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Masuji and Kaneko Katano

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Masuji and Kaneko Katano

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MASUJI AND KANEKO KATANO
MRS. YAKUMO: Today is April 30, 1980. I, Kazuko Yakumo, am privileged to interview Mr. and Mrs. Masuji Katano in their home at 4033 West Vassar, Visalia, California, 93277.
Where were you born?
MR. KATANO: I was born in Kanagawa prefecture, Ashigarakami district, Kaneda village, Japan. However, the place name has now been changed.
MRS. YAKUMO: When were you born?
MR. KATANO: I was born November the 20th, 1898.
MRS. YAKUMO: When did you first arrive in the United States?
MR. KATANO: In 1915, my father called me to the United States.
MRS. YAKUMO: Where did you go on your arrival here in the United States?
MR. KATANO: It was to a small place called Angiola, spelled A-n-g-i-o-l-a, where my parents were engaged in farming.
MRS. YAKUMO: How old were you then?
MR. KATANO: I was then 16 years of age.
MRS. YAKUMO: How did you arrive in the United States?
MR. KATANO: I came by boat, and I arrived in San Francisco, and from there I took a train to here, to Visalia.
MRS. YAKUMO: What did you do here in Visalia?
MR. KATANO: My father was then working in a dairy in Angiola, and I assisted him. However, there were times when we weren't particularly busy, so on those occasions I worked as a hired hand following the crops. And after some time passed I got a contract to cultivate grapes in Visalia, and I began working there.
MRS. YAKUMO: When and how did you get married?
MR. KATANO: In 1924. Just before the Oriental Exclusion Act was passed, I returned to Japan and found a suitable mate and married her, and brought her back to the United States.
MRS. YAKUMO: So when you returned after getting married, then did you return to your job contracting grapes?
MR. KATANO: No. By the time I left for Japan to get married I had already terminated my contract with, working with--contracting grapes. I was working together with my brother in contracting grapes, so when I left to get married, my brother continued on by himself. So when I returned from Japan, my father was then cultivating strawberries near Los Angeles. So I went down there and assisted him. More specifically, I arrived here in the United States back from Japan after getting married in June. And until July I assisted my father cultivating strawberries. And then, because my father said he wanted to return to Japan, we decided that for at least a short while we would come back to this area, and so we went to the area of Delano where we worked at growing grapes. We worked as migrant farmers, just picking the crops. So to be more specific, after I returned to San Francisco in June, I took a train to Visalia and my brother John Katano met me there, and I stayed in Visalia for two days and from there I went down to Los Angeles where I worked with my father working on strawberries until the end of July, and then I came back to Delano.
MRS. YOKUMO: How many brothers and sisters do you have?
MR. KATANO: I have two brothers and one sister. So there were four of us all together.
MRS. YOKUMO: Then your parents, father and mother, and your two brothers and sister, the six of you, were together then, is that not correct?
MR. KATANO: Yes, we were together for a while. But then my father returned to Japan. My younger sister was born here in the United States, so that makes her a citizen of the United States.
MRS. YAKUMO: At that time, did most of the Japanese cultivate grapes?
MR. KATANO: Yes, most of them did. But not too long after they started to grow peas in and near Ivanhoe, so all the Japanese went over there and started growing peas.
MRS. YAKUMO: And then what did you do?
MR. KATANO: When my eldest daughter was a year old, a man who was running a laundry in Visalia, a Japanese man Mr. K. Yoshida, asked me if I would work for him, and that if I would he would sell out to me after three years. So I did work for three years, and in 1929 I bought him out. And from that time, I ran a laundry.
MRS. YAKUMO: Then you ran the laundry all this time until recently, is that correct?
MR. KATANO: Yes, that is correct. My laundry was located right next door to the Japanese Buddhist temple. It was located near the temple on the corner of Santa Fe. In the furthest location was the Japanese gambling den, and then Mr. Okino's fish market, and then my laundry, and then Mr. Hashimoto's restaurant.
MRS. YAKUMO: Were most of your customers Japanese?
