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Title
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eng
Lloyd Kurihara interview
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Description
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eng
Talks about growing up before World War II and his family history, his incarceration in the Poston War Relocation Center and subsequent military service in the 442nd Regimental Combat Team and life after the war. Video only exists for the second part of the interview.
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Creator
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eng
Kurihara, Lloyd
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eng
Kimoto, Grace & Ralph Kumano
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Relation
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eng
JACL-CCDC Japanese American Oral History Collection
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Coverage
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eng
Sanger, California
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Date
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eng
4/18/2004
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Format
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eng
Microsoft Word 2003 document, 52 pages
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Rights
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eng
Copyright has been transferred to Fresno State
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Identifier
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eng
SCMS_jacl_00023
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extracted text
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NARRATOR:
LLOYD KURIHARA
INTERVIEWER:
GRACE KIMOTO, RALPH KUMANO
DATE:
April 18, 2004
RK:
We will be interviewing Lloyd Kurihara today in Sanger, California on April 13, 2004.
This is an interview with Lloyd Kurihara a Nisei man seventy-nine years old at Sanger,
California on April 18, 2004. We are interviewing Lloyd in his home and my name is
Ralph Kumano and I am with Grace Kimoto and we are with the Oral History Project of
the CCDC-JACL which is part of the Special Collection at the Henry Madden Library of
California State University in Fresno. Okay, Lloyd where were you born?
LK:
I was born in Visalia.
RK:
And what was the date of birth?
LK:
June 24, 1924.
RK:
And what was your parent’s line of work?
LK:
My parent’s line of work when they came over was doing sharecropping like doing dry
prunes and dry peaches and that is what they did. And they sharecropped with the owner
of the place and they had over thousands of acres of—any way they had a section of land
and it wasn’t all in peaches and plums but that’s what he did.
RK:
Now do you remember much about family life when you were growing up?
LK:
I sure did.
RK:
Well what was it like?
LK:
Well it seemed like every—I come from a big family. There is eleven of us and every
year, you know as it goes along there was always a sibling, a young sibling and I felt like
I was not taken care of because naturally you had to take care of the younger ones. And
2
KURIHARA
but I enjoyed the family life. What the family did, was they brought in Issei workers or
Kibei’s to work on the farm and we fed them and boarded them at the place. We used to
have at least ten people at the farm, Japanese people.
RK:
Now you said you had eleven siblings so how many were boys and how many were girls
and where were you in the—
LK:
I’m the first one.
RK:
The order—oh you are the oldest?
LK:
The oldest.
RK:
Okay. And how many were sisters?
LK:
Boys?
RK:
And how many were brothers?
LK:
There were five—five girls and six brothers.
RK:
Oh okay. What about some of the discipline or responsibilities that were given to you
while you were growing up?
LK:
Well, I used to do all the family chores. We used to—because it was on a farm we raised
our own vegetable and chicken and rabbits and then the owner of the place gave us a cow
that we could go milk and what we did was we milked two of the half of it and the two
other half would go to the calf, see. Now I’d do that every morning and night and that
was quite a work. So we had butter and milk.
RK:
Okay that was providing for the family.
LK:
Yeah.
RK:
Did your parents teach you a lot of values while you were growing up?
3
LK:
KURIHARA
Yeah I think so. You had to work hard and that you were responsible you know for the
whole family because they depend—dad used to work all the time and I’d work the
gardens and what not and we had—grandmother was with us and she would work the
garden, a lot. She was mostly the one that would really go in there and do the garden
work because we were still going to school you know.
RK:
Now what schools did you attend in Visalia?
LK:
Well I went to it was a small one-room brick house. It was really a brick house, ah, one
teacher and up to eighth grade and probably about twelve students in the whole student
body.
RK:
Oh wow. That is a small school.
LK:
And it was small but it was kind of hard because you know my folks, all they spoke was
Japanese. And I did have an aunt, my dad’s sister, who lived with us, but she had to go to
school herself so she didn’t have much time to teach me or anything. So, it was hard for
me when I went to the first grade at the school at the grammar school, I had a hard time
because you know I couldn’t understand. Well, I understood some of it but then it was
hard for me.
RK:
Was the class mixed as far as different races?
LK:
Yeah there were—yeah there were all mixed races.
RK:
Oh okay. So twelve yeah.
LK:
There were Germans and Portuguese and—
RK:
Were there other Japanese-Americans?
LK:
No. We were the only ones.
RK:
Oh okay. After that eighth grade, did you go to high school?
4
KURIHARA
LK:
Yes I did.
RK:
And the name of the school?
LK:
I went to Visalia Redwood High School and I went until I was a junior and then, you
know, the evacuation came up. So I didn’t graduate from Visalia.
RK:
Oh okay. Now the elementary school was near your house or was it out in the country?
LK:
High school?
RK:
No the elementary school that you went to.
LK:
Oh it was about one and three quarter mile. We had to walk it.
RK:
Walk to school? And then Redwood High School is in the city of Visalia so well you
took the bus?
LK:
Well they had a regular bus to come out and pick us up.
RK:
Oh okay. So how far did you live from the town of Visalia?
LK:
We lived from town, Visalia?
RK:
How far?
LK:
About six miles.
RK:
So okay so the bus had to pick you?
LK:
Yeah.
RK:
Okay, how do you feel about the high school? Were you treated okay?
LK:
I was treated okay. I was little different just like I am now and I’d go join all the clubs
that Japanese people wouldn’t join. And I had a good time.
RK:
Did you go out for any sports?
LK:
Yes, I went out for football and basketball and track.
RK:
Were you invited to any of the homes of some of your classmates?
5
KURIHARA
LK:
Oh yeah.
RK:
So you are pretty comfortable with your classmates?
LK:
Oh yeah I was very comfortable because I did have a 1929 Chevrolet Sedan that we, I
used to run around in and it was you know—it was quite a thing.
RK:
How were your teachers? Were they pretty good?
LK:
Oh yeah, they treated me real good.
RK:
Okay.
LK:
In fact they even call me up right now. I mean lately and they want to do an interview
too like this.
RK:
Now as a child, did you consider yourself Japanese, Japanese-American or American?
LK:
Well, I guess I felt about like a Japanese-American.
RK:
Now did your parents have any contact with the schools?
LK:
Well, no they didn’t have much time for them to contact. My aunt did some of the
contacting. She went when there was a program or something like that. She did come in
contact with the teachers. That is about it.
RK:
Now most Asian families, they let the school take care of the business.
LK:
That’s right.
RK:
And the parents only went to school if there was any problems.
LK:
Yeah.
RK:
Now during your teenage years in Visalia, did you have any type of problems?
LK:
I wasn’t in senior. I was in junior year. I was junior year president of the junior class
and also I used to go to pep rallies and what not and lead the pep.
RK:
Ah, was dating allowed in your house? Did you do much dating?
6
LK:
KURIHARA
Well, I didn’t do much dating. You know how they were? They were kind of against
that even after going into camp, they kind of, you know, they didn’t really like it. And
when people walked down the block, arm in arm, they didn’t like it. You know I don’t
know why. I guess it was because of the Japanese culture, probably.
