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RP: What are some of your earliest memories about growing up in the Vacaville area?

GI: You know, there was a creamery in Vacaville, and Vacaville was a little town of about maybe three thousand people when we lived there. And so there was one street that was where the Japanese all lived with their businesses. So it was very comfortable, my mom would tell me to go get some bread, and I'd just go out and I could go to these little stores and buy things. And every day she'd give me a nickel. But there were two Japanese businesses, candy stores, so she'd tell me, "You can't go to one, or you have to take turns. Go to there one day, go to here one day, you know." And it was those days when you'd go there and you'd get a bag, this candy was three for a dollar -- I mean, a penny, that was one was five for a penny, and you'd get a whole bag for a penny. Or if I didn't do that, I'd go down to the creamery. And that creamery used to have a cone that at the very bottom was a little blue piece of paper, waterproof. And if you got that, you got to have another ice cream cone. But my mom would never let me go get another ice cream cone that day. [Laughs] I had to save it for another day. I couldn't have two ice cream cones in one day. And then, what else? There used to be a row of pecan trees right at the end of town. And when they were ripe, we'd go pick 'em and my mom would make pecan brittle. So I had really... I loved Vacaville. So when we went to camp, that's all I ever said, "I want to go to Vacaville." And when we came out after the war and we went to Vacaville, I said, "I wonder why I wanted to come to this place." [Laughs] But it was just this dreamland or something.

RP: Was it, at that time when you were growing up, a farming community?

GI: Yes, it was a farming community. Most of the Japanese lived on different ranches out. But then there were the families that lived in the town, too.

RP: And were you one of those?

GI: Yeah, we lived in, right in the town.

RP: Were you in the Japanese section of town?

GI: All I remember was this one block was the Japanese section. And at the end of that was the Buddhist church, and then at the end of this was this Sam's, his name was Sam Lum, a Chinese restaurant. And then we lived across the street from that. And when the war started, I knew that this Sam Lum had stored some of our things in his place. But I asked my mom what happened to those things, she said, "Oh, when we came back, he said it had all been broken into, so it wasn't there anymore."

RP: You mentioned that there were several Japanese stores in there in that section of town? Do you remember other Japanese businesses, too?

GI: Yeah, there was a hotel, and there was a beauty shop. Because I remember I used to see those ladies all hooked up to those things to get permanents. And there was a fish store, and a grocery store, and then a couple of these soda fountain places.

RP: Who else do you recall in the town? You mentioned a Chinese. Were there other farm worker groups represented by Mexicans or Filipinos?

GI: No, you know, in those years, I don't think there were Mexicans. Because there were some Chinese that lived across the street from where the Japanese lived, I never really paid attention to that. I just stayed on this side of the street. So no, there were no Mexicans. Even in my class in school, there were some Japanese, and a couple of Chinese, and then the rest were all white. There was not, you know, any mixture. It was not diverse.

<End Segment 5> - Copyright © 2008 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.