MR. KATANO: No. Most of my customers were Caucasian. Now that I think of it, most of the Japanese at that time were quite poor, and they couldn't afford to have their laundry done by someone else, so they did it themselves. And, therefore, most of my customers were Caucasian.
MRS. YAKUMO: When you first started out there probably were not very many laundry machines, so you probably did all the laundry by hand, did you not?
MR. KATANO: Yes, that's right. I did all the laundry by hand, and it was not until some years later--I'm not sure just when it was--I believe around 1936, that I bought my first laundry machine.
MRS. YAKUMO: Did you have any dryers in those days?
MR. KATANO: No. We didn't have any dryers at all. Dryers first came to be used after World War II. So in order to dry the clothes, I heated up my house and hung the clothes to dry. And in order to get them dry, there were some days when I did not go to sleep before 12 o'clock just in order that the clothes would be dry before I went to sleep.
MRS. KATANO: And then in 1934, my husband became ill and therefore I had to take over the work. And particularly since there was no longer anyone who could deliver the laundry, our customers began to come to our laundry to pick up and deliver their own laundry. My husband was ill in the hospital in Fresno, and I would go to see him from time to time which took even more time, which made it even more difficult to continue our business.
MRS. YAKUMO: What was the nature of your husband's illness?
MRS. KATANO: He had appendicitis. At first we tried to cool it with ice packs and things like that. But the appendix ruptured and this forced him to be hospitalized.
MRS. YAKUMO: When did you first return to Japan?
MRS. KATANO: It was in 1936. We took three months vacation while our children were on summer vacation and went back to Japan.
MRS. YAKUMO: How many children do you have?
MRS. KATANO: We had two children. Our eldest daughter's name is Miyoko, and she is presently 55 years of age. And our son's name is Sam. He is 53 years of age.
MRS. YAKUMO: The first generation Japanese had to work such long hours. It was very difficult for them to care for children, was it not? Did you have problems along that line?
MRS. KATANO: No. Actually since we operated a laundry, and we worked at our own pace at our own jobs, we brought our children with us, and so they were always underfoot--not underfoot--but they were always within sight of us, and, therefore, we were very fortunate in being able to literally raise them while being with them all the time. In that sense we were much more fortunate than other people, because the others would follow the crops as the season went along, and they went from camp to camp bringing their children with them. And, therefore, the children lived a very unsettled life. In that sense, we were very fortunate in being able to stay in one place with our children and still always be able to care for them whenever they needed us.
MRS. YAKUMO: Did you experience any discrimination as a result of being Japanese?
MRS. KATANO: I don't believe so, particularly before the war, before World War II. I didn't experience anything that I can recall. Although I probably was, but there's nothing specific that I can recall. However, I believe we did experience some discrimination after the war. For example, our children--regarding school and also getting employment--found it quite difficult. More specifically, our eldest daughter, when she was seeking a job, would go to the employment office, but it would be very difficult for them to find anything for her or for them to help her in any way in finding a position. But when they did and she would go to interview for a job, she would often as not, not be accepted. So it got to where even though she had an interview for a position, she would go feeling that she would not be accepted anyway. And, therefore, she became very reluctant to even go out on interviews. And, finally, it got to where our eldest daughter said she didn't even want to go out on an interview, but the last time the employment office said, "Well, rather than sending youout on an interview, we'd like to have you work in our office," and so she finally found a position.
