<Begin Segment 8>

RP: Tell me about the, the Yuba City area. Give me a rough picture of how Japanese farms were distributed out there. Were you guys alone on your own property? Did you have other Japanese farmers in your area?

BF: The Marysville (and) Yuba City were adjoining towns separated by a river. Marysville was fairly well established community, a jumping off spot for the people working the gold mines of the Sierras. There were, there were farmers in that Marysville/Yuba City area. Some were fairly successful. Others were, were not. And then the, the... there were enough Japanese in the, in that area to, to form a community. Had a little section of town where they built a church, built a Buddhist church and they had some small establishments, grocery stores and restaurants and, you know, tofu manufacturing and things like that. So there's little a community there. I guess in other large communities it might be called Japantowns or something like that.

RP: Nihonmachis.

BF: Yeah. Nihonmachi. And then there were some, some grocery stores that had little trucks that would take food out to, to the, to the farmers and sell, sell the food out there. In Marysville, when, when we lived there, there was a little enclave of maybe a half a dozen Japanese farmers, all leasing land, and so it was sort of a tight-knit little group.

RP: Do you recall what social activities you were involved with? I know there wasn't very much time for socializing when you're --

BF: Well, that's true. [Laughs]

RP: -- a farmer, but when you did have a little time, say on a Saturday night or Sunday, where did you go and was the church, Buddhist church --

BF: Yeah, the church was sort of like the center of, of activities. They used to occasionally have a fundraiser where they would come in with a, with a movie, you know, a Japanese movie. People would come from both communities, Marysville, Yuba City, probably some other little towns. Then there'd be the, the events associated with the Buddhist church, Bon Odori and some other things. And then, as you say, there wasn't much time as, you know, farming, to get away from things. There'd be an annual, what they call a kenjinkai, they were prefectural picnic.

RP: That was held in Marysville?

BF: I don't remember any in Marysville. They probably had 'em, but I was too young at that point. But I do remember in Yuba City, they would, they would go out to someone, someone who had a farm and they'd have an all-day picnic with, you know, games, little foot races, and...

RP: Lots of good food.

BF: Yeah. Lots, lots of good food. We... it was a rare occasion when we would be able to do something else. I remember one trip we had -- and it's the only one I, I remember -- our, our family getting, everyone piling in to a pickup and, and going up to Donner Lake, which is quite some distance. But it was a, it was an all-day experience and my brothers drove, rode the pickup and rest of us sort of sat in the back of the pickup and we had a picnic lunch up on top of the Donner Pass. But, there were, there were other times when I didn't get to go along. But they... there was this ship came in from Japan called Asama Maru. My dad and three of the boys went down to, to meet the ship because the ship's communication officer was a relative of ours. So there were a few occasions like that.

RP: Were there any, any particular things that you did on the farm for fun? You know, swimming holes, going fishing, getting into a little bit of trouble here and there?

BF: We... there was sort of a fishing hole, I guess, or swimming hole. I remember going one time to, with a couple, with my brothers out to, to a little, it was like an irrigation ditch that had been dammed up, I guess, with a tree swing. 'Course, I didn't know how to swim so got one of those little flotation devices and paddled around. We didn't do that very often. But they, they... as a kid you don't, you don't have a lot of time. I remember playing with, with my, with one of my neighbor's kids. There was a Japanese family that was sort of sharecropping, I guess, on a, on a, on the farm near us. They, they had, one, two, three, four boys and two were fairly close to my age. I would spend some time playing over there, usual kid stuff, puttin' the towels around our necks and pretending we're Superman and stuff like that. Yeah it was, it was a simple life. School took up a good part of the activities.

<End Segment 8> - Copyright © 2008 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.