RK:
Right.
LK:
I’m not sure.
RK:
Did you do any type of work in your junior year in high school?
LK:
No, not—yea I used to—there were a lot of Portuguese dairy farms around and I used to
get up early and go and milk eleven dairy cows by hand before I went to high school and
that was quite a lot of work for about twenty-five cents an hour.
RK:
Oh yeah. Now you said you only went up to your junior year. What happened the
following year?
LK:
Well we went to camp.
RK:
Okay and where was that?
LK:
At Poston. We went to Poston three.
RK:
And what year was that 1942?
LK:
I think 1942 or somewhere.
RK:
Okay, now did you go straight to camp or did you have to go to an assembly center?
LK:
Would I go to school there?
RK:
No, no, no did you go straight to camp or did your family have to go to an assembly
center?
LK:
Oh no. We went straight to camp.
RK:
Okay.
7
KURIHARA
LK:
We were the last people in the Central Valley to go off.
RK:
Okay.
LK:
And we left from Visalia on a train.
RK:
The train took you straight to Poston?
LK:
Yeah.
RK:
Okay, describe if you can remember the daily life in camp.
LK:
I can still remember the day we went in, though. It was awful. The wind was blowing.
You know how the sand storm?
RK:
Yeah it sounded—
LK:
And we went into the mess hall and all they fed us was the rice and peas. That was it. I
said my goodness, is this what it’s going to be around here? And the water didn’t taste
very good either at that time. And but as time went on, you know how the—the block is
very—Japanese people are very industrial and they really improved the block and made it
look nice. They made—
RK:
Now the living quarter since you had a large family, did they give you an extra room or
how did they work it with each family?
LK:
Yeah, the older boys were in one room and then the girls had their room but we still had
to divide it up though.
RK:
But it was in the same building?
LK:
With a screen. Yeah.
RK:
Oh okay. How did you feel about being put into camp because of your Japanese
ancestry?
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LK:
KURIHARA
Well I felt—I kind of felt bad because I felt loyal to the country. And then they turn
around and put us in camp like that and being guarded by towers, you know. They said it
was a camp to resettle to other places but it was more like a concentration camp to me.
RK:
Now were you—did you have to sign on the loyalty questions?
LK:
Oh yeah.
RK:
Number 27 and 28. How did that affect you?
LK:
I just said I was loyal to the country.
RK:
Okay, did you have any problems in the camp as far as problems with other Japanese
people or with the guards?
LK:
No, I didn’t have any problems.
RK:
Now what type of activities did you do in camp?
LK:
Well being that; as we went in—my family was a Buddhist but I just didn’t feel right
being a Buddhist so I turned to Christian and I accepted the Lord in camp.
RK:
Now did they have a Christian church there and a Buddhist church?
LK:
Yeah, they had Reverend Paul McDonald and as the other you know younger and they
had the social hall and made a church out of it.
RK:
Yeah, okay. But did they also have the Buddhist church?
LK:
Yeah they had the Buddhist.
RK:
Oh okay.
LK:
But they had it in a different place.
RK:
Oh okay, so you could choose which ever one you wanted to go? Oh okay. Did you do
any schooling there and complete your senior year? Or—
9
LK:
KURIHARA
Yes, I completed the school there. Not all the way because I went out to Grand Junction
on a work—
RK:
Work release program?
LK:
Yeah and I left I was already—I had volunteered for the Army already then.
RK:
Oh okay.
LK:
And so it was—I went out to do what I can—just to go and enjoy the country outside.
RK:
Oh okay so what did you do in Grand Junction? This is in Colorado right?
LK:
Yeah, we picked apples and peaches and tomatoes.
RK:
Oh okay.
LK:
I didn’t go and dig any sugar beets or anything like that. That was hard work.
RK:
Oh yeah.
LK:
No I didn’t do any of that but we picked apples and peaches and tomatoes and did a lot of
tomatoes and apples.
RK:
Now who went with you to Grand Junction? Were any of your brothers or sisters or just
you?
LK:
No.
RK:
And some other members of the camp?
LK:
I went together with, his name was Kojima and also Mike Imoto of Lindsay. You
probably know him and we had a good time out there.
RK:
Did they come—?
LK:
We slept in a tent.
RK:
Did they come into camp and ask you to volunteer if you wanted to volunteer to go there?
How did you know about this work program?
10
LK:
KURIHARA
Yeah they come and say there is this job and work program in Grand Junction and would
you like to go?
RK:
Oh okay.
LK:
And we didn’t know I was going to group with Mike Imoto and—
RK:
Oh okay.
LK:
Yeah.
RK:
And there were several people that went and you lived in tents there?
LK:
Right.
RK:
The facilities were okay they weren’t-
LK:
Well yeah, the facility we slept in tents and there was a little stream going along the side
and it had a little fall.
RK:
Oh wow.
LK:
And that’s where we—
RK:
Swam and fished?
LK:
Yeah.
RK:
Okay.
LK:
That is where we took our bath.
RK:
Oh yeah took your bath.
LK:
Man, it was cold.
RK:
How wide was the stream?
LK:
Oh, maybe it was about—
RK:
Fifteen feet across?
LK:
No, maybe about ten foot across.
11
KURIHARA
RK:
Oh okay.
LK:
It had a fall.
RK:
Oh waterfall, yeah.
LK:
And we got under there to—
RK:
Did it have any fish in it?
LK:
No.
RK:
Oh okay, just the little stream coming through. How long were you in Grand Junction?
LK:
Oh, I was just there one season.
RK:
Oh okay. And then you went to the service from there or did you go back?
LK:
And I got the greetings from the President. And—
RK:
Now what was this greeting?
LK:
Well, that you are greetings you are you know, you are able to join the US Army and that
I was to report to Fort Logan because I was in Colorado, they said Fort Logan. But they
gave me a two week furlough.
RK:
Okay.
LK:
To go back to camp and get things straightened out. And then I cam back and went to
Fort Logan and that is where I joined.
RK:
Okay and Fort Logan is also in Colorado right?
LK:
Yes.
RK:
Okay and so—
LK:
In Denver, Colorado.
RK:
Oh in Denver and that is where you had basic training?
LK:
No.
12
KURIHARA
RK:
No?
LK:
They sent me from there—all they did was give me my, you know, clothing and
equipment.
RK:
Right.
LK:
And then they shipped me to Camp Shelby.
RK:
Okay so that is where all the Japanese eventually ended up.
LK:
Yeah. Right.
RK:
Okay and how was the conditions there in Camp Shelby?
LK:
Well you know we had because the—we were called the “Buddhaheads” and I mean we
were called the “Katonks” and the Hawaiians were the “Buddhaheads.”
RK:
Now when you went there, the Hawaiians were already there?
LK:
Oh yes.
RK:
Oh, okay.
LK:
They were already trained. They were basic already.
RK:
Oh okay.
LK:
I can’t—I went a little late and the one that got the Medal of Honor—Otani. He was my
(inaudible), a Buck Sergeant.
RK:
Oh okay.
LK:
He was quite a person.