And then in the case of our son Sam, he wanted to become a doctor, and he took the entrance exams. But no matter how long he waited he just did not get notice of his acceptance. His Caucasian friends, who took the exam at the same time, would receive their acceptances, and they would go to schools either in San Francisco or Los Angeles, but our son Sam just was not accepted. And our son's friends, his Caucasian friends, were all being accepted at various medical schools, but he alone was not accepted. He had a scholarship from the government, but the term was going to expire rather soon, so he just felt he had to be enrolled someplace otherwise he would not get this scholarship. And, yet, he could not be accepted at the medical school to become a M.D., and finally he decided he would go chiropractic school. So my son decided to go to chiropractic school. The school did not have any summer vacation or anything like that, so he would be able to finish his training in three years. However, after he returned, I asked him what he could do, and he could not give injections or drugs of any kind, and so I asked him what kind of patients he could expect to have as a chiropractor. All he could do is just manipulate spines. So I asked him what kind of patients he could expect, and he wasn't particularly satisfied with what he would do. But then he heard that he could get into osteopathic school, so he went there for two more years and he graduated as an osteopathic physician. So he went to school for a total of 5 1/2 years. But now that it's over my son is quite satisfied with the position that he has. But, at any rate, it was in these kinds of areas such as my daughter trying to find work add my son getting into school that we sensed discrimination after the war.
MRS. YAKUMO: Were you sent to relocation camp during the war?
MRS. KATANO: Yes. We were sent to camp in Poston, Arizona.
MRS. YAKUMO: When did you leave relocation camp?
MRS. KATANO: Our children were both in the East; one in Chicago and the other in Ohio. So during the war, we planned to live with them. But while we were in the process of thinking about it, the camp in Poston was going to be closed and we were now able to return to Visalia. But before we did so, we saw a notice for a job in Nevada, so we went there for a while to earn some money, and then we returned to Visalia.
MRS. YAKUMO: What were your childing doing in the East?
MRS. KATANO: Our daughter Miyoko was working in Chicago, and our son Sam was going to school in Ohio. We left camp in May of 1945 and in August of the next year, 1946, we returned here to Visalia.
MRS. YAKUMO: Was your laundry in good shape when you returned?
MRS. KATANO: When we were sent to camp, we asked the man who sold it to us if he could recommend a buyer to us. But he said that we shouldn't worry, that he would find someone who would care for it while we were in camp and until we returned.
MRS. YAKUMO: It must have been very difficult for you to return, was it not?
MRS. KATANO: Yes. Particularly those people who did not own a house or any land in Visalia found it very difficult to return. While we were away, the Chinese bought up all the land where we used to live. However, the person who sold us the laundry--we were very fortunate--took very good care of it for us. And, therefore, we really did not have any major problems when we returned.
MRS. YAKUMO: Does that mean that you were the only Japanese who returned to that area?
MRS. KATANO: Yes, that's correct. We were the only Japanese. However, the laundry that we had, just rented, and therefore, when we opened our laundry, it had to be in a different location. Our house was also in an area different from where it was before the war. The Japanese who returned to Visalia were those who owned land here, but all of them owned land outside the city. Therefore, although our children were not in Nevada (they were in the East), we saw an advertisement for a person to help in a laundry in Nevada, and, therefore, we went there to earn some money before we returned to Visalia. So when we returned to Visalia, we fixed up the garage of our home into a laundry and with our daughter's husband (his name is Noboru), we jointly restarted our laundry. However, our son-in-law and also our daughter were not particularly desirous of continuing to work in the laundry, so after a while, they found a position in San Diego and moved there. So several years after we jointly restarted our laundry, my husband and I found ourselves again the sole proprietors of the laundry. So when Noboru left us, we had to hire someone to take over the job that he did, and we continued in that way. And then because of the expense of hiring people to work for us, we gradually cut down on the volume of our work, and finally delivery became such a large problem that we sold all of our large laundry equipment, and we continued to decrease the size of our business until, finally, after a while, my husband began to take odd jobs from time to time, helping our son and other people with odd jobs. And we gradually kept decreasing the volume of our work in the laundry until finally we closed up shop altogether 10 years ago. And then our next-door neighbor, a Japanese person, decided she would move. And with her gone, we decided it would be far too lonesome for us, so that was why we moved to our present house.
MRS. YAKUMO: You frequently work at a car wash, don't you? Who is the owner of this car wash?
MR. KATANO: That car wash belongs to our son Sam, and I just go there from time to time for exercise so that I won't get stale. MRS. YAKUMO: Finally, is there something that you recall which you would like to preserve for posterity? Is there anything that you remember that gave you particular pleasure?
