Densho Digital Archive - Emi Yamamoto Interview (denshovh-yemi-01-0013)

<Begin Segment 13>

MA: So when you found out the Japanese were gonna be removed from Watsonville, what did you do with the, with your possessions and the farm?

EY: Well, this family that, that my husband's family was living in Freedom, and they, they were renting the, one of the houses, and they were such nice people, they said, "Just leave everything in the house," and she'll take care of the, our valuables. So we'd have to, I brought my, from Larkin Valley into my mother-in-law's house, and we all stacked 'em in there. And they watched it for us. And so, and then after that was a big uproar. My mother-in-law, she had some of the boys in Japan, so she wanted to go back to Japan with the whole family so it'd be all together. But my, I guess some of the old people, they didn't believe that Japan lost, so they had to, they said they wanted, she had a couple of boys in Japan, so she wanted the whole family together. And lot of, lot of these old people just didn't believe that we lost back there. And then, so we, we found out, and we know that we lost. And so my brother-in-law, the oldest son, he said, "We could always go back if you want to." But right now, believe U.S. government to stay and see what other people do. So we were the last one to be let out.

MA: So this is later on when the war was ending.

EY: Yes, finished.

MA: And your mother-in-law had sons in Japan, living in Japan?

EY: She had one boy, and she didn't realize that he was killed, see. She thought if she'd go back with all the rest of us, she could put the family together. There was a lot of people that don't believe it, and they decided that they want to go back. They didn't believe that news of U.S. And we, we believed that we were fighting against that, and they waited 'til the last minute, and she decided that we can always go back if it's true. So my husband's oldest brother convinced her to stay back and follow the crowd. And she finally, so we were about the last people to get out relocation camp.

MA: Out of camp, yeah. So I wanted to go back a little bit and ask about your parents' farm. And what happened to your parents' farm as the Japanese were leaving for camp?

EY: My parents' farm, well, they were, we were renting the ground, see, so we just returned it to owner. But some, and then WRA, War Relocation company, they helped everybody to find the grower or wherever, they could have a, they could follow it and the government would help them. So one of the Caucasian men, people, took over my strawberry farm, and we got paid a little.

MA: But I imagine there was, you lost a lot of money, because that was right in the middle of the season, right?

EY: Yes. But it's better than to let it dry up.

MA: Right, right.

EY: Uh-huh. So they took care of it, and that, the land leaser have to agree with this, too, because there's wells and everything. That's why War Relocation Authority helped us a lot.