RK:
Now were there other Japanese that were officers that were giving you orders there at the
camp or did they have—?
LK:
No all the officers were mostly Caucasians—
RK:
Oh okay.
13
KURIHARA
LK:
At that time.
RK:
And how did they treat you, the officers?
LK:
Oh it was fine. Only they were kind of—some of them were kind of rough. They were, I
don’t know. They give you orders you know and make you do things and if you’d get
out of line, they would penalize you but that is Army.
RK:
It’s all part of basic training.
LK:
Yeah, part of basic training yea.
RK:
So most of the high ranking Japanese were Sergeants?
LK:
Yeah that is why the Hawaiian people didn’t like us because most of the ranks because
the mainland people, they were in before them and they had rank see. That is why.
RK:
I heard the term “Katonk” and I kind of got an idea of what it is. Can you explain what
the word “Katonk” means? Why you were called that by the—mainly by the Hawaiian’s
right?
LK:
Yeah. The “Katonks?”
RK:
Yeah. Now where did the term come from?
LK:
I don’t know where that—it must be a Hawaiian something “Katonk.” I—I would
remember—I should remember. They told me how that thing came but I don’t remember
it now.
RK:
Oh okay.
LK:
The people there “Katonk.” But I know the mainland people were all “Katonks” and the
Hawaiian people were “Buddhaheads.”
GK:
They thought if you hit the head, it goes “Katonk.” I’m Grace Kimoto and I think I
missed hearing how, I’m going to back up a little bit, I missed hearing how you heard
14
KURIHARA
about Pearl Harbor. The first time you heard December 7th, what happened? How did
you hear about it?
LK:
You mean when we went to the assembly center?
GK:
No, before that on December 7th how did you hear?
LK:
Oh, how did I hear about it? You know I was in Visalia and I had just got through going
to a movie and I had gone to a place where they sell hot dogs and I was eating a hot dog
and I was thinking about buying a few comic books you know. And that is where I heard
it. And I heard it in Visalia.
GK:
Who told you? Or who was talking about it?
LK:
Well, they said that about the Pearl Harbor that they bombed it.
RK:
Was it on the radio?
LK:
Yeah it was on the radio.
GK:
It was on the radio.
RK:
Oh okay.
LK:
Right there.
RK:
At the hot dog stand?
LK:
Yeah.
RK:
And so right after that, did you head home?
LK:
Yeah, I went home because everybody would kind of look at you.
RK:
Yeah, exactly.
GK:
How did you feel?
15
LK:
KURIHARA
Well I didn’t feel good because I knew something was going to come up about all this
and then the you know, the order came out saying that we can’t leave or go around at
night time or what not and can’t work.
GK:
Curfews, okay. Thank you. I really missed that and really wanted you to record how you
heard about it.
LK:
Is that right? Well, I used to go out and irrigate cotton and all being in the neighborhood,
the neighbors didn’t have that much hate for you. They want you to, were good people
so I stayed out some nights. If I would have got caught, I would have really been thrown
in prison probably.
RK:
Sure yeah.
LK:
Because I broke the law, see. But when you irrigate cotton, you have to stay out there all
night.
RK:
Yeah.
LK:
Because you know if you get a break, you get water all over in the wrong place.
GK:
Gosh, sorry about that, but that was the main area. And then you were describing your
military. Was that the 442nd that you were or what military regiment were you in as you
trained?
LK:
442nd yeah.
GK:
442nd company?
LK:
Yeah, I was in Company A at first.
GK:
Okay.
LK:
That is where I took my basic and then from company A, they broke up Company A.
Because they were taking the first battalion, the 100th was already over fighting in Africa,
16
KURIHARA
and in that area and so they needed. They got hit pretty bad and they needed
replacements so I thought I was going to go to that replacement but I didn’t. It just
happened that being that my last initial is K so Don is so they transferred me to “I”
company so that is how I got into “I” Company. And as soon as I got transferred, we
went on a bunch of what they call a twenty-five mile strenuous hikes with a full pack. It
weighs about sixty pounds and you go and walk about twenty-five miles and when you
get back you had blisters on you.
RK:
Wow.
LK:
But being hard-headed as we were, we wouldn’t drop out you know. That is what made
you—what made WWII because we were hard-headed, all guts and no brains (laughing).
RK:
So where was—where was the first place that you went in Europe in the European
theater?
LK:
Well we left from—from the East Coast there and went by, on the first of May, and it
took us a whole month to get there.
RK:
Is this in forty-three?
LK:
Yes because you know they didn’t go straight. Every day they were going this way
and—
RK:
Oh for trying to miss the submarines?
LK:
Yeah there must have been some submarines around because I know the Navy was out
dumping depth charges so, you know, they must have been some around. So, you know,
even when you are out there, you didn’t feel very good.
RK:
Oh I’m sure.
LK:
And being—we stayed on it a whole month.
17
KURIHARA
RK:
A month at sea? Just to get across?
LK:
Yeah, we went back the first of May and we got over there the end of May.
RK:
Okay, and where was this?
LK:
Naples.
RK:
Naples, Italy.
LK:
And as we were going over there in that time, the, I think it was one of the Cassino fell,
yeah. And we were happy because they were having—the 100th battalion was having a
rough time.
RK:
Oh yeah.
LK:
They were stopped there and they finally took it. And when we got caught up with them,
it was on the other side of Rome. We got into Naples and we thought maybe there was a
truck waiting for us, no. We got off the boat in the full field pack again and walked ten
miles to our bivouac area in Naples.
RK:
Wow.
LK:
Man, that was rough.
RK:
Oh yeah, sixty pound pack yeah.
GK:
After a month on the boat.
LK:
Yeah.
RK:
And then from there where did you go?
LK:
From there we went to Rome. And then my first day in action was in a city called
Civitavecchia. The “old city” I guess that is what it is Civitavecchia and it was quite an
experience. My first day in action I saw two Krauts got killed and you know, they don’t
look nice and no and they are blue and—
18
KURIHARA
RK:
Right.
LK:
And it makes you so I didn’t even feel like eating my K-ration. But it sure changed. As
you go along—we were still going forward and as we go along you—your buddies get
killed, you know.
RK:
Yeah exactly.
LK:
And that changes your—all together changes your mind. You get to hate the enemy and
the more you see of the enemy dead on the ground, the happier you get. That is the way
it gets.
RK:
Right.
LK:
That is psychology I guess. I’m not the one but it’s something. And you know the tanks
on the road and the people were in there hollering. It was burning so the Germans were
inside and they are hollering but we had to keep on going.
RK:
Sure, that is part of war, exactly.
LK:
It’s war.
RK:
Yeah. So did you get into France or?
LK:
Well from there we went clear to Rome. I mean not Rome but the Arno River.
RK:
The Arno River, right.
LK:
Yeah. And then we got pulled back and came back to the port, Livorno and we left there
and went on one of those landing what do you call those ships?
RK:
Oh yeah, those landing ships?
LK:
Yeah. And boy those things are rough on the—well the Mediterranean is rough anyway.
Even the sailors got sick on that like this down and it was rough. And we went into
Marseille.
19
KURIHARA
RK:
Oh okay.
