<Begin Segment 25>

AC: And when you got married, where did you settle?

JS: Here. She still, she still lives on the same farm where we settled. We built another house, but we lived just out on the, less than a couple miles from here. But we lived in a little house that somebody, somebody had built with FFA, Future Farmers of America, helping 'em, and it didn't have, had running water but it had no toilets. You had to go via lantern, carry a lantern or a flashlight to go out to the toilet. You could walk around there naked and nobody could see you 'cause there's no lights out, way out of town about half a mile. When you got up by the hospital, why, it was pitch dark from there on. So when we bought the place we had a furo, had a Japanese bath until, for about... oh, I know, we had the house remodeled right away, had another bedroom and dinette, a dining area, and bathroom put in. But the first year was kind of rough going. It was alright for a couple of newlyweds, though. [Laughs]

AC: [Laughs] Oh my goodness. And so, I guess you just continued on in farming?

JS: Pardon me?

AC: You just continued on farming with your brothers?

JS: Yes. We farmed, well, we had a family, and after my dad died we formed a partnership, three brothers, and then we formed a corporation. And I split from the family corporation in 1971, and then I formed another corporation, and this corporation is, in name is still in existence, but we haven't done any business for, we're just kind of running out of money gradually. My wife and I are bleeding it to death.

AC: So what, did you notice, did you notice any difference in the way that you were treated before you went to war and when you came back?

JS: Absolutely, absolutely. It was a, I was in a new world when I came back from service. I came back as a second lieutenant, and that's the lowest end of the officer grade, and it's a hard life 'cause you're just like a private when you're a second lieutenant. Mostly you're taking orders from somebody up above all the time, and you have to live, you live like an officer and you spend too much money. But as a civilian, my, it was something else. And I formed, in my activities in American Legion, I made friends that, for instance, over in Payette, Idaho, they have an annual Apple Blossom Festival parade, and a commander, person I met over there, is a Legionnaire and he's a commander, he'd be, he was a commander of the Idaho, State of Idaho, and he asked me if I would put together some Nisei, march in the parade. So one year, I think we just did it one year, we marched in the Payette parade and then we went over to Boise and marched in the May Day parade over there. That's, the May Day parade was to counteract the Russian May Day parade. So we went to march in the parade in Boise, and gee, that's, I've, we had a small platoon. I don't know, we had, I had about a platoon. I got twenty-some or thirty-some people, and the only problem -- and I was their platoon leader and my friend that got married in Mississippi, from Nyssa, he was, he was, was he right guide? Anyway, we had, and we had a guy from Boise who was, he was in the 442nd too, he was an ROTC kid from high school. Anyway, he and, he was, he and several guys were color bearers, and this guy who was the head of the American Legion in Idaho called the department, 442nd people over there in Hawaii, asked 'em, he got it through the American Legion commander in Hawaii and got the colors over here, our regimental colors. I couldn't believe it, but by gosh, they were our colors. And toughest time we had was we couldn't keep up, keep tempo with the high school band. They were too fast. A military band marched at a certain pace, so I counted cadence all the time, but we made it alright, by gosh. And I think we made quite a nice impression. That was the last time all the veterans, a bunch of veterans around here ever got, I mean Nisei veterans, got together.

But this was kind of the start of things. And we had, so we had, despite what the American Legion did in California to our people, we, it's a new thing, a new thing started. And so after the guys came home, the reason they have an organization like Nisei Vets up in Seattle, or Nisei Vets in Portland, is they couldn't, some posts didn't want 'em. They couldn't get in, so they just formed their own post. And I don't know how big the Portland post is, Portland Nisei Vets Committee, but I don't think it's very large, is it? Kay Endo's very active in it. But the Seattle one is a going concern, but now they're having trouble. They're running out, so they're gonna have, they got kids, they got three generations at least in there. They're trying to determine what their future's going to be. And I joined them because they had a nice bulletin, their Nisei Vets bulletin, so I give to them every year, just send 'em a check for, just to get the bulletin. I finally decided, well jeez, there's an opening there, I could join for a hundred and twenty-five dollars or something, get a life membership. I think that's what the price was. So I signed up for a life membership and told 'em my qualifications. I got a big certificate at home. It doesn't mean anything, really, but anyway, so that's how my affiliation with Seattle Nisei Vets, and it so happens that because my wife comes from there she knows a lot of the people up there, and so we have a pretty good thing going. Now, the Portland Nisei Vets, I guess, I'd know a large share of them. I probably know most of them. If I, you know how you talk for fifteen minutes, "Oh yeah, yeah."

AC: Was there a Japanese American League active here in Ontario when you...

JS: Yeah, Snake River Chapter is here. The Boise Valley Chapter is not very active. They don't, I don't even know, they kind of run through the formalities of having a board and everything, but our chapter here is mostly board work. But they raise funds for scholarships and we have socials that kind of bring everybody together, like crab feed, and we honor high school graduates. So it doesn't make much noise, but it's a nice group, all Sansei.

AC: Was it active when you came back from the war?

JS: Yeah, well, it was a new chapter. A fellow by the name of Joe Okamoto, who's passed on since, was the president. I came back and I was the second president. And I've followed, my activity in there, by going through the chairs of district council, and I ended up, I forget, about 1950, I was the chairman of the district council. I think our national convention that year was in Chicago, but we were going to, I think my wife and I have been going to, we've been to a number of national conventions. We don't anymore, but it's quite a bit of work and responsibility too, to keep a chapter going healthy. And so that's part of our back history.

<End Segment 25> - Copyright © 2004 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.