MR. KATANO: Well, we work within the city of Visalia and, therefore, we were rather different from the other Japanese who had farms and who were always working. And because we had our laundry we could schedule our work and always have our weekends free. At that time, there were not very many Japanese who had automobiles, so during the weekends we used our delivery truck to haul kids all over to see the sights, to visit, and to go out on picnics and things like that. And since everybody knew that we had a delivery truck which wasn't being used on weekends, everyone came to our house sort of expecting us to drive them to various places, and we were very fortunate in being able to make so many children happy. And became not very many Japanese had automobiles, whenever it would rain or become difficult to get around, people would come to our house, and we would use our delivery truck. Actually, it was a van, to bring children to school and to other places that people might want to go.
MRS. YAKUMO: This is something that I heard from the Hatakedas the other day, but I understand that during that time whenever someone would get the idea--suggest that they go out to the countryside to see the flowers, that everybody would put everything into a pickup truck and bring cooking utensils and even the bathtub to where the flowers were most luxurious and cook food, make sushi and take a bath in natural surroundings. And this was a great part of our social life. This was about the only way in which they could get any pleasure during that time, isn't that correct?
MR. KATANO: Well, we didn't do that sort of thing too much. However, we were requested by children to bring them to various places very frequently.
MRS. YAKUMO: Then the Japanese children played among themselves a great deal, did they not?
MR. KATANO: Yes, that's true. When you look at photographs taken during that time, you'll see all the Japanese children together. Here is something that I recall. It was when our son Sam was three years old. All the children in the neighborhood were going to school then, but, of course, he was only three years old so he was not old enough to go to school. But still the other children urged him to go with them. But since the other children urged him to, our son Sam also went to school although we did not know about this. We were busy so we thought he had gone to someone's house to play, and we didn't think anything more about it until noon, at which time we would drive to the school and bring the children back for lunch. So we got into our van, went to the school, picked the children up, and among the children that we normally picked up was another very small youngster. And when we looked more carefully, it was our son Sam. Our son Sam had just followed the other kids to school and into the classes and apparently during recess the children were given milk to drink, and they were supposed to sit for drinking, but since Sam was so small he could not sit on the stool so he drank while standing. But, apparently, he was told by the teacher to sit down and drink. And when the classes started, he would follow first one Japanese child to his class, and when that class was over he would follow another Japanese to this other person's class. And he just sat beside the children while they studied.
MRS. YAKUMO: The school was very informal, apparently, in those days, was it not?
MR. KATANO: Yes, I guess it was.
MRS. YAKUMO: What did you do for entertainment?
MR. KATANO: Well, there wasn't too much. Although at that time we received quite a few motion pictures from Japan. At that time, there weren't very many talking movies, but there was a thing known as katsuben, which was a silent movie that was shown and there was a man who would recite the parts. He would narrate some of the action, and he would also recitenthe parts of each character. Sometimes there would be a woman, sometimes there would be a man, sometimes a child. There were quite a few times the men who would speak the parts of the characters in the movie would bring movies to Visalia.
MRS. YAKUMO: Was there a Japanese language school?
MR. KATANO: Yes, there was. A man named Saikichi Shirozawa started the school in 1922. At that time, Mr. Shirozawa was the head of the Japanese society. He made his living by teaching the Japanese language. The school was located on the corner of Center and Tipton Streets. In 1927 a school was started in Ivanhoe. During that time the country children attended classes on Saturday while the town children went to classes on Sunday. Mr. Masao Otani bused the country children in a Dodge automobile for a year, but was later replaced by the instructor. In 1929 the Japanese school purchased a new Chevrolet which was driven by Bill Hibama and later by Sam Yukawa. Reverend Tominaga replaced Mr. Shirozawa as principal of the Japanese School. About that time a new school
was built on the Uota farm. Part teachers include Reverend Itahara, Reverend Kawasaki, and Reverend Nagatani of the Visalia Buddhist Temple. But as time went by, the students became rather tired of just studying Japanese so I and Mr. Katano suggested to Mr. Shirozawa that he teach something about the Japanese spirit to the students. And so he said, well, maybe I should ask the minister of the Visalia Buddhist Temple. The first minister was a man named Reverend Tominaga. On my suggestion, Reverend Tominaga was asked to teach something about the Japanese spirit to the students. Until Reverend Tominaga was assigned to our Visalia Buddhist Temple, whenever we would have some sort of service or some occasion, we would send for a minister from Fresno to officiate at our service.
