<Begin Segment 3>

KL: So you started to tell us about the farm in Watts and your memories of that.

MW: Oh, my goodness.

KL: Would you tell us more? What was that like?

MW: I was very young, but I remember so many little things about it. I don't know why it would come back, and they would always, in a farm you have to irrigate and they put division pool, you want the waters to go on certain aisles and things. And always little pollywogs would form there, and I can't stand pollywogs or frogs. But we used to play with them, and I thought, my goodness, you have to be young. As you get older, you don't like, a lot of the things you don't seem to like, but it was a lot of fun. Because they didn't have, my mother was out in the farm, she didn't have time to be having snacks ready for us, you know, things like that. So we would go to the farm and we would be hungry, so we'll pull a carrot out, anything out, rub it on us, and just eat it. It was nothing, no seasoning of any sort. But that's just something that you do, cucumbers, anything that if you were hungry, there is food out there. So I guess that's why we get used to eating raw vegetables and anything, for that reason, I think.

But there was no sidewalks, it was all dirt, and I would always take my shoes off. And so every Saturday they would go into Little Tokyo, (...) because that's where all of the stores were, not all of them, but some of the stores were, and they could buy things. And that would be Saturday because, you know, on a farm, Sunday's a busy day, because you had to get the crop ready for the next day for pickup. And so that's what they would have to do. And Mother would say -- I'd be walking down and I'd be barefoot, and all of a sudden she said, "Where's your shoes?" "I don't know, I took it off." She said I would take it off and just leave it there on the sidewalk. And she said, "You've got to put shoes on when you come into town." And I can still remember her telling me that, and she said, "Do not take your shoes off," but I did. I think it was very uncomfortable when you're walking barefoot in the sand, which is very comfortable.

[Interruption]

KL: So we're back after a quick break, and you were talking about growing up on the farm in Watts. And I wondered who your neighbors were or what that bigger community was like.

MW: Well, it wasn't very big at that time, Watts was not big. It's known as a, you know, colored people's community now, but it wasn't back then. Because when my brother had his friends come over, they worked on cars, they were all Caucasian boys. And when my sister went to school, she had a lot of Spanish friends. But when I was going to school, there was a lot of black kids, but I was friends with all of them. You know, they were all nice girls, and they lived around where we lived. And so I had fun there, but I guess it would depend on your age. And when you're young, unless they do something bad to you, you're friends with them. So I used to go to their houses and play with them and so forth. (Because) they didn't have things at the school that much.

KL: What was the school's name?

MW: David Starr Jordan High School. The Starr is spelled with the S-T-A-R-R. They have a same... I think the same name school in Long Beach somewhere, but this is called, I don't know why I remember, David Starr Jordan High School. Now, my brother graduated and my sister graduated, but I didn't, because we moved. And my father had, he had a house, and next to that house they built a grocery store, and that was when I was eleven, twelve.

KL: Where did you move?

MW: It was in Watts, but it was on the outskirt of Watts. And so we had to take the bus to go to school, and it took a long time to walk. And they didn't have a bus, no, they didn't have a (school) bus at that time, so we walked it, and it took a while. If we heard a church bell, we'd better be at a certain point or we'd be late for school, because we're walking miles to school. They didn't have school buses at that time, I'm sure. I know they didn't, they didn't have that service back then. Most of the people walked, we all walked from, went to the fields to walk to get to the gate on the other side to go to elementary school and so forth. But then that was what we had. I remember helping at the grocery store. And my mother was ill and I couldn't figure out why. But now I figure that she was going through menopause, but I didn't know that at that time, and I didn't know anything about menopause, no one ever told me that.

KL: What were your tasks at the grocery store?

MW: Whatever I could do. Oh, I used to love those candies, and finally I got sick and tired. You will, it's amazing, when you see all that sitting there, you're tasting it, but at the end, you just don't want anymore, it's just too much. But I did whatever I could. I remember one thing that I disliked doing and I had to do was these people came to buy liver, and I had to touch the liver. It just made me kind of ill touching it, but I had to cut it. Now that I think of it, my mother must have been going through menopause, because she was always laying down, and she was always not feeling good.

KL: Who were the customers at the store?

MW: Oh, the neighborhood people. It was actually in a neighborhood, not in a busy shopping... well, there was no such thing back then. Well, there was a city, a town, we used to call it a town, Watts town, they did. Because we had to take a bus up to there. And I had another girlfriend that's long gone now, and she didn't ever go to camp. And she, her parents started a grocery store there. And I would meet up with her, 'cause she was going to school to, and go to class with her. But I don't think we were ever late; I don't know how we did it, but if the church bell rang and we're not at a certain point, we better run for it because we're going to be late.

KL: Were there other Japanese American people in Watts there?

MW: Yes. There's not a lot, but there was. And there's different families, we still try to keep in touch now. If somebody passes away, we lost many, many people (...). In case they don't know, (...) they know that I live further away, or they know that I'm not able to do a lot, then they'll call me to let me know, did I see it in the paper or so and so has passed on. In fact, the first (...) time that I went to Manzanar to the museum, they had a funeral that day and I really wanted to go, but I thought I'll never get a chance to go to Manzanar again, which is true. You just don't know, when you get older, you don't know where the next trip can be, and I did go with my son-in-law that took me. And one of the Watts ladies had passed on, but I heard it suddenly because I didn't know she was ill. And then I met her husband at one of the dinners that we had. But just recently I've lost a lot of them, (...) I was the youngest girl there in Watts. And there was another boy that was, I think, a year younger than I, he was the youngest boy. He's gone already with emphysema, and his sister's gone, so the whole family is gone, brother's gone. And another family, the wife is still around, but she's not actually a Watts girl, he married somebody that wasn't from Watts.

KL: Were you guys part of a church or any kind of religious community?

MW: (No). You know what? My father had a house that I don't know where they got the teachers, Japanese language teachers, and they would want all the children on Saturday, to go to this school, and it was to learn the Japanese language. And see, I used to be able to read the newspaper and all, but I can't read it now because it's been too long. But my brother (...) was seven years older than I, and have gone to school longer. And he would be able to read the paper (...). The Japanese newspaper, a lot of my friends take it (still) because they find the obituary (of) some of their friends.

KL: And your dad had a role in the Japanese language school?

MW: Yes, he's the one that started and thought the children should, because I told you he's so much older, probably older than all those people there. And so he gave up his house. And when we moved from the farm, that's the house we went to.

KL: You went to the house where the (language) school was?

MW: (Yes), where the school was (...). And it was in Watts, but it was at the very edge of Watts, so it was quite a ways from the school. School was clear out toward Alameda, but we were quite a ways away. But I think they had a bus but I never took a bus.

KL: What was the Japanese language school's name?

MW: Watsu Gakuen. "Watsu" is, Watts is the city that we (lived) in, gakuen means "school."

<End Segment 3> - Copyright © 2014 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.