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RP: What were some of your social activities at that time in your life, when you were growing up in the lumber camp there?

FN: Well, us kids used to play baseball and football and, oh, I don't know. We just everyday kids play, you know.

RP: Did you do any fishing? Did you get into fishing?

FN: Oh yeah. Uh-huh. We did a lot of trout fishing. In the camp there's a lot of creeks.

RP: Now you were, you were in Washington 'til about the, almost the age of sixteen.

FN: Yeah.

RP: Did you have a job later on? Were you working in Selleck?

FN: No. No, I didn't have any kind of work at all. We just all played.

RP: School and play.

FN: Yeah.

RP: Now did you have an ofuro, a bathhouse ...

FN: Yeah.

RP: ...as part of the...

FN: They used to have a big community bath and my dad had our own bath. It had a wooden bath with a fire underneath. So we had our own bath but, like us kids, we all would like to go to the big Japanese community bath and used to swim in there. Used to catch hell too because we splashed water all over the place.

RP: Everybody trying to soak and you're splashing around.

FN: Yeah. Yeah, we were kids.

RP: Did you get into any type of trouble as a kid growin' up?

FN: No.

RP: No.

FN: Well, but if there was my parents would disown us so, as I said, they were strict for us to behave.

RP: Can you describe to us the house that you lived in at the lumber mill?

FN: Well, we had couple bedrooms and parlor and kitchen and a...

RP: Did you have a bathroom in there?

FN: Bathroom, yeah, indoors. The water was free so my dad built a toilet. It wasn't a toilet like this but like a regular outhouse like but you wash it away. And she had a big hole dug and then covered so the water used to rush in there so, kind of half-modernized. It wasn't an outdoor.

RP: Did you have electricity in your...

FN: Yes. Finally the company get it but before then we used to burn a kerosene lamp. Then we finally got electricity, yes.

RP: So what were some of your interests growing up as a kid, a teenager? Were you into any of the culture, movies, music, did you like to collect things?

FN: No. We did like to go to movies and went fishing. We used to play baseball, football. I don't know. And we just used to play around.

RP: So who was your, your best friends? Who did you like to hang out with?

FN: Well, I have two, three from different families. And one of 'em from Selleck, they move out here too and there was a fellow named Mits Ishibashi, he lived couple, three doors below me and there's... I don't know, once we came out here, we find different friends. So those other people, they went elsewhere too so we kind of got distance away. 'Cause when I used to go to school you make new friends.

RP: So what were, what were some of your responsibilities as the oldest child in the family in terms of the other kids?

FN: Well, you mean...

RP: Did you have to take care of some of your brothers and sisters or...

FN: Yeah, we used to all, we all have to watch out for each other too. I mean, when you had a big family like that it's, well, we had our fights too as kids, but you know, we kind of looked after one another. So, my parents were just left it up to us to get along. And we helped each other. When you're in a big family like that you're close, brothers and sisters, you're real close so you look out for one another.

RP: Did life change for you at all during the Depression years, from about 1930 on?

FN: Oh, yeah. It's, when we moved out to Santa Monica I had to help with my cousin's store and then go to store and come back and used to deliver and things weren't that... and then finally my dad and I got my cousin's fruit stand store so we used to do that but when you have a big family like that what, with competition and just selling fruits and vegetables wasn't enough so we closed our business and I got a job at Roberts Market.

<End Segment 4> - Copyright &copy; 2011 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.