LK:
Yeah. And then we got on a car from there but the first day we got into Marseilles we
camped on a bivouac on a hill and it was raining. But a bunch of us said, “No, let’s go to
the town of Marseille and see what the town is like.” So about six or seven of us went
you know and that night when we got back, our tent and everything was down in the
ditch because the water—so it was. So we went and slept in the barn that night.
GK:
So what did the town look like?
LK:
Huh?
GK:
What did Marseille look like?
LK:
Marseille was—it’s a port town and it’s kind of a little dirty town, mostly ports are kind
of dirty anyway.
GK:
Did you see people?
LK:
Huh?
GK:
Did you talk to people? The people there in Marseille.
LK:
People?
GK:
Yeah.
RK:
The French people?
LK:
Yeah, well at that time I didn’t know too much French then yet but I knew a little bit.
They gave you a book, you know, hand book and certain books that you can ask them
questions, you know, and we got along fine.
GK:
Okay. So then?
LK:
Well from there we went to on the train and we went to Bruyeres and where that Lost
Battalion and I went through most of that.
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KURIHARA
GK:
And Bruyeres was where the Niseis went in.
LK:
Well, the Company “I” we got broken up quite a bit because Company “I” and Company
“K” were the leaders and spearheaded that thing to go in and I think we lost more people.
We had a—
RK:
The lost battalion had—
LK:
Eighteen people got killed.
GK:
Is that close to Bruyeres, the Lost Battalion, the mountain?
LK:
Pardon?
GK:
What was the name of the mountain that Lost Battalion was, the mountain that the Lost
Battalion was on?
LK:
The mountain?
GK:
Yeah.
LK:
I don’t remember the mountain.
GK:
But is that close to Bruyeres?
LK:
Yeah.
GK:
Oh I see. How close? I didn’t realize that.
RK:
It’s right there at the forest right?
LK:
Yeah it’s in the forest, in the Black Forest.
GK:
Oh, I see. And Bruyeres is where there is a statute or something for the Nisei men right?
LK:
Right yeah.
GK:
They had a reunion there.
RK:
Oh okay, The Lost Battalion, that was the one from Texas right?
LK:
Right.
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RK:
That was in trouble.
LK:
Right.
GK:
So you are saying you were involved in that or you were not involved with that? Were
you there?
LK:
Well I was kind of a runner so I always stayed with the Colonel. And I didn’t get
involved like in the infantry people that got you know but we pulled guard though, yeah.
Yeah. And it was rough.
GK:
How was it rough?
LK:
Why was it rough? Because there was snow on the ground and if you dug a hole—
generally we’d dig a fox—a hole about for three people. And then they had to lay a log
on top because of the shrapnel and artillery comes in and but the snow on the ground—
the water would come into the hole, see.
RK:
Oh.
GK:
Oh my.
LK:
You would sit on your helmet, you know, when you sit down so when you feel a little
wet down there, you had to—
RK:
Bail.
LK:
Bail the water out.
RK:
Oh gee.
LK:
It was rough.
RK:
Yeah it was rough.
LK:
Our feet was always in the water.
GK:
Oh gee. So how did you keep warm?
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LK:
Well, we kept warm but our feet was cold.
RK:
Yeah.
LK:
You know, how could it be, wet and in water. Yeah it was rough. I didn’t stay up there
too long anyway and then I came back and—
GK:
So how long were you in the dug holes?
LK:
In that area?
GK:
How many nights or?
LK:
Oh I would say probably about three of four months—I mean three or four weeks.
GK:
Weeks?
LK:
And then we were broken up so bad that my company there was only about eighteen
people left.
RK:
Wow.
LK:
And so they pulled us back and we went to Nice-Cannes and we did secondary, I guess,
guarding. It was all over along the French border there—The French and Italian border.
It was kind of an easy job because it was—well still the our motor pool, the 442nd motor
pool, got a—an artillery shell came in and there were three guys that got killed. It was
kind of a school and they had a motor pool there and three did get killed and they have a
memorial thing right at that school right now. When I went the last time they, had a
memorial there, a big plaque.
GK:
You visited?
LK:
Yes.
GK:
So okay. You are in Nice, with your 442nd Company?
LK:
Oh yeah.
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GK:
Company “I”?
LK:
What did we do there?
GK:
What did you do and how did you get back?
LK:
We were guarding certain points on the borderline.
GK:
On the borderline?
LK:
Yes, some of them stayed in caves. Some of them, you know, three of four guys and they
would go up in the mountain. It was all mountains through there. And they would stay
in caves and I would stay in towns.
GK:
In homes or—
LK:
Uh.
GK:
In town?
LK:
No we stayed in the mountains mostly.
GK:
Okay.
LK:
But we stayed in homes.
GK:
That’s what I thought.
LK:
Yeah.
GK:
Okay, so then when—how was the war going on by that time?
LK:
Well the war was still going on in Germany then.
GK:
Okay.
LK:
But we didn’t have anything to do with it because we were just between France and Italy
and was on the border.
GK:
Okay. So Italy has not fallen?
LK:
No because it hadn’t fallen yet. So the Germans ran Italy.
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GK:
That’s right.
LK:
They had control there.
GK:
Yeah, that’s right. Okay, so then take us from there. You experience what happened?
LK:
After that?
GK:
Uh-huh.
LK:
Well, after that the general wanted us back into Italy again to do the spearhead.
GK:
What general?
LK:
Pardon?
GK:
What general? Patton?
LK:
Mark Clark I think.
GK:
Mark Clark, okay.
LK:
He calls us back and he wanted us to come back and push that line that was they couldn’t
break for about six months and was stalemated and so we went back to Italy again on the
boat.
RK:
Now were you successful in breaking the line?
LK:
Yeah. Yeah we—the people there in Italy when I went up there on our—on the 50th
Anniversary for the France thing and we were going along the route there. We went to
Florence and then come back to Carrera. That is where we jumped off from with the last
push and the people there said we were Filipinos. And I really had—you know that is
fifty years later.
GK:
Oh my gosh.
LK:
And I told them no there weren’t Filipinos. We were—it was us. And they said you
weren’t Japanese-Americans. So, well, I had to explain to them that if the Italian went to
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America and were born there, he is American, isn’t he? Oh yeah he is. So they finally
got it in their head that—
GK:
Japanese-American.
LK:
Japanese-American was the one that went up to Carrera through there to break the line
and there was on the bus, it was really funny. The bus there was one Filipino person that
was married to a Japanese girl; well, he said it looks like I won the war, he said.
RK:
(laughing)
LK:
And he was a Filipino and everybody laughed and we got a big laugh out of that.
GK:
That was good.
LK:
But that last push, it was something. We left; it was a night, that didn’t have no moon. It
had to be dark. And we had to leave single file. It was so dark we had to hang onto the
next person’s pack.
RK:
Wow.
LK:
Because I think there was on sergeant who fell down but he didn’t—he didn’t get injured,
he fell down. But we went to this town, I can’t think of the name anymore. And we
stayed all night in that town, all day. We had night we went in and all day we had to stay
inside this house.
GK:
Hide?
