<Begin Segment 6>

RP: How did your parents meet?

LY: Oh, by baishakunin, means go-between. So he has a go-between, I mean a person who helps him find somebody. And then my mom had it and just like when in Japan, arranged marriage.

RP: Right. So some of those customs from Japan were transferred over to America.

LY: Right.

RP: What, and you said that your father would hire the baishakunin?

LY: Uh-huh. No, not hire. Someone, he knew this Mr. Matsushima who was a officer for Salvation Army, in that area. And then my mother's side she had a family friend from Hiroshima who, you know, friends of grandparents. They, I guess, talked to each other and said, "Oh, here's a lady. Here's a man." And they...

RP: So they both had baishakunins.

LY: Right.

RP: Ah, and they came to an agreement that that was gonna be a...

LY: Right.

RP: ... a sound marriage.

LY: So they married in Florin Methodist Church, Japanese Methodist Church, in November 4, 1934. And my father was, I guess thirty-two, and then my mom was almost twenty-one.

RP: Quite a difference.

LY: And then they moved. That's why my mother went to Menlo Park and had Carol, David, Francis, and then Paul. Then war came. I mean, so they decided to go back to Florin so they can go to camp with her parents and siblings. So they already went back there, March 27th.

RP: They, they went back to Florin in March 27th?

LY: Uh-huh. And then they have to leave the Florin, May 28, 1942. And then, looking at the tag I found for each one of them, and on my parents' it said May 28th, they left the two p.m. on the train. And I asked my aunt, "Who took you people?" And she said, "Oh, neighbors." I forgot the name, but the neighbors helped them to go (to Elk Grove train station).

RP: Do you know what happened to the Seno farm when they had to go to Manzanar?

LY: Oh, they have to leave and exactly, I do not know. Because I asked aunt and she wasn't sure. But what happened was my grandma, grandparents bought it with children's name so when they came back, you know, no one really took care so they lost because you have to have money to pay the tax, property tax, and they didn't have money to pay property tax. So they lost.

RP: They lost the property.

LY: So, before they left the camp my grandparents and my aunties... let's see, Auntie Nellie and Auntie Josephine, they left the Manzanar December 1944 and went to Washington, D.C. and worked at office, in the office.

RP: Office of...

LY: I guess government office, yeah, if I remember right. Excuse me. And then they came back 1948, no, excuse me, 1944, so 1946 they came back.

RP: So the...

LY: And just the old two. And then my uncle, meantime, he was in Manzanar. But he volunteered for army.

RP: I think we'll get to that in a little while. Tell us about what happened to your grandfather on your father's side, Tomojiro, he was in San Francisco?

LY: Oh, get back to grandfather.

RP: Yeah, we'll just jump to him and...

LY: Uh-huh. Well, nineteen... around '23 it says he's gonna work on the land house and I'm not sure what that means. So I figured okay, it must be taking care of the property for some well-to-do family or something. And then he lived at, it said Bayshore Road on 1930 census. And then, anyway, going back to little notebook he kept up, journal, it says January, no, I take that, that was the Southern Pacific. It said his beginning salary is thirty-five cents an hour. And then from, that's 1920. In August, 1920, he will be getting forty-five cents an hour. So land part I'm not, I don't recall so I had to re-read it again. But 1930 census it said, you know, he was still here. But November, 1930, he started to break the ground, groundbreaking for building the house. So that's in Japan. So sometime between that April and maybe October or way before that, he went back to Japan. But that part I have to check it. But I found out that it's very, they don't have any record for going back to Japan. Coming in they have so unfortunately. But somehow if I can find it from Archives. I'm looking for it.

RP: So he's, he sounds like one of those, one of the Isseis who came to America, earned some money, and went back to Japan and perhaps helped 'em build a, build a house there.

LY: Anyway, he has been sending the money to his, I mean, our grandma and my father so many (times), so often. Because it says, "I have sent so much to Japan," and it has a date. And every two weeks he was getting paid. So he has a record of how much was paid, how much he spent for food and then health insurance and so forth. So it's quite a record that I found.

RP: That's great. How about your, what do you remember about your parents?

LY: My parents?

RP: Yeah. What, what words come to your mind or what picture comes to your mind when you think about your mom?

LY: My mother, she has worked very, very hard 'til the end. And my father, too. And when he came back from Japan he became gardener. But while he was in Japan after the Tule Lake, they had that dry goods store as well as farming raising the.. growing the rice and wheat and soy beans, and vegetable garden to feed us.

RP: What did your parents share with you... I mean you, you weren't in Manzanar. You were born in Tule Lake, but can you share with us any experiences that they talked about at Manzanar?

LY: Well, I remember a lot about being honest and studying hard, work hard, and be nice to other people. And be helpful.

RP: Those are the lessons that you got from your parents?

LY: 'Cause my mother said she wanted to go to school but she has to quit when she was in, junior. So she had one more year left but because of the farm she needed the help so she quit and helped in the farm, then she got married. So when she came back to United States in 1957 she attended night school and finished so she got her diploma in 1958, June.

RP: Where did she graduate from?

LY: Sacramento Adult Evening, Adult Education, down on 18th and K Street. But now in the building is also the, what do you call?

RP: Is no longer there?

LY: Moved and right now I don't know what they have. But no school there either.

<End Segment 6> - Copyright © 2009 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.