Densho Digital Archive - Hanako Hoshiyama Fukumoto Interview (denshovh-fhanako-01-0005)

<Begin Segment 5>

KL: What were your impressions of West L.A. as a kid or a teenager?

HF: We thought it was really a nice place, you know, because of the lawns, everybody took care of the lawns, and we had lawns and streets. Here we just have dirt roads in the country.

KL: Would you describe your house? Was there a house that you kind of think of from that time period? You said you moved a lot.

HF: See, we only had a kitchen and a living room, and one small bedroom, and then a porch. So we all managed in there. And then we had, of course, we had our outhouse. And then the bath, I don't know if you know a Japanese bathhouse, well...

KL: Tell us about it.

HF: Yeah, well, they had these big tubs that you buy, so then, I don't know how, they made a little house for the bathroom, bathtub. And then we had to heat up the hot water, so we used logs or whatever we had available to heat up the hot water. And then there was a little area where you get out of the tub, there's slats, so you washed there. You wash yourself before you get in the tub, then you come out, and then you wash yourself again. Then you get in the tub and you warm up, and then you're through. That's the way most bathhouses are.

KL: Did you share it with anyone, or it was just your family?

HF: Our family.

KL: Who were your neighbors in that community?

HF: We had another Japanese neighbor, and her husband passed away from, with cancer. I remember when he passed away. And there were two boys and a girl. One boy was my age, and the girl was a little bit older than me. And the older one was quite a bit older.

KL: What was their family name?

HF: Tamura, T-A-M-U-R-A. They were in Manzanar, too, and then they went to Tule Lake.

KL: Do you remember the parents' names or the kids' names?

HF: I don't know her mother's name, but I don't the father's name. But the girl's name was Kimiko, and the boy's name, the younger boy's name was Jimmy, the one that was my age. And I think Barry passed away, the older boy was Barry, and he passed away. And Kimiko's mother took her back to Japan, and she passed away in Japan. Jimmy, I think, lives in northern Cal someplace.

KL: Do you remember your street address or your mailing address of that house?

HF: It was Eldrich, 11... it had five digits, 11 something. 116 or something, anyway. We lived there in Kagel Canyon, there was a canyon that was not too far from us. And I used to ride the bus to school, sometimes when they took us home, we'd stay on the bus to get a ride to the canyon.

KL: The bus driver was okay with that?

HF: Yeah, he was okay. He didn't say anything.

KL: So it was you and the Tamuras, who else was part of that community?

HF: Well, there was a Takeyasu family, and then Nishi, Nishi family. That's about all in that real close to us. I used to walk quite a bit. Those days we walked, there was no buses where we lived, so you had to walk, if you wanted to go see friends, we just walked.

KL Did those families work in the flower growing industry, too?

HF: No, vegetables. They grew vegetables like melon, honeydew and cantaloupe, lot of cantaloupe.

KL: Where did the Mexican men that you got to know live?

HF: Gee, I don't know where they lived. They must have lived in Pacoima, not too far.

KL: Were you living on Eldrich Street when you were attending the Pacoima school?

HF: Let's see. Pacioma school was on Van Nuys Boulevard near San Fernando Road. Then I went to San Fernando High School, that was Maclay, M-A-C-L-A-Y.