LK:
And the next night at nine o’clock we went up Mt. Forredo and that was quite a climb.
To me it was a climb that if the Germans or Gerries were awake, they weren’t sleeping,
they would have saw us because I could see when I looked down the hill well I could see
all the helmets you know, the reflecting off of it. But we did get up there and they were
asleep so that is how they—the companies like K Company and G Company and the
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100th Battalion was all along the shoreline. And we broke the line and it was I think three
hours or something like that after we hit it. And we took Mt. Forredo and we were on our
way. They were running then but it was still dangerous. Yeah.
GK:
So.
LK:
I can remember one time, being a runner, we were taking ration up—we were taking a
ration on packed mules to the company. And the shells started to come in as we went
over the hill and were going down. They knew that we were taking rations to the troops.
Well we all hit the ground and something told me you had better get moving you know.
You don’t sit there. So I went down a little farther and I could hear the shells coming in.
So I hit the ground and good thing it was a dud. In other words what you call a dud is it
didn’t detonate. And but that thing hit the ground and it knocked my helmet off. I guess
I went off the ground about that much but luckily there were people you know in Poland
or some place where they did—they made that shell and didn’t put a detonator on.
GK:
Oh I see.
LK:
You know I was lucky and that’s why I’m here.
GK:
Wow.
LK:
But I went through quite a thing. But we did get the rations down to the company.
GK:
And how did they receive you then?
LK:
Oh yeah. Oh yeah they were very happy. They had prisoners for us to take back again.
GK:
Oh.
LK:
They had about fifteen prisoners and so there are two runners and another K Company
runner I think it was. We took them back. Yeah, fifteen prisoners.
GK:
And how many of you were there to take them back?
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LK:
Two.
GK:
Two of you.
LK:
And we brought them back again.
GK:
Wow.
LK:
But on the way back we had a little—another shelling coming in you know. And I knew
how to speak French then because I was in France and the German people knew how to
speak French so I said, “You tell all those people that—“ When the shell come in, they
took off. You know running so I had the gun on the back of this sergeant and I said,
“You had better get those people—tell them to get back in line or I’m going to shoot you
right here.” So he hollered and they all came back and I took them down to the rear to be
interrogated.
GK:
That is powerful. There were how many men? How many prisoners you were bringing
back? How many prisoners?
LK:
Fifteen.
GK:
Fifteen okay. So they—
LK:
Two of us took them back.
GK:
My gosh.
LK:
But it would have been all right if the shells hadn’t come in. And it just wasn’t over it’s a
wonder. See along the hill there is a—engineers come along and they got a yellow tape
and they tape it off and they had taken all the mines out.
GK:
Oh I see so that’s a safety issue.
LK:
Luckily we—the shells came in pretty close to where there were no mines and those
Germans they went all over.
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RK:
Wow.
LK:
All over the mine fields.
RK:
Scattered yeah.
LK:
Yeah, but none of them.
GK:
But they all got back.
LK:
But none of them stepped on it.
RK:
Gee.
GK:
It’s amazing.
LK:
Well they didn’t think it was mined that’s why.
GK:
Gee. So you got them back.
LK:
Yeah, it’s really something.
GK:
That’s quite a chore.
LK:
But from them on everything was easy. They were running and that’s when—when we
got to the next bivouac area was close to Milano and past Milano and Lago di Garda they
call it, Lake and we bivouac over there and interrogate all the prisoners. We had a lot of
prisoners. I think our company had a hit one of the payroll trucks, one of the trucks and
they got a lot of money from it but they had to turn it back in, the money. They thought
they were going to be rich for a while but it wasn’t the way the US Army did things. So
they gave it all back.
GK:
Very good.
RK:
Did you speak some German? Were you able to do any of the interrogating or did they
have specialist for that?
LK:
Did I speak German?
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RK:
Right.
LK:
Yeah, I got to speak pretty good German too but I kind of forgot it now.
RK:
Yeah.
LK:
You know the main words and I understood them. It is pretty close you know to our line.
Well if you know Latin it’s—
GK:
Yeah, it helps.
LK:
It’s you know, it’s the same thing. But the works come from Latin. Just like the French
and the Italian and Mexican or there are a lot of words the same.
RK:
Or very similar.
LK:
Yeah, familiarity.
GK:
That’s right. So—
RK:
Now about what year was this that things in Italy started finishing up?
LK:
Oh finishing up?
RK:
This was—
LK:
Nineteen around forty-three I think it was.
RK:
Okay.
GK:
That early? So then how long were you still there? When did you get back?
LK:
Well when the—the war was over in Italy, actually we were in Florence. They had
pulled back to Florence. We slept in a, where they raise veal. The Italians like veal you
know. And they raised—there was a big barn where they raised these young calves for
veal and that is where we stayed for a while. And then the company kind of broke up and
they guarded certain things like where I went was they had the quarter master and had a
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KURIHARA
bakery and they had a lot of like, pillow, I mean, sheets and blankets and stuff. That is
kind of quarter master where we had guard and a bakery.
GK:
A bakery.
LK:
Oh yeah.
GK:
So (inaudible) to see—
LK:
So we used to go and get some fresh bread.
RK:
Oh yeah.
GK:
Did you get to go see—?
LK:
You know the people that baked was German people.
GK:
Oh they were?
LK:
Prisoners.
GK:
So then were you able to do any sight-seeing in Florence?
LK:
Oh yeah.
GK:
You got to see the Sistine Chapel?
LK:
Oh yeah. I went all over, yeah.
GK:
Oh how wonderful. That was so beautiful.
LK:
But I didn’t think it was that much culture there you know at the time I went, but
afterward Florence is a city of, oh boy, they got art there and the Last Supper.
RK:
So most of the war was outside the city so the city is pretty much—
LK:
Right.
RK:
Unharmed good.
LK:
Well they—they didn’t harm Florence very much except the outer perimeter.
RK:
The outskirts?
31
LK:
KURIHARA
Yeah. Not the where they had you know the churches and cathedrals and museums.
They didn’t do that.
GK:
Good thing. So then where did you go after that?
LK:
Well I didn’t come back with the company. I wrote back home and they said they were
having a rough time. You couldn’t buy a car and there was no work. So I went and
joined the Army again there but I joined the regular Army, not the draft, you know,
Army. They have—it’s different. The regular Army—the Army that right now.
RK:
Now at that time you made this decision were your parents still in camp or where they
out?
LK:
No, they were in Visalia.
RK:
Oh they got released?
GK:
They were back?
LK:
Yeah, they had already come back.
GK:
I thought that was forty-three or forty-four. It must be 1945?
LK:
Yeah.
RK:
Forty-four or forty-five.
LK:
Something like that. They had already come back around the Visalia area. At first they
stayed at I think Martha stayed in Reedley somewhere. My people, my folks stayed in—
well they had the Buddhist Church in Visalia and they stayed there for a while and they
finally moved out because the things that we left when we were ranching, it wasn’t there
no more. Everybody went in and stole it.
RK:
Wow.
LK:
You know how that is.
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GK:
Were any of your other brothers in the military?
LK:
Yes, I had one in the Navy, one was in—the one next to me was in the Signal Corps.
