<Begin Segment 12>

RP: And so how long did you actually spend in Boise, Oklahoma?

YW: It must have been six months. We finished school there in June and then we, our place was ready so we moved to Rocky Ford.

RP: And did all the other five families caravan with you?

YW: Yes. To Rocky Ford.

RP: And tell us about Rocky Ford. What, what do you remember about the town or the, the layout of the area? Was it a flat kind of farming area or was there a river nearby or hills, things that you --

YW: It was a flat area. We lived off the dirt road, the end of the dirt road. We lived in a little house. The little house must have had two bedrooms. One bedroom for my mom and dad and the rest of, all the rest of us had to sleep in the other bedroom. And that's where we had that outside bathhouse. And my father would build fire underneath there, underneath the bathhouse to heat up the water. And the first time -- oh, excuse me -- the first time he did that the fire department came out because they thought our house was on fire, 'cause they saw the smoke. But he was just heating up the water. And my father would occasionally wrap up potatoes with wet newspaper and then throw it in the fire. So by the time everybody finished the bath, the potatoes would be ready so we'd have baked potatoes. And, you know the Japanese bath, you go in and you wash yourself off and, with the soap, and then you wash, wash yourself clean. And then you go in the bath to soak and, and get real relaxed. So, the water stays clean so we didn't change the water maybe once a week. And our neighbors, the other Japanese family that lived around us would come over just to take a bath in our, in our bathhouse.

RP: So it was an actual bathhouse.

YW: Uh-huh. It was a separate bathhouse.

RP: And, and the bath itself, was it a wooden bath or a, or a metal bath?

YW: It was metal and the water was piped in from our house and it was cold water, of course. (...) I remember it was one of the children's chore to start the bath water, bath fire a certain day of the week. Maybe we only took bath once a week, maybe on weekends.

RP: Can you tell us a little bit about this farm that you settled on? Who owned the farm?

YW: Oh, I think it was a person by the name of Mr. Williams. And he had my father work on his farm as a farm laborer as far as the duration of the war. And I think they got to know my father really well and realized that he was a, a good farmer. And so later he leased him some acreage on his own. And that's when we moved over to the big house which is just across the road. And this house had like sixteen rooms. So we all had our own bedroom and a parlor and a sunroom. And my mom had a sewing room and it had a huge, huge yard in front of it. It had, it must have had about thirteen, fourteen big evergreen trees and my sister and I would play tennis on the grass. It was real huge. And then we had sidewalk all the way around the house and that's where I would roller skate. And then there was a, a little building in the back and the previous owner must have had it like a playhouse for his daughter because it was like laid out like a kitchen and had a shelf and it had a, I could put my dishes and cups and I used to play by myself out there. That was a very nice place.

RP: I bet you had a great time. So, Rocky Ford was pretty much of an established Japanese farming community when you moved in to the area.

YW: Yes, yes.

RP: They were known for their cantaloupes.

YW: Yes. The Rocky Ford cantaloupes, yes.

<End Segment 12> - Copyright © 2008 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.