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TI: Before we move to Japan I just wanted to talk about other community events in Hollister and Salinas. So we've talked about some of the picnics and what, what were other things happening in, when the community would get together? Were there other events, like maybe Obon or something like that?

RT: Yes, there was Bon Odori and, let's see, what else did we do? Oh, in those days it was embarrassing, humiliating to go to an American movie because even, in those days they had what they call ushers and you didn't just go into a theater and just sit down where you wanted, so the ushers, if you were a minority, non-hakujin, then when the lights came on you were sitting way in the back. So we never went to a, see an American movie, so on Sundays, nights, I think at the Buddhist church auditorium, they would have Japanese movie nights and we always tagged along with our parents to see Japanese movies.

SF: Were there other kinds of discrimination, like going to the swimming pool and anything like that?

RT: Swimming pool, oh no, we never, there was, I've never been to a swimming pool. We used to go to Monterey a lot 'cause my grandfather loved fishing, and so three families, we'd go to Monterey and we'd, well, the adults, the men fished, we would eat our musubis and play on the beach. That was... in those days there wasn't much recreation.

TI: And what kind of fishing did the men do? What were they fishing for?

RT: Sea bass. I think it was sea bass.

TI: And was this off the docks or, or in little boats?

RT: I know my grandfather, there was one picture of my grandfather, he wasn't very tall, but he was standing like this and there was this big fish, bass that he caught. I think he was fishing from the beach to the ocean. In those days not very many people were fishing, so with rubber boots they were able to get these great big abalones and then also we would take a big bucket and gather, the kids would gather sea snails, and cook that on the beach, and we'd have this big safety pin and we'd eat lots of sea snails.

TI: Sounds like a fond memory for you.

RT: Yeah.

TI: Going back to Salinas and Hollister, you've mentioned you were with, at the Buddhist church. How about the Christian churches? Were they very large in the area?

RT: I don't think so. The Buddhist church was the main gathering place for the Japanese families, and I know early in the Sunday mornings the men and women would go and work in the fields, and then, I don't know, maybe nine or something they'd come out and they'd get dressed in their Sunday best and we'd go to church and we'd go to Sunday school. And in the afternoon we'd go to the beach or the families, few families would gather at our farmhouse, and our family friends, their children were a little bit older than we were, so the boys and Big Boy and my father, the other fathers, they used to play baseball. And, oh, and Fourth of July was a big celebration around Salinas. My father always used to get firecrackers and people used to come around. Our place was a gathering place because we had grandmother and grandfather. We were more, a little established, settled.

SF: In Salinas, did they, did the Japanese community participate in the, in the Fourth of July festivities at all?

RT: No, not that I know of. No. Just that it was a big, something for us to enjoy and to go and buy, what is it, whatever they had in those days. It wasn't much, but, 'cause most of our days on the farm after, on Saturdays or even days when we didn't have to go to Japanese school, my brother and I when we were little, our playground was the irrigation ditch. There wasn't much to do. Or we'd listen to the Lone Ranger and others, and that, the records was mostly Japanese records that my grandparents and my parents used to listen to. So for, that was our recreation, was Sunday, going to Sunday school and seeing our friends and then coming home and sometimes we'd go to the beach or sometimes the families would get together and play baseball or whatever.

TI: Sounds like a really rich childhood, lots of memories before the war in Salinas.

RT: Yeah, it was.

<End Segment 10> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.