And I think most all of the brothers went—went to—
GK:
Did any of them go to the Pacific?
LK:
No, not there.
GK:
They were all Europe?
LK:
Yeah, well they joined later so I don’t know. Well yeah they did go to Japan. I had a
younger brother, Ralph he went to Japan. He’s in the Navy.
GK:
Okay, okay and none of your sisters?
LK:
No.
GK:
Okay.
LK:
Yeah there wasn’t no war then see.
GK:
Right.
LK:
It was all finished.
RK:
You were mentioning that everything was basically trashed when your parents came back
to Visalia. Did you still own the property?
LK:
Well no.
RK:
Oh you were leasing at the time?
LK:
No we—
GK:
Share croppers.
LK:
We were share croppers.
RK:
Oh okay.
LK:
So we had—the building was still there but they didn’t have any more.
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RK:
Oh okay, so it is like starting over again. They had to start from scratch again?
LK:
Yeah.
RK:
Oh okay.
LK:
So my dad went out and worked on the farm and pruned in orchards and stuff like that.
RK:
So where did he live? Did he live out?
LK:
Yeah he lived out of Visalia about seven or eight miles.
RK:
Oh okay.
LK:
And then—(tape is silent)—
GK:
New tape, tape two. Anyway we have you just re-enlisting again to the regular Army.
LK:
Yeah.
GK:
Your family is now home in Visalia trying to be settled and getting a job. So tell us about
your re-enlistment?
LK:
Well it was—I went up towards the town of Udine that is way up north close to the
Yugoslavian border. And what we did was just you know guard the borders along the
Yugoslavian border. And my job was—I was in supply anyway after I got my job. I was
a company supply sergeant. I wasn’t a sergeant yet but they made—I was a technician
fifth grade which could go up to a sergeant. Anyway I was a company sergeant, supply
sergeant acting. Then the regimental headquarters found out and he knew that I was with
the 442 and he wanted me up to the regimental headquarters the ordinance section. I
said, “Okay.” So as soon as I got up there well I got a staff rating.
GK:
Wow.
LK:
And uh—
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GK:
KURIHARA
Sorry okay. Let’s go ahead now. You were just telling us that you were going to be on
the guard.
LK:
Oh yeah.
GK:
Okay get back to it then. So tell us about where you were and what you were doing then?
This is with the new Army, the regular Army.
LK:
Oh when I was in the regular Army. Well I went up to the what they called the Blue
Devil. It’s a hundred and thirty-second division and I went up there to join a company
you know and they took me in and one company but I don’t remember what company I
got into right now. Then the colonel of the commander of the regimental knew that what
I with the 442nd did and he wanted me to be up into the regimental headquarters so he
took me out of the company and I transferred over to regimental headquarters and I was
in charge of the ordinance department of the whole regiment. Well I took care of Jeeps
and all the guns and mortars or anything that had to do with ordinance. And before long
in about a couple months I was a staff sergeant. And it was just like an office work. You
went in at eight in the morning and come home at four o’clock.
RK:
Wow.
LK:
Weekends you were off and I enjoyed it.
GK:
What kind of living quarters did you have then?
LK:
We had nice quarters there because I think it was a hotel.
GK:
Wow.
LK:
I had an incident there though. See they put all the non commissioned officers and their
staff sergeants in together, see. They have to sleep two in a room. Well they called me
down in the office the commander did and captain did and he said, “Do you mind
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KURIHARA
sleeping with a Jew?” And I said, “No, I don’t have anything against them.” So, I sleep
with, I slept with a staff sergeant and he was a Jewish person, nobody else would sleep
with him.
RK:
Wow.
LK:
Because you know this company that, most of them were from Oklahoma, not Oklahoma
but Alabama and through there.
RK:
South.
GK:
South.
LK:
And they were really hard against Jewish people you know, so these guys wouldn’t sleep
with them.
RK:
Wow.
GK:
Gee.
LK:
But I made good friends with him. He came from New Jersey and his dad had a Dodge
agency there in some kind of town there and he had a—we got along real good.
GK:
Are you in touch with him yet?
LK:
Yeah, when I came back, he took me in.
GK:
That’s fabulous.
LK:
I went by and saw him. We went out and had a nice dinner and met their parents and
everything and they were real nice. Yeah, I enjoyed it.
GK:
So how long were you in the regular Army?
LK:
I was in Udine one year and after three years overseas, you have to come back.
RK:
Oh okay.
GK:
Is that right?
36
LK:
KURIHARA
Regardless, now if I stayed another couple months, I would have gotten tech sergeant. I
would have gotten the higher rating.
RK:
Right.
LK:
But I couldn’t stay no more. They shipped me back home and I came into—left I think it
was—yeah I shipped out of Livorno and they brought me all the way back to Livorno.
That’s a port city and I got on the boat another—it wasn’t a cruise ship like you know,
what was that?
GK:
Not the Queen Mary from England?
LK:
No. And we came back and to Camp—I got discharged from Camp Kilmer, New Jersey.
GK:
So you took the train home?
LK:
No the reason why I got discharged over there on the East Coast is because my uncle, my
dad’s sister, had married this person and he had—they were living there and upstate New
York see so I wanted to see them before I left. I stayed one whole month over there.
GK:
Good.
LK:
They called it a Shofu-den where they worked at. And it was the exact replica that they
had in the World’s Fair in Chicago.
RK:
Oh wow.
LK:
Of the Imperial Palace. And this fellow bought it and put it on twenty acres and he uses
that as a come on.
RK:
Right.
LK:
He did—they did a restaurant business and my uncle did—he was a chef there because he
was a chef in camp, see. And so that’s how I got to stay there for a whole month.
GK:
You helped him too and you worked in the restaurant?
37
LK:
KURIHARA
Yeah, then I stayed the whole month and one of the cooks says “I’ve got a room in New
York and if you want to go up there and use it. Only there is a catch to it.” He said
“You’ve got to get out of there by eight o’clock in the morning because the person come
checking to see if somebody else was in there.” The right owner, see the one that rented
it. I said “Why is that? You paid the rent, didn’t you?” He said, “Yeah, but they are
funny.” He said, “They don’t want no other people to stay there.”
RK:
Right.
LK:
But I got—I stayed in New York about a week and a half all by myself and you know it’s
not no fun when you—
RK:
Right.
LK:
I saw the whole city and get on the—
GK:
Tour?
LK:
No, I didn’t go on a tour.
GK:
Did it on your own?
LK:
Get on the—
RK:
Subway?
LK:
Subway you know and go from one and go to the other and then changed the five cents
and go the other way. I enjoyed it. I went all over. I didn’t go to the—
GK:
Statue of Liberty?
LK:
Statue of Liberty but then finally I got caught anyway and didn’t get up early enough and
they kicked me out.
RK:
Oh (laughing).
GK:
Oh, so.
38
LK:
KURIHARA
Then I left upstate New York and went to Chicago and I had a friend there that I stayed
about another two or three weeks there in Chicago.
GK:
What was your friend’s name?
LK:
I don’t know if you remember Reverend Hata?
GK:
Yes.
