Densho Digital Archive - Alley Watada Interview (denshovh-walley-01-0015)

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RP: Kind of along similar lines, we were talking about how your, your father having a still and brewing up sake. And one of the special occasions where you would, you would have, you know, a little nip of sake in New Year's activities. So, maybe you can share a little bit of your memories about celebrating holidays and special, special events with family.

AW: Uh-huh. Well, in our family we had, seemed to have a lot of special events. He made sure we celebrated birthdays, any event that came on. And that tradition just continued even 'til almost the day that he died. There was, anyone that had birthdays or some church activity, temple activity, we'd have some festivities. And in terms of, oh, well, one of the things that we do every year before New Year's Day is have mochitsuki. Are you familiar with mochitsuki? And so there he always had alcohol. And I think that's when I learned to drink, our first drink. I came back after college, he says, "You need to learn how to drink." And his drink was he took this class of beer and he poured whiskey into it and then he gave to me. And I wolfed it and I realized I took too much of it, I got hot. [Laughs] But it's something that he did all his life.

RP: Sounds like he, like other, other Niseis who I've talked to said their parents always wanted, "Let us know that we're Americans and tried to observe American holidays and traditions, but also have an understanding and appreciation of our Japanese festivities."

AW: Right, uh-huh.

RP: Is that the way it worked with your family?

AW: Yes, sure. Sure During the Christmas, obviously, we had a Christmas tree and had... I don't know whether we had gifts but we had small gifts. And then on Easter we had the Easter egg hunts and whatnot. Oh, I can't think of what else.

RP: July Fourth.

AW: Oh yes, sure. That was a big day. That was a big day because we got the day off, I guess, as a youngster in those days. But yes, it was a big day. No, they, they were very, I would say my folks were very open-minded about recognizing all these important events. Whether it's America or Japan.

RP: You convey this experience after the war began about being bullied and taunted about, about your, your ethnicity. Was there any point in time when you felt a sense of shame about being Japanese or had your parents instilled a real, a strong sense of pride about, about your background?

AW: No, that thought did not go through me in terms of being ashamed or who I was, how I felt about it. And fortunately for me, the duration of fight was just probably couple, three months. Because we had moved to Fort Lupton at that time, and in Fort Lupton there were more people of Japanese ancestry in the schools so I must have congregated with them. And I don't recall having any classmate that felt differently to us.