Densho Digital Archive - Emi Yamamoto Interview (denshovh-yemi-01-0017)

<Begin Segment 17>

MA: So where did you, after the war ended, where did your family go? Where did you and your husband decide to go after leaving Tule Lake?

EY: Well, we went back to Fresno, because my, my sister-in-law's family was out there, and they had a place to stay. So we didn't have no place to stay, so there was a chance of working out there. And so we stayed there, and he worked in the valley, and it was too much for him. He got sweat rash and everything else, and so he was born and raised in Watsonville, so he needs a cooler climate. So we came back to Watsonville.

MA: What type of work was he doing in Fresno? Was he farming?

EY: Vineyard, yeah, working in the vineyards [inaudible] and orchard there.

MA: And were you also working at that time in Fresno?

EY: Huh?

MA: Did you also have a job?

EY: Well, harvest time. But I had two little boys then.

MA: Did you have your sons in camp?

EY: Two of 'em.

MA: While you were in camp?

EY: Uh-huh.

MA: And how, when you were in Fresno, how did people treat you, treat the Japanese people coming out of camp? What was the reaction of the people in town?

EY: I don't know very much about that, because we kind of stayed quiet and worked where they told us to work. So my husband worked in the vineyard and orchard, and he wasn't used to the hot weather, and he got blistered, sweat blister and everything, so he decided to move, and move into San Jose and raise strawberries there.