<Begin Segment 2>

KP: So what are some of your very first memories of Venice?

YM: All I know is I was, you know, I went to school there and went to American school then we went to a Japanese school every day of the week. And that's about all we did was go to school or work on the farm.

KP: And your father was a farmer?

YM: Farmer, uh-huh.

KP: And what did he, what did he grow?

YM: Celery and string beans and lima beans and I forgot the other things. But... mostly celery and then the beans came in alternately, you know, like that.

KP: And did he lease that land?

YM: Yes. They couldn't own the land, so they leased the land.

KP: Were you, did you do a lot of work on the farm? Do you remember doing that?

YM: Yeah. I did as much of that as I could. I didn't do too much. I did most of the cooking at home instead. [Laughs]

KP: So did your, on your father's farm, did he have other help besides the family working the farm? Do you remember?

YM: Sometime during the heavy seasons, we had people. Well, we'd go help other people and they'd come and help us when we have big shipments like that.

KP: And where did you go to school?

YM: I went to Machado grammar school and Venice high school.

KP: And what's the grammar school you went to?

YM: Machado. I think that was the name of our school. It's been so long ago. [Laughs]

KP: What, what type, what was the racial makeup of that school?

YM: You mean...

KP: Were there Japanese Americans or...

YM: At our school we didn't have that many Japanese people, 'cause they had, we had other friends but our schools were separated by districts, so our school, we didn't have that many Japanese people.

KP: So the rest of your neighbors were...

YM: But when we went to high school, they all came to the same high school. But grammar schools were all scattered.

KP: So you would go to grammar school... when did you start Japanese language school?

YM: About the same time we started school

KP: Did you go to the regular grammar school and then Japanese language school every day or was it...

YM: Every day. The bus came to pick us up at our, we called it American school and Japanese school. And the bus used to come and get us at the American school and we'd go to school for an hour every day of the week.

KP: Then did the bus take you home or...

YM: Uh-huh.

KP: What did you... do you remember what your favorite classes in grammar school were or teachers or anything?

YM: No, I don't remember. It's too long ago.

KP: What do you remember of your father? What, what kind of, kind of man was he, if you could...

YM: He was the most gentle person I ever knew in my life. He was a very good man.

KP: Japanese was spoken in your home?

YM: Mostly, at dinner time anyway. But, they didn't complain if we spoke English but they can't understand us so we tried to talk Japanese to them.

KP: And what do you remember about your mother?

YM: Oh, she was just a regular mother.

<End Segment 2> - Copyright © 2009 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.