Densho Digital Archive
Manzanar National Historic Site Collection
Title: Tommy T. Kushi Interview
Narrator: Tommy T. Kushi
Interviewer: Richard Potashin
Location: Sacramento, California
Date: October 18, 2008
Densho ID: denshovh-ktommy-01-0010

<Begin Segment 10>

RP: Going back a little bit to some of the cultural activities, I was curious to know whether you celebrated any of the traditional Japanese holidays, specifically the three older sisters, Girl's Day, Boy's Day.

TK: No, we never did.

RP: New Year's?

TK: New Year's is the only time, you know, we had the whole, we get to eat.

RP: What are your memories about, about Japanese New Year's?

TK: Oh, that we get to eat that certain kind of Japanese food. That's the only time we get to eat, New Year's, certain kind of food. She doesn't make it all the time, the New Year's. That's about it. And we didn't have too many people coming over, 'cause my dad, he wasn't a drinker. So nobody hardly came over unless my, his nephew, he might come over or something, but we didn't go over either, too many places. So we just had our own feast, chicken and things like that.

RP: Dishes that you wouldn't get the rest of the year?

TK: Yeah.

RP: Ozouni?

TK: Yeah, my mom used to... that's the only time. Some people do it other times, but I guess my mom used to do it New Year's. Umani, that's the only time we used to get it, New Year's. And that sushi, the "football" they called it, I guess. [Laughs]

RP: Mochi?

TK: Yeah, that's the only time.

RP: Now, did your family, would you go out and pound that mochi?

TK: Yeah. My cousin, my cousin, or my dad's nephew, he would bring his family and then we'd do it at our house. That's the only time that I went, I mean, we'd pound that thing. Those days, I don't see how they used to do it. They do about hundred pounds apiece. Hundred pounds, that's a lot of pounding. My dad and my (cousin), they used to do it. Now, I do it two times and there's just no way... but hundred pounds apiece. That's a lot of pounding. Of course, you only do about two or three pounds, I think, each time you put in... I don't see how they did it. They eat that practically all year, mochi.

RP: Now your, both your parents came from Hiroshima. I imagine there were other folks from Hiroshima in the Florin area. Was there a kenjinkai?

TK: Well, Dad never did belong to the kenjinkai. But they have a, Hiroshima Kenjinkai was the biggest. After my... I guess they used to belong to it, and then my dad died, somebody in the family's supposed to take his place, so I joined. So I went to the New Year's party. Gee, those guys, I never seen so many -- they had about eight hundred at that New Year's party. And that was the biggest kenjinkai, Hiroshima is the biggest. And I don't know what it, I don't know what it is now, it's down to maybe two or three hundred now.

RP: And those, and those parties would be in Sacramento, or where were they held?

TK: Yeah, Sacramento, at one of the bigger hotels, Doubletree or whatever. Yeah, the first time I went, gee, eight hundred.

RP: This is after the war?

TK: Yeah. That was back in 1960-something I joined. But now, I don't go anymore, 'cause nighttime I don't want to go out anymore.

RP: So your, you graduated high school, you said 1939, is it?

TK: That's grammar school. See, I graduated, three days before my graduation, I had to evacuate, '42. So I said, "Oh, three more days," but no, we were saying, "I don't see how we could go 'cause there was a curfew." All Japanese, we can't go, after five or six o'clock in the evening, we can't go out, and you can't travel more than five miles. So we'd say, "Hey, how are we going to..." but as far as going to school, the principal says, "As long as you ride the bus, it's all right. You could come five miles." So everybody rode the bus.

<End Segment 10> - Copyright © 2008 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.