RK:
Yes sounds familiar I think.
LK:
The one that had the—
RK:
Oh I remember him.
LK:
The finger.
RK:
Right.
LK:
I came back with him.
RK:
Oh okay.
LK:
His dad was a reverend too in Oakland. The reason why he wanted me to come back
with him was because he was bringing back an old car and he wanted to sell it over here.
And in some of the states, you can’t tow it. You have to drive it.
RK:
Oh.
LK:
So you have to have somebody to drive it back.
GK:
Oh my gosh.
LK:
So I hitched a ride all the way across into Oakland and met that Reverend Hata then and
he wasn’t a reverend then.
RK:
Oh this is before right?
LK:
That’s when he was young yeah. He used to go to the race tracks every day. That is how
he made his living. You remember him, though.
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KURIHARA
RK:
Yeah, I knew him.
LK:
That was Hata.
GK:
He had lost his thumb?
RK:
No, he had a swelling.
LK:
No he didn’t have too many fingers. He had one thumb going.
RK:
Right.
GK:
I see.
LK:
Then from there, the person that lived, he lives in—he used to be in Sanger here, he—that
lady was over there—this lady—Arita’s sister was over there at the Hata’s house from
Sanger and so I hitched a ride from there to—
RK:
Sanger?
LK:
To Sanger.
RK:
Oh wow.
LK:
And stayed in the hotel there and you know Mizuki? Henry Mizuki he was in my
company, the same company and he took me home. All the way I think.
GK:
Oh good. Good transportation.
LK
That’s how I got home.
GK:
Never had to get on a train.
LK:
Yeah.
GK:
So when you got home, what did you find?
LK:
Well I didn’t find very much, I tell you. They were so—we tried to get a better place to
live and I used to go out and work. We had to do everything you know. I had to work. I
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KURIHARA
had to go out and pick cotton and there was no work. Boy that was hard work, pick
cotton and pick grapes. And then peaches and nectarines.
RK:
Yeah, all farm labor type.
LK:
Yeah farm labor yeah. It was rough.
GK:
So how long did this go?
LK:
Oh that happened for a couple of years and then I thought I had all this education—
schooling that I could go to and I had four years of schooling because I was in the
service.
GK:
That’s right.
LK:
So, I thought well gosh I had better. So I went to Delano and somebody said, “There is a
packing house job over there in Delano.” I went to Delano and did do packing house.
They were shipping green tomatoes and gassing them and shipping them and then I found
out that in Porterville, they needed somebody to deliver meat. And so I thought, well that
might be a good job. So I started delivering meat and that’s where I learned all the meat
cuts.
GK:
That’s right.
LK:
And so all the schooling that I had had—I could have gone. I wanted to go to
photography school. That is what I wanted to be, a photographer. And it would have
probably been kind of a rough one too. I wanted to go to Santa Barbara and when I did
get over there I was two weeks too late to get into the class so I went over there and I
came back and I went to this Chinese place and he showed me all the tricks of butchering
and everything. And that is how I got to be a meat manager.
GK:
See.
41
LK:
KURIHARA
And learned, in fact the meat manager here, Jim, at this North Gate Gong, he was about
twelve years old there and he worked with me.
RK:
Wow.
LK:
So he would talk about it all the time.
GK:
So how long did that go?
LK:
Oh I worked probably about four years. And around 1950 I came to work for Farmer’s
Supply in Reedley and I worked five years there.
GK:
With meat or farm supply?
LK:
Yeah in the meat department.
GK:
Oh I see.
LK:
Then I came to Sanger when they built this store and I was a meat manager for—
GK:
A long time?
LK:
Oh I guess about almost thirty years over here. But you know a lot of people say why
didn’t you go and work for Safeway? They wouldn’t take us.
GK:
Is that right?
LK:
They used to be prejudice, you know.
GK:
Wow.
LK:
There was racism involved there.
RK:
Wow had nothing to do with union or anything?
LK:
No, no. They wouldn’t take you.
RK:
Wow.
GK:
About what year was this?
LK:
The store wouldn’t take you so you couldn’t join the union.
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RK:
Right exactly. If they are not going to get—
LK:
So you had to work—you had to work for your own people.
GK:
What year was this about?
LK:
Huh?
GK:
What year?
RK:
It’s in the fifties?
LK:
1950’s.
GK:
1950’s?
LK:
Uh-huh.
GK:
So how did you meet your wife? I’m anxiously waiting.
LK:
Well I survived it, I sent my wife to school and she went and got her Masters.
GK:
How did you meet Marie?
LK:
Martha.
GK:
I mean Martha?
LK:
I met her at the church in Reedley.
GK:
Okay.
LK:
And then got to going together and got married
GK:
Just like that?
LK:
Yeah.
GK:
How long did you go together?
LK:
Pardon?
GK:
How long did you go together?
LK:
Oh I guess we went together a couple of years.
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GK:
A couple of years?
LK:
Because I knew her when I was still working in Porterville.
GK:
So what year did you marry if you can remember?
LK:
Nineteen—
GK:
How long have you been married?
LK:
Well yeah, I guess it was in fifty yeah.
GK:
Fifty, nineteen fifty.
LK:
No I was fifty.
GK:
Oh you were fifty?
LK:
We had wait till fifty—probably 1950 is when I got married.
GK:
I see.
LK:
Then she had two years of college already and so she—her mother would come over and
sit with the kids and she went to school.
GK:
How many kids did you have?
LK:
Four.
GK:
You had four, boys, girls?
LK:
One boy, the one you met.
GK:
Paul?
LK:
And then three girls. I have one in Taiwan right now.
GK:
What is she doing over there?
LK:
Yeah.
GK:
What is she doing there?
LK:
She is working for an American school as a secretary.
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GK:
So she’s not married?
LK:
And her husband does, he goes and puts on seminars to do business and makes good
money over there. And then my other sister—daughter she works for a bank of—the
Teacher’s Credit Union.
GK:
Oh okay.
RK:
Oh.
LK:
She works in the main office.
RK:
In Fresno?
LK:
Yeah.
RK:
Okay.
LK:
And I have one who is a pharmacist in Orange County.
GK:
Oh okay.
LK:
But they all married and they didn’t marry Japanese so that I’ve got a United Nation.
GK:
That is wonderful.
RK:
That is.
GK:
So Paul is married?
LK:
Paul is married to a Spanish lady.
GK:
Okay.
LK:
Mexican.
GK:
And how many children?
LK:
One.
GK:
One?
LK:
And Evelyn is married to a Philbrook and I don’t know what that would be German or—
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RK:
Yeah I don’t know.
LK:
He’s a mixture I think.
RK:
Yeah he’s probably a mixture.
LK:
And they have a boy and a girl. And Linda who was working in a bank is married to a
colored person. But she adopted about five of his children so there is one of hers, that’s
six.
RK:
Wow.
LK:
The one in—is a—Janice, they have two girls. And that is the family up there.
RK:
The one in Orange County?
LK:
The one in Orange County yeah.
GK:
So you have ten grandchildren?
LK:
Yeah.
GK:
Wonderful and how often do you get to see them?
