Densho Digital Archive - Bill Hirabayashi Interview (denshovh-hbill

<Begin Segment 4>

MA: So tell me a little bit about the town of Thomas.

BH: It really wasn't a town. If you sneezed, you'd go through the town. That's about how... there really wasn't any, no city hall or anything like that. They had a self-appointed mayor, Mayor Weatherby, that used to, he was more or less called the mayor in a sense. But I think you're probably familiar with the Iseri family? Well, it was, on the East Highway, see, we were on the West Highway and they lived on the East Highway. And Mr. Iseri was a very prominent person with the Japanese group. So actually, he had the general, what do you call it, a general store. And Mr. Mizuno on the West Highway had the Mizuno Garage, but beyond that, on the West Highway, there wasn't anything else. The East Highway was, Mat Iseri was, his kids were in the insurance business and gas station, things like that, and then there was, the oldest son, Tom, was in the shipping business for the vegetables and all that, the Western Produce Exchange. And then there was, I can't remember his first name, but Mr. Ito had a grocery store there, and Tommy Hikida's dad closer to Auburn had the Sunrise service station and a grocery store, but they sold that to his brother-in-law, I forgot which Maeda, one of the Maeda brothers. And then they opened up a Sunrise florist, and that was on the East Highway. And in between, naturally, there was the other few business that there were, there was a Honda grocery store and the Natsuharas were very prominent people over there, store over there. But beyond that, there wasn't a whole lot of Japanese. I think there was somebody that had a beauty shop in town, but I can't, I guess I wasn't that interested -- or not interested, I wasn't aware of different people that way.

MA: Was the closest bigger town, then, Auburn?

BH: Well, we were actually in the middle of, between Auburn and Kent. There was about three and a half or four miles either way. So that's how close we were, I mean, how much space there was between the two towns.

MA: So would you go to Auburn or Kent for, like on the weekends?

BH: Well, weekends, pretty much more like Japanese Niseis, they call it the Seinenkai group, and they used to play baseball. Wintertime they'd have basketball, we used to go watch them and things like that, where it'd be mostly roller skating at the different, Redondo Beach or in Tacoma or Seattle, and there usually was a benefit roller skating party to raise money for the people that played baseball or whatever for the Seinenkai or basketball team and things like that. And that was a good excuse for the Niseis to get out and meet people that way.

MA: And in Thomas, so it sounds like there was quite a few Japanese families?

BH: Yes, there were quite a few. And in fact, the grade school was, I would say, pretty much, I'd say probably fifty percent were Japanese Nisei kids.

MA: In your elementary school?

BH: In Auburn High School?

MA: Oh, I'm sorry --

BH: Oh, in grade school, yeah. In Thomas, uh-huh.

MA: And so tell me when you were in grade school, what was a typical day like for you?

BH: I guess myself, I didn't really... it didn't make any kind of impact, because to me, it was just school and like our neighbor across the street was the Schuller brothers, and Martin Schuller was the same age as I was, and his brother Joe was a year younger. And so during the days that we were home and nothing to do, we'd ride our bikes together, play whatever, and we'd skate on the highway of all places. But things like that. So, and then, being in the Boy Scouts, I had a lot of friends that were in grade school with us. And there weren't too many Japanese that were in that Boy Scouts. But because my brother Martin and Gordon and Peter Katsuno, they were active with the Tsuchiyas. That's right, the Tsuchiyas had a florist on the East Highway. And anyway, they were about the only Boy Scouts that went to what they called Camp Carson in the summertime, there was a camp they went to. Following that, I was active because I just kind of followed in my brother's footsteps. And so when we had the, a Boy Scout circus in Seattle, then our troop would have different patrols go and I was one of the bunch that went. And then at that age, there was, the JACL had started, and they used to have the... what would you call it? When they had the new president or whatever and had an election. They used to have dance and things at a place called Spanish Castle on Tacoma, Seattle-Tacoma Highway. And Ray Hattori and myself were the ones that held the flag. So that was kind of an honor at that age.

But then the other part about the Boy Scouts was that a fellow that owned a drugstore in Seattle, his name was Mr. Imae. And he took care of the Japanese troop in Seattle where they had the drum and bugle corps and all the Boy Scout things. And so when the scoutmaster from Japan came in, then Ray Hattori and myself were the ones that came from the country, and we had to meet the boat with all the Seattle bunch there. And there was a big crowd of Japanese groups then. But I just remember having a lot of fun because I was just, it wasn't my duties, I was just invited, I suppose, because of my dad knowing the people and all that. And well, I think it was... I tell you, I've got good memories and pictures and all that that way.