<Begin Segment 7>

RP: Do you have any other memories of farm life, vivid memories of farm life?

CH: Well, let's see...

RP: How about the Japanese hot baths? Did you have a bath tub?

CH: Oh, yes. In a Japanese society, the men are up there, so we were the last ones to take a bath, my grandmother, my mother. And then we had to go and scrub the back of my father and my grandfather. That was kind of a...

RP: Tradition?

CH: Duty or tradition. They expected that, I'm afraid. [Laughs]

RP: You did that, did your brother do that, too?

CH: No, I don't think so.

RP: It was just the women.

CH: Yeah. My brother was not a servant or whatever you want to call it. They put him on a pedestal, more or less. He didn't have to go out in the fields and do the picking and stuff like that. That's the old Japanese custom.

RP: How did you feel about that?

CH: We thought it was quite unfair, but hard for us to relate that message to them.

KP: Can I ask a couple questions? It's really interesting that what you have is actually an Issei grandfather and a Nisei father in America, which most people didn't have.

CH: Oh, yeah.

KP: And I'm interested, you said you scrubbed your grandfather's back, did you go over to their house and work for them, or did your grandfather bathe at your house? Did he bathe at his own house, do you know?

CH: Well, they, when we moved to this two-story house, they got together.

RP: You lived together there.

CH: Yeah.

RP: So you had a grandfather and a father in the same house.

CH: Yeah.

RP: What was that relationship like between your father and grandfather?

CH: Not good.

RP: What kind of things, you said they were arguing all the time. What did they argue about?

CH: Yeah, I don't know what they were arguing about. And it always happened at dinner time. So that's not good, kids hearing all kind of... of course, we'd call it, in Japanese, detarame, to me, it's "nonsense."

RP: So the languages spoken, all Japanese in the house? But your father knew English pretty well?

CH: Yeah. He would always, we would study in the upstairs room, and he would come and give us spelling tests and things like that. So he was into it. My mother couldn't do that because she didn't know English.

RP: How about, you mentioned the one uncle went to UC Berkeley. How about the other uncle? Was he living with you, too?

CH: Oh, he was the opposite. He quit school, high school, and went to a mechanic school, I think. But I remember he was living in a, in this house. He got married downstairs, I remember.

RP: He was living in the Florin area, too?

CH: Yes. And you come to this point where you'll probably be asking about after the Pearl Harbor. There were a lot of Isseis taken by the FBI. My uncle lived at this place called Mr. French down the road. That was after he got married, I remember. But Mr. French told my father that we didn't have to worry about having grandpa and my father taken because, I don't know why, but he said that we didn't have to worry. [Laughs] He was our friend, of course, you know, but I don't know if he was with the FBI or not.

RP: Who could you trust?

CH: Yeah.

RP: This is kind of the game. But you did believe what he said?

CH: Yeah, 'cause we were probably shaking, you know. 'Cause everybody was...

RP: Getting picked up.

CH: Yeah.

RP: You had concerns that your father could be next.

CH: Yeah. 'Cause they were presence of... well, my father was, my grandfather probably was the Japanese Association.

RP: Oh, boy. That's high on the list of the FBI.

CH: But...

RP: He wasn't touched?

CH: Yeah.

RP: Were they involved in other groups as well in the community?

CH: Well, my father was with the Methodist church. My grandfather was the only one that he'd go to one religion and he goes to the other. Didn't matter. He thought all religion was very good.

RP: Did your father --

KP: I just wanted to ask one more question. I'm really interested about your uncle who was one, probably one of the earlier Niseis to go to college. You said he got his degree in...

CH: I'm not sure.

KP: Was that at Berkeley, you said? What did he do after he got his degree?

CH: Well, he just didn't have a... I don't know what you call that. But he worked for an importing...

RP: Import/export business?

CH: On Grant Avenue. Well, he was actually a salesperson.

RP: Where did he, where did he work?

CH: Pardon?

RP: Where did he work?

CH: He was San Francisco. Yeah, they sold, they called it Oriental goods in those days, or items. Yeah, with his education, I didn't think he went up too far.

RP: Did he work for a Japanese company? Must have.

CH: Could have been. Grant Avenue was Chinese, though, huh? I think. I'm not so sure.

RP: There was such a, such a problem with, you know, college-educated Niseis not being able to find work in their chosen, chosen field. So might have fallen back on that job because he couldn't find a...

CH: Yeah, eventually he worked later with the Oakland, what do you call that place? It's a government job.

RP: Civil service?

CH: I would think so, yeah.

RP: Okay.

<End Segment 7> - Copyright © 2008 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.