<Begin Segment 8>

MA: And what about Japanese American, like, community events or festivals?

KI: The only thing they had when I was growing up that I remember is a community picnic that, because -- but every, the Christian church used to have their Christmas programs and we used to have our programs, and the Japanese school used to have their programs. So you know, if you wanted to be involved, there was a lot of things to do.

MA: And this picnic, when was, when did that take place?

KI: It was in the spring, and there was a man that had a cow pasture right by the beach, and he'd let us, let the community go in there, and people would just put out some trails for the races, and everybody would bring a big lunch and have a good time. [Laughs]

MA: In general, how did, what were the race relations like in Watsonville, before the war especially, like between whites and the Japanese?

KI: Well, you know, Japanese are not very pushy. So we, we tried not to rock the boat, and so we never, you know, I never tried to break into anybody's clique or anything. Whereas like today, there is nothing like that. They're just the same, you know, 'cause my... well, from my daughters, with YWCA and stuff, they got, they got friendly with everybody. But during my generation, more, we more or less stayed to ourselves.

MA: Were most of your friends other Niseis?

KI: Well, but after I, after the war and I came back and got involved with the city a lot, then I noticed I was the only Nihonjin, so naturally everybody I was getting involved with was hakujin. And so one day I asked this very active woman, she was one class below me in high school, I said, "What did you think when we were," 'cause she had no idea that we were sent off. And she says, "Well, I didn't even know you guys were gone," you know, because you weren't that friendly. So naturally, I think the grade school people noticed it more 'cause you sit in a, one room and you notice when all the seats are empty. But when you're in high school where it's just several in each class, and each class is different you don't notice it as much. Because she said she didn't even notice, and I thought, "How sad."

MA: So in high school, the Nisei students would sort of do their own thing, and the white students would hang out?

KI: Well, more or less, unless you were, like, active in sports or something, the girls, then they had more communication with them, but no.

<End Segment 8> - Copyright ©2008 Densho and the Watsonville - Santa Cruz JACL. All Rights Reserved.