Densho Digital Archive - Aya Fujii - Taka Mizote Interview (denshovh-faya

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RP: How about other holidays that got celebrated, your father sounds like he had a very strong optimistic attitude toward America and probably encouraged you to be as American as you could be.

TM: Right.

RP: How did that translate into holidays?

AF: Well, I think New Year's probably was the, probably the biggest. And I remember we had to clean house the day before from top to bottom, you know, and make sure that all your debts were paid. That was one of the biggest holidays.

TM: Yes, oh, yes.

RP: How about mochitsuki?

TM: Oh yes, we would do that. In fact, that was quite a thing we looked forward in doing that. And Dad, you know, he had the little fire, actual fire and we would do it in the greenhouse because then he would do it and then my brothers would get the rice and steam it. You apparently know all about mochitsuki and then, yes, that was a big day for us because we had to go from the house the greenhouse and back and forth and bring that.

AF: The pounding, that you know, pounding with that thing.

RP: So what would you use to pound the rice with?

TM: With the mallet.

AF: Wooden mallets.

RP: Now was that reserved for, was the mallets reserved for men or did the women or did you actually pound?

TM: Well, anybody actually but it was predominantly men.

RP: 'Cause the picture that I see, it always the women sort of turning the rice.

TM: Right, my mother did that. We miss that because that's kind of, you know, it was kind of a fun --

AF: People would bring in, people that wanted to make twenty pounds would bring their rice over and we would have to do it for them.

TM: Steam it.

RP: So your household was quite a community gathering?

TM: It was, it was.

RP: How about another important holiday during the year was Boy's and Girl's Day?

TM: We didn't observe Girl's Day that much, I don't know why. Our sister-in-law, my brother's... our oldest brother's wife, she was of very Japanese tradition because she spent many years in Japan, so she brought into our family a lot of Japanese cultures. But up until then we grew up, I mean, hardly knowing about Girl's Day. She had the whole Girl's Day display up and so we learned from her, but we didn't really as we were growing up.

RP: When did you become aware of your Japanese-ness growing up?

TM: Well, probably, well more predominantly when the war broke out.

AF: Well, I think, you know, growing up we were kind of feeling ashamed that we were different, you know. And our folks were poor and like we had to wear stockings, everyone else wore knee high stockings and we had to wear the ones that rolled all the way up. And when we went to school we rolled them down so we looked like the rest of them, you know.

RP: So there was always a effort to fit in and not stand out?

AF: Yes, tried to fit in right.

RP: So would this have been during the Depression years?

TM: I think, yes, right.

RP: And you mentioned that your father had a new house built.

TM: Well, that was just before the war and I think another reason is because my brother, oldest brother just got married.

AF: Yes, he got married, let's see, it was an arranged marriage.

TM: Yes.

RP: It was? And who did he marry?

TM: But the families, we knew each other.

AF: But it was, I mean, everything happened all at once you know, 1942 is when we evacuated and they got married in February of 1942. And so all the rest of us except our two brothers and George and his wife, you know, I mean, there was really no privacy for them.