<Begin Segment 8>

LT: We talked about the adjustments that you were making when you transferred from a Japanese school in Japan to an American school in Dee. You also returned as the eldest son with younger brothers and sisters who hadn't seen you for three years. Were there adjustments with your family at home?

SI: Oh, I guess we got along okay, yeah. Some of the youngest brother and sisters I remember even changing the diapers for. [Laughs]

LT: Were there any other adjustments or responsibilities that you had when you returned to the United States with your family and your younger brothers and sisters?

SI: Well, I don't know. Always parents says if you had any daylight hour, we had to get out and go to work, do something around the farm.

LT: Well, let's talk about your work on the farm because you spent a lot of time helping your family in your orchard. Can you talk about the jobs that you had and what you did?

SI: Well, when we were just a kid, we just did the manual labor, you know. But as we got a little older, we started getting tractors and things like that. So then we had to learn how to operate the tractors and maintain them. So I'd just go do things as you'd go along and learn everything the hard way. There was no school teaching you anything about farming. You had to just learn to do things the hard way, by doing things.

LT: Can you think of one of the harder tasks on the farm? And talk more about what your job was.

SI: Well, I wasn't much of a... I didn't have much patience. Like picking strawberries, getting on your knees and crawl all day picking strawberries, but I wasn't too hepped about that. But my brother, he'd get there, and he was just picked, what they call carriers, they were putting six boxes in the carriers, and he'd pick about twice as much as I did. [Laughs] Dad used to get after me, he said, "Get to work."

LT: So we talked about one of your tougher jobs on the farm. What was your favorite job as a kid?

SI: Well, as we grow older, we started using a lot of equipment, and that was the thing I liked about using tractors and eventually trucks. Of course, then later on in my life, well, I liked to use equipment, so I went into a lot of truck driving and things like that, equipment driving.

LT: Okay, thank you. So we talked a lot about the work that you did in Dee. What about the fun? What were fun things that you and your friends and your family did?

SI: Well, as a Nisei, we had a... when I was about in high school age, we formed a baseball club from Hood River Niseis. And so we formed a team, and older people like Ray Yasui and Mits Takasumi and your brother George, your father Uncle George, they all played baseball and we formed a team. So we used to go to Salem and play their team, and then go to Gresham, go to Wapato, go to Ontario, they all had baseball, Japanese baseball teams. So once a week, we'd go to do different places, and that was something to look forward to.

LT: Oh, okay. So what was your position?

SI: Oh, I didn't know. Wherever, anyplace that they put me, I guess.

LT: So I'm thinking that Hood River was very rural, transportation was difficult. How hard was it to get together to practice, and then to be able to travel to games?

SI: Well, about that time, about that time, well, we were driving cars, so we just drove cars to get to town.

LT: Uh-huh, okay.

SI: We had either Model As or a little later model we had, other kind of cars.

LT: Okay. What about your family? What did they do together?

SI: Well, we had picnics once in a while, Japanese picnic once a year. In our family, socialized with a group in the Dalles or Dallesport, so we used to go visit once in a while. And knew they were socializing that way.

LT: You mentioned that your father helped to build the Dee community hall, and that was the Japanese community hall. How was that important in your family life?

SI: That was a gathering place for all the Japanese holiday they had, and they would have a gathering there. Sometime they would bring in a Japanese movie from Portland, and they would show a movie at night. Those old samurai pictures where they do the fighting and old style movie they used to have. Nothing modern, but something different. We didn't go to any other movie. I guess there was a theater in town, but I never did go.

LT: Did you celebrate special holidays at the community hall?

SI: Oh, yeah.

LT: Can you choose one holiday and talk about what you did and what you ate?

SI: They always had New Year gathering. It was the emperor's birthday or something one day. They had... can't remember how many holidays they had, but they had two or three.

LT: Do you remember how you celebrated the emperor's holiday? And I'm especially interested because you talked about how the emperor was viewed in Japan. So how did you recognize the emperor's birthday at the Dee community hall?

SI: Well, the Isseis was the one that decided to have those holidays. It was their doing. Yeah, it was all based on what Issei wanted to do.

LT: Okay. How did you honor the emperor, do you remember?

SI: Oh, they had some program, they'd talk about, or they'd read about something, I don't know.

LT: Do you remember what you ate?

SI: Huh?

LT: Do you remember what you ate when you celebrated the emperor's birthday?

SI: No, I don't remember.

LT: Okay. What did you, you said the Issei chose the holidays to recognize. What did you learn from your parents about Japanese, being Japanese?

SI: Well, I don't know. Yeah, they didn't... the only time we celebrated Christmas is school. Or they used to have Valentine's Day, they'd pass around, make our own Valentine and give it to people at the grade school. During the Japanese school, they always had New Year's parties.

LT: So on the one hand, in the United States, you were celebrating American holidays. And at the Dee community hall, you were celebrating Japanese holidays and watching Japanese movies.

SI: Yeah, they had, like grade school used to have Christmas programs. They had participated in that.

LT: So it sounds like you had partial celebrations of America and partial celebrations of Japan. Was it confusing?

SI: No, it was just something to do. It was different from just farming. [Laughs]

<End Segment 8> - Copyright © 2013 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.