LK:
Oh, they were down here.
GK:
Holidays?
LK:
Yeah just before Easter they came down and Janice came down and we had a little. She
did all the cooking. Martha don’t do it anymore.
GK:
So Marty doesn’t?
LK:
She’s got rheumatoid arthritis and she can’t do it.
GK:
Yeah it’s hard so. Very good. So what are you doing now with yourself?
LK:
Well—
GK:
What are the things you do?
LK:
You know what I’m doing.
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GK:
But I want to document it. What are some of the things?
LK:
Well I belong to quite a few organizations here.
GK:
Okay.
LK:
I belong to the Eagles.
GK:
The what?
LK:
The Eagles, Fraternal Organization. I belong to the Lion’s Club, Calwa Lion’s Club and
I belong to the VFW here the 7168. And the CCDC and JACL. I’ve been working and
trying to get my membership in. It is quite a job.
GK:
Yes it is. It is not easy. So how many new members have you gotten?
LK:
We’ve got about a hundred and forty something members.
GK:
Gee (inaudible) is it CCDC?
LK:
We got a few new ones.
GK:
So, great.
LK:
I think so. We got Perkins coming in.
RK:
So that’s keeping you busy.
GK:
Yeah, tell me about this Man of the Year Award? You got a man—
LK:
For the Eagle?
GK:
Yes, I guess—
LK:
I got the Eagle of the Year Award.
GK:
Eagle of the Year?
LK:
And then I got Hall of Fame award from the Eagles also and that’s in Bakersfield. They
pick two out of the whole state. Two dead—you know, they are gone.
RK:
Right.
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LK:
And two alive.
GK:
I see.
LK:
That is how they do it and so it was quite an honor.
RK:
Sure.
LK:
To get the Hall of Fame. And then I got the Hall of Fame from the city.
GK:
Yeah, I remember that.
LK:
Through the VFW. And that was kind of a surprise, too. Well you have to do a lot for
the community for this.
GK:
And you do.
LK:
Yeah.
GK:
Evidently. All the awards. So the final questions are—
RK:
Oh the one question did you ever have any Japanese language training? Did you go to
Nihon-gakko?
LK:
No, in those days we were so poor we couldn’t go to the Japanese school. It was just
right after 1929 and that was—we lost everything then yeah. That was rough. We
couldn’t sell the prunes or peaches.
RK:
Yeah, exactly.
LK:
It was something.
GK:
So what are some of the most important things that have happened to you? These are the
awards probably are the most exciting things that have happened?
LK:
Yeah.
GK:
Wonderful. What is a worry? Do you have any worries about the future?
LK:
Have any what?
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GK:
Worry, do you worry about anything?
LK:
No, not really.
GK:
Plan for? So what really makes you the happiest right now?
LK:
Well, working with the community I guess.
GK:
Yeah that’s good.
LK:
I’m getting to the age where I might not be able to help.
RK:
Yeah exactly.
GK:
So all your experiences, your military experience and all your jobs that you have done
and all the things that you have learned.
LK:
Yeah.
GK:
How has that affected you? What does that make you feel like? How does it make you
feel?
LK:
You mean doing things?
GK:
Having done all these things?
LK:
Oh, well I think I’ve accomplished my goal. That is how I feel. Yeah.
GK:
And the goal was?
LK:
Doing things for the community and not just for the community but in other words, for
the state also. I’ve never missed a convention for the Eagles. They always sent me so.
GK:
That is great. So how do you feel about the redress that we received and the reparations
for the internment? How do you feel about having gotten it? Do you feel good about it?
LK:
I feel good about it, yeah.
GK:
You worked for it too, didn’t you?
LK:
Well sure.
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RK:
You bet.
GK:
That was hard work. So we probably know what you do now.
LK:
Yeah.
GK:
In your community, what about politically? Are you involved anyway?
LK:
Politically?
GK:
Politically? Through JACL or through Eagles?
LK:
You mean what I am doing right now?
GK:
Uh-huh.
LK:
Well I told them that they had better find somebody else to do the things that I’ve been
doing because.
GK:
That’s right.
LK:
Because I’ve been putting on crab feeds and fish fries and making money for them.
GK:
That’s right.
LK:
But I just am getting to the point where it is getting a little rough for me.
RK:
Oh, exactly.
LK:
So they had better learn.
GK:
Understandable.
LK:
Yeah so every time I do this, I always write down what they have to do and what they are
going to have to have for the following year. I mean you either buy more things or get
out and do it or but I told the younger ones they had better do it because I might not be
here someday.
GK:
That’s right.
LK:
Yeah.
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GK:
Got to move them in then.
LK:
Yeah.
GK:
You are not going to Hawaii for the JACL Convention?
LK:
No.
GK:
I am.
LK:
You know it is getting for me to walk the distance to carry luggage and stuff is getting a
little rough.
GK:
Yeah, that’s right. It is understandable. So what do you do for fun?
LK:
I go fishing.
GK:
So you fish? Where do you go fishing?
LK:
I go up there to Pine Flat.
GK:
Pine Flat?
LK:
Shaver Lake and Hume Lake.
GK:
And how often do you get to do that?
LK:
Well lately I haven’t had a chance to do it but I’m going to.
RK:
Yeah, you’ve got to get some time.
GK:
Yeah and take your grandchildren.
LK:
Right.
GK:
They need to do that. They want to be with you.
LK:
Well sure they came down and I took them—I know some people that have private ponds
so.
GK:
Oh wow.
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LK:
KURIHARA
I couldn’t get a hold of them but I’m going to take—when they come down I’m going to
go to fish the private pond.
RK:
That will be good.
GK:
Gosh that’s cheating.
LK:
Well you know the kids if they even caught blue gills they are happy.
RK:
Happy with anything.
GK:
That’s true.
RK:
That’s good for them.
GK:
So one other question is after redress and all what kind of a role do you think that
Japanese-Americans should play today? How should we conduct ourselves?
LK:
Well, I think that politically I know there are some capable to do it and they should get
out and meet the people and be able to go ahead and get into political.
GK:
And they are—
LK:
And start in the city.
GK:
We are getting young people to do that.
LK:
You know like councilman. That’s how you start. That’s it.
GK:
That’s right. You need to keep saying that. That is good.
LK:
Yeah.
GK:
You just gave advice to the young people. Okay, so we are nearing the end of this
interview. Is there anything else that we didn’t ask you about that you really need to have
on our tape so that because you know you are going to get a copy of this tape and be able
to share it with your grandchildren?
LK:
Yeah.
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GK:
And also they really need to be part of this.
LK:
Well I think one of the things that is very important is religion. To have faith and that
and prayers you know, you really ought to. In other words if you pray and sometime or
another, it will answer.
GK:
That’s right. Good advice.
LK:
Yeah. I believe in that yeah.
GK:
Well thank you.
RK:
Thank you.
GK:
Thank you so very much for sharing your whole, wonderful, exciting life that you live.
LK:
I don’t know if it’s going to.
GK:
Oh no. And you have lots more stories to tell again so.
LK:
Yeah.
GK:
Keep it going and thank you.
LK:
Okay.
