<Begin Segment 6>

RP: Tell us a little bit about the area, the town of Florin. Was it primarily strawberry and grape branches?

ST: That's right. And some had vegetable gardens and oh, a few other crops. But mainly strawberries and grapes. And so sometimes when we finished with our work, they would want to hire more people to help with their farms so we used to go and work. Even we went to Loomis to work, on the grape farm.

RP: This would be during the summertime?

ST: Uh-huh. It was fun.

RP: Now, did your dad hire additional labor during the harvest season?

ST: Yes. He had hired several Filipinos, those days. And he had extra house about block away from us, our house. And they lived there. And there were about four or five of them.

RP: Filipinos.

ST: Uh-huh, during the busy season. And of course Father would always caution us, no socialization.

RP: And did you, did you, did the kids obey that?

ST: Oh yeah, of course.

RP: You had to.

ST: In those days, we obeyed if they said something. I don't know about youngsters nowadays, but... [Laughs]

RP: Oh, yeah. What about the Florin community, the ethnic makeup of the Florin community? It sounds like it was predominately Japanese American farmers.

ST: Yes, it was predominantly. Eventually, the neighbors were a lot of Caucasians. So they kind of joined. And eventually, at the very end, I think, it was predominately Caucasians.

RP: It was.

ST: Uh-huh. So I always wondered what happened to the church, 'cause I haven't been back there. And, you know, we had the usual programs and... Christmas holidays, and things like... it was fun.

RP: Okay.

ST: And we all took part. We had different organizations within the church.

RP: And the, the Methodist church, the Florin Methodist church...

ST: Yeah, it was a Methodist, Episcopal church. We called it M.E. church.

RP: Your father originally was Buddhist?

ST: Yes, uh-huh.

RP: But then he converted...

ST: But then I still remember, I could still picture him. See, I was a Buddhist, but since this is America, you go to the Christian church. That's how we started the Methodist church.

RP: He started it?

ST: Uh-huh. And so he baptized, too, finally.

RP: It was a way of... right...

ST: Becoming, you know...

RP: More, more American.

ST: Permanently living United States. He took his whole family up to David, to Japan. So I didn't get to get to go to Japan until I was able to afford myself.

RP: Oh, this was a trip before the war that you took?

ST: Yes, uh-huh. I was there a couple of times.

RP: But he was there before the war?

ST: Yes.

RP: He, he took your...

ST: Yes. Before the war he took his whole family.

RP: And how come you didn't get to go?

ST: Because I wasn't born yet.

RP: Oh, I see, okay. Right. Who, who was around got to go.

ST: Uh-huh. But after that, you know, things got hard on the farm, and so he couldn't afford anymore. So that was fine. So after the war, after we were married, we went a couple of times.

<End Segment 6> - Copyright © 2008 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.