<Begin Segment 4>

RP: So what did you like to do for fun around the farm?

MH: Mostly we would just go hiking. There was, across the field there was a place where there was beaver dams and we'd go check out the beavers, no longer there anymore since it's all homes. There was a big old maple tree that we used to swing on. I used to love to just go there on my own and do it. Hiked up into the woods and there's just, just played a lot. We had little picnics, you know, pack our lunch and take 'em out with us, when we didn't have to work, right. Yeah, so it's pretty carefree.

RP: I imagine, you know, running a farm there's really that, not that much time for vacations or getting away.

MH: I can't remember ever going anywhere with our family, except to picnics where the kens would get together, you know, they always congregated together and we'd go out to where we can see, to one of the farms and get to play in the river, there on the Clackamas River. And they have remained all good friends of ours. Yeah, my mother's really backbone after my father passed away.

RP: Would that be a prefectural picnic for Fukushima?

MH: Yes, yes. It was a Fukushima... not so much my father's 'cause I don't think there were that many people from that area.

RP: But quite a few from Fukushima?

MH: Not as many as say Okayama or those places.

RP: On Oshima.

MH: Right. It's pretty small. And so those were fun things to do. Our neighbors down the street, the Watanabes, had a big celery farm. And in fact, in their early days, since the railroad track ran there the train would stop there, the freight trains, and they would pack celeries and they would send it out on the train. And they were the ones who had the big Fourth of July celebration.

RP: Tell us about that.

MH: Oh, those were fun. They had a huge house. They had a beautiful garden in front. And they, Mr. Watanabe and his dad would get Roman Candles and they would shoot 'em off and we'd all sit there and gaze at it. It was so much fun. And they also had a pond right below, and we would always go wading in there. They were the pillar of that Japanese people who lived in Milwakie there. And then right above their home they all got together, from what I understand, and they built a Japanese school. And so that's where we went for Japanese school. They also had Japanese movies. They have all kinds of little social type of thing there so that was a real social thing for us. But my folks didn't let me go Japanese school until I was like in the fourth grade, 'cause I think they had to pay tuition to send us there. And I begged and I begged and begged, "I want to go to Japanese school." So they let me go. And I still have the desk that we were able to retrieve, way after the war, when they decided to vacate the building for something else. It was made into a church, a Buddhist church, after the war. And then when that disbanded then we were able to go and, and buy what we wanted to. That's one thing I got. But the chair was pretty ratty looking. So I picked another chair. But it had my name on it. Yeah, I kind of wished I would have just gotten it anyway.

They also are the family who did the mochitsuki, yes. Down in their barn -- and I can remember my mother trudging down there in her boots to wash the rice. And they would have these big buckets full of rice. And I remember coming down... I don't know why I remember the Sundays, but anyway, I would come home from Sunday school and we'd all run down there. We'd get so excited and, and we'd go in there and it would smell so good. They would have a big oil can, you know, those big oil cans that they made into a place where they could build a fire, and on top of that they put a washtub, and on top of that they'd put a board, and then they would stack the rice in three different containers. And that's how they steamed the rice. And then the big pounder, it was a big wood that they carved out. And then they had mallets. And I can just still see and smell, smell it. The guys... first it was the fathers who would do the pounding and pretty soon the boys got old enough that they could do it. Everybody had a job. And Mrs. Yoshitomi's the one who had to turn the mochi which was a dangerous job, right. My mother always washed the rice and she was the cutter. She would always cut the rice. And Mrs. Watanabe, the people who owned the place, she's the one who was the head cook. Oh gosh, could she ever cook good food for us. And then us kids, we'd run around until they say, "Okay, it's time to do, make the mochi." And so we'd go there and hurriedly do the mochi and then be on our way again, okay. And when it was all over, you know, the ashes were still hot, we'd always get to roast wieners. It's... there was, it was a fun time for me and, and the fathers especially, really, really took us in. I can still see Mr. Yoshizawa carving something and giving it to me. He was one of my favorite, favorite persons at that time. It was a big family community thing.

RP: There were about seven families farming along that area?

MH: On that, on the mochi there were just all the Yoshitomis and the Watanabes. Which is big, you know, 'cause they were related. And then the Yoshizawas who lived just next to the Watanabes. And we lived on the other side of the Watanabes. And so the other ones, they were related too, the Sasakis and the Fujitas and the Kurubayashis lived further east of us and they, they did their own.

RP: That's a great description of mochitsuki.

MH: Right. And now that area is all industrial.

RP: But, but it always lives on in your memory of that.

MH: Oh, yes.

RP: I just wanted to have you share a few more other special holidays or observances, Girls and Boys Day?

MH: Yes. My mother and father made sure that we always put up our dolls of, especially for Girls Day. And, you know, had the emperor and the empress and all the way down and my doll happened to be a Fuji doll, the one that carries the wisteria blossom, right. And I do remember when the war came -- oh, it's so sad when I think about it -- they decided to destroy a lot of the things that we had, old pictures from Japan, the dolls, the Japanese books, they just made a big bonfire and burned them up. And to this day I just... it saddened me that they had to do it. But, you know, they were afraid that if the FBI came and they found those things then they might take my dad away. So that's one of the reasons that they did it. I mean, there were all kinds of rumors going on. And unfortunately my uncle was taken and he lived with the Watanabes. He worked for them.

RP: Oh, he did.

MH: Yes. And they did take him away. So my mother was just in absolute shock. They didn't know where they took him. I think they took them into a jail in Portland and then he ended up in Missoula, Montana, right. And in the meantime his wife passed away and I don't know how they got that information and so they were able to relay that message to that uncle through the Red Cross. And she was in Japan.

<End Segment 4> - Copyright © 2010 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.