<Begin Segment 21>

TI: Okay. So you were talking about, then you're constantly moving. So you go from Jerome to Rohwer, then back on a train to go back to California, back to Watsonville. When you got back to Watsonville, how did the farm look, the ranch? So let me ask Yoshiko first. So when you got back to the house, what did it look like?

YN: You know, I didn't even pay attention to that. But I just remember my father started raising vegetables and started from scratch again.

TI: So right away he started to farm again. Now, so what condition were the, was the land in? Was it, was it kept up pretty well so that he could start right away?

YN: I'm pretty sure.

EN: So we had to have Japanese people help us on the ranch. They, they needed a job, too, so even women, they come to ask for a job.

TI: And did your father have the money to pay all these other people to help on the farm?

EN: Uh-huh. We paid cash. [Laughs]

TI: Because earlier you said it was kind of hard at the beginning because people wouldn't buy your, locally, your dad's lettuce.

EN: It was hard then. But they bought the vegetables and took it back, and then they sent us the money. But my brother took care of all that, money thing.

TI: And so what are some other memories of coming back to Watsonville that you have? I mean, did you see any of your old, like, schoolmates walking around, things like that, and talk to them?

YN: It just changed all of a sudden. You know the day after the war, the bombing, I don't know whether it was me or them, it changed, the feeling. After that, I lost that friend, I don't know what happened to her. Remember Betty Sibel? I used to go over there and play. Then all of a sudden -- maybe it was me, I think, more or less feeling bad.

TI: Well, so Yoshiko, how do you feel now? I mean, you still live in Watsonville. Is there still some of that feeling now?

YN: No, I grew out of it. [Laughs]

TI: What's that?

YN: I grew over that.

TI: So at what point do you think that feeling kind of left? I mean, after the war, you had, right after the bombing, you had this feeling, then you came back, you still had that feeling. What made it change?

YN: Well, I went to San Francisco, maybe that's why, too. Went to school over there. All five of us girls, we all didn't rent apartments, we worked as schoolgirls, get our room and board and spending money. So Watsonville was kind of forgotten after we went there for a couple of years.

TI: And so Eiko, did you do the same thing, did you go to San Francisco?

EN: Uh-huh, I went to sewing school over there, then got a job. But my mother called me back, so I had to come back.

TI: That's right, because she had bronchitis.

<End Segment 21> - Copyright ©2008 Densho and the Watsonville - Santa Cruz JACL. All Rights Reserved.