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AC: So the, so even though there was the, Japan had invaded China, there was no real, amongst the farmers at least --

JS: No animosity.

AC: No animosity? You got along just fine?

JS: The way I recall, well, I can remember my dad talking about it. Course, my dad and his friends used to talk about a lot of things about that because they're all citizens of Japan, unable to get American citizenship. So I, me being the oldest son, I used to be hangin' around him a lot, I suppose, and he'd take me places, so I'd listen, sit there and listen to a couple old men talk. Even when my dad and mom were talking, I suppose, I gathered that there, there wasn't that much animosity down at the truck gardeners' level.

AC: What kinds of things did your dad talk about?

JS: Well, my dad was a kind of leader amongst the Fukushima people in Portland, so our acquaintances were really not too high in society. One of our friends worked for Furuya in Portland, and of course we lived on the Clackamas River, which was a, had some nice picnic area on it, and as long as our landlord tolerated, why, we'd use the beach along the river and Teikoku, Furuya, I don't know how many groups came out there to have their, have a picnic sometimes. So a number of people that we wouldn't, I wouldn't have otherwise known, I knew because of my dad's association with people. So my dad, I've sat and, I've gone with my dad on days he's gone to market, and he might be taking something to Azuma's or Azumano's or Starfish Market or Teikoku and Furuya, he'd deliver gobo and I forget what else. He'd sell some things. I think under his load of vegetables he probably had a jug or two of sake to sell somebody too. I think that wasn't an uncommon thing. Sometimes one load, one or two jugs of sake worth more than the vegetables on the truck. This kind of thing, I don't know, I guess it's safe to repeat anymore because it's a thing of the times. So this, there was, this was a level that if you grew very much vegetables you had to go this route, to the wholesale markets, unless you had a direct connection with Pacific Fruit or one of those, Hudson Duncan or some group like that. And a lot of the people, like in, that grew summer vegetables, why, they wouldn't have a stall in the same line as I was in. They would have a stall over, one stall over, and they were for seasonal. You could just buy, you could buy a daily, you pay so much every day that you went to market, for rental. I paid a monthly rental, I think. This, it was a good marketing system. It was kind of, in a way you got to deal directly with the buyer, instead of having to have a consignee who was your agent selling for you. So it was a nice system.

But I think, when I look back on those years, I think that I had a hard time adjusting into society in general, because I'd be a little too cocky sometimes and not, I suppose I'd be around too many adults and try to act like an adult when I was still a kid yet. And this doesn't go too well sometimes, but you don't realize it didn't go too well until afterwards. But I grew up that way, and I used, when I quit school, we used to go, have to walk up to Carver to catch a school bus to Oregon City, so I, all the kids I went to school with, all of a sudden they were just walkin' by. And I'd wave at 'em; I'd be out in the field working, cultivating behind a horse or something. So I missed that part, several years of my life that way. When I got back, well, when I came to business college in Boise, when I, I was a little backward yet. I guess in that area I never really did catch up. So when I became an adult, why, I probably recognized what had happened. I've always been a little self-conscious, along with being a little adventurous too. See, we grew up out there where it was mostly Caucasian people and this, one of the important things to my life, I suppose, that formed an important part of my background, is the fact that my aspects on a lot of these situations and problems are formed from a different kind of thinking than those of people who grew up in a totally Japanese community. For instance, my wife and I have, she grew up in a society up in Bellevue, Washington, and her way of looking at things is probably different than mine. Of course, after fifty-seven years we've adjusted, but... when you're in a total white community and all, all the people, in those days always white, we were the "Jap people," "Jap neighbors," whatever -- not derogatory, but that's the way it was. So we had to find our own way, and I think in small town America, thousands and thousands of families like ours adjusted to living in that kind of situation. But it was hard on the folks because... we were fortunate that we only lived fifteen miles from Portland and my dad had a lot of associations with people, so we had, we were able to associate with quite a few Japanese people. But if you lived another twenty, thirty miles out where you, it wasn't that easy to get to town, you had to live a life, and it had to be especially hard on a lot of Issei people. Most of our mothers didn't learn to speak English, and a lot of our dads, we don't know how we, how they ever, when you think back about it, you don't know how they ever got by from what little they knew. Because when I think back about the days when I listened to my dad talkin' to Caucasian people, doing business with them, it's a wonder they understood each other, but they seemed to. But in those days, we had groups like what they call tanomoshi, and I don't know whether you've ever heard of tanomoshi, but you ask any, most Nisei know about this. These kind of, you formed your own credit associations. A group of people got together and they put in so much money, just like an investment club, and then each month they would, say somebody wanted to bid on that money, he'd bid the interest. So every month somebody would, most months anyway at least, somebody would be bidding in that money. And I used to see my dad with a whole wad of cash, and I never knew what it, where it came from. But it was money that came out of the system, so if you were, you belonged to the club and you were drawing, there was so much interest being paid, why, there were people who didn't have to borrow, came out ahead all the time. It was just like any other financial group. But I can remember my dad, I think, one time belonged at least three tanomoshi groups. So if you could pay it back, it worked good; you didn't get thrown out then. But you bid your rate of interest you're willing to pay, for whatever term you wanted, I don't know whether it was a month at a time or whether... I forget. I don't know the terms anymore. But that was the only credit, lots of times, that our people could get.

<End Segment 5> - Copyright © 2004 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.