you see differences in how blacks were treated versus whites?

KM: No, we didn't get a chance to see that. Maybe they didn't want us to see that, but we didn't see too much of that.

TI: 'Cause you went more to, like a base, or army base or something?

KM: No, it was a small town.

TI: Oh, a small town?

KM: Yeah, uh-huh.

TI: Okay.

KM: Southern small town. Yeah, it's a little different than California. They're backwards. [Laughs]

TI: So did you have a job in Jerome?

KM: Jerome? Yeah, I was in the ag. department.

TI: And so what were you growing, or what was your job?

KM: No, I was in the office.

TI: Okay.

KM: Yeah, I went out on one of the field trips picking cucumbers. What an experience, oh, wow. Because first thing, you get there, they said, "Pick up a stick." And says, "What? Pick up the stick? What for?" He says, "Oh, you'll find out. Pick up the stick." Says, "Okay." Pick up a stick, we go picking cucumbers, and you'd take the stick and you would lift up the branches, the cucumbers. Then said, "What do you do that for?" Said, "You'll find out." Then way in the distance, you hear, "Snake, snake." There are snakes underneath the vines. Water moccasins and copperheads and rattlesnakes.

TI: So these were all very poisonous snakes.

KM: Yeah, they're poisonous snakes, and they're underneath the cucumber vines. It was, wow, what an eye-opener. Let's see. And then I've never farmed before, so I don't know anything about it. So said, "Okay, pick up a hoe, you got to do some weeding." [Laughs] And the old-timers, they got a file and they're filing the hoe. Said, "What are they doing that for?" Anyway, I got a file and a hoe and I did the same thing, filed it, make a sharp edge on the hoe, so it'd be easier to hoe.

TI: So the experienced farmers knew what they were, they had to do that.

KM: Oh, yeah, experienced farmers, we sure learned fast. [Laughs]

<End Segment 19> - Copyright © 2010 Densho and Preserving California's Japantowns. All Rights Reserved.