MRS. YAKUMO: Were there many Japanese here?
MRS. KATANO: Yes, there were quite a few Japanese. However, since most of them were migrant farmers--we call them season workers--their faces were always different. There were always different people around here. So when summer came around and it was time to pick crops, there were a great number of Japanese in Visalia. There were almost as many Japanese in Visalia as there were in Fresno. And these people all gathered in Visalia and then went around to the various labor camps. There were many labor camps around Visalia. There were many ranches such as the Kishu Ranch. There were quite a few labor camps in Lemon Cove, Exeter, Farmersville, Lindsay, and also in and around Visalia. So many Japanese gathered in Visalia, and from here they went to the various labor camps. And it was these Japanese who, since they were not permanent residents, did not return to Visalia.
MRS. YAKUMO: After the war, did you experience any sort of discrimination?
MRS. KATANO: Not particularly. At least not other than those things that we mentioned about our children. Actually, when we returned from camp, we were rather afraid of what the Caucasians in this area would think, and, therefore, we did not start our business immediately. However, when our former customers learned that we had returned, they came to us and urged us to restart our laundry. So we decided to do so. The only people who returned as a result of their former ties to the area before the war, were Reverend Kawasaki of the Buddhist Temple, Mr. Sumida, and our family. There were Caucasians who became more open in their distaste of Japanese because of the war between Japan and the United States, but there were also a great number who were not affected by it. And for this reason, we decided to restart our business.
MRS. YAKUMO: Finally, is there anything that you feel you would like to record and leave for posterity?
MRS. KATANO: Not particularly. We have just lived a very ordinary life as proprietors of a laundry.
MRS. YAKUMO: However, the fact that you married in Japan and Mrs. Katano coming to the United States required a great deal of bravery, did it not?
MRS. KATANO: Yes, it did require a great deal of guts.
MRS. YAKUMO: Did you have any problems?
MRS. KATANO: No, not particularly. Everything went quite smoothly.
MRS. YAKUMO: Is there anything that you recall that was particularly funny or pleasant?
MRS. KATANO: Well, there was a period when we first came when men carried pistols around the Japanese section of town. So it was rather interesting period, an interesting time. When we first arrived in Visalia there was no Japanese gambling den, so many of the young Japanese man, laborers, after working in the fields and collecting their salary, would make their way to the Chinese gambling den and quite frequently they would lose all the money that they had earned. I'm not saying that they were cheated or anything like that, but you can't help but feel that that was the case. And there were many gangster-like Japanese, particularly those who thought that they were leaders among these laborers, who were half gangsters, who would walk into a Chinese gambling den with the pistols and try to scare the Chinese gamblers into giving the Japanese a fair shake.
MRS. YAKUMO: The Japanese seem to have lost an awful lot of money in those gambling dens, is that correct?
MRS. KATANO: Yes. It was almost as if the young Japanese laborers gave all of their money to the Chinese. MRS. YAKUMO: Then when was the Japanese gambling den, the Tokyo Club, established?
MRS. KATANO: That was very much later. The man who started the Japanese gambling den--the gangster, I believe his name was Komai--and although he was a gambler and he was quite rough, he was quite respectable among the Japanese. And he never did anything that would harm them. And in many ways he was quite helpful to the Japanese. Mr. Komai would frequently go to Arizona in a truck and there he would pick up illegal Japanese who had smuggled in from Mexico, and he would put them in a secret compartment and cover it up with melons and drive them back. And, of course, he would collect a certain amount of money from each person that he would haul. And Mr. Komai would tell the people that he was smuggling in, that when they would get to a certain mountain pass, it would be the place that is most dangerous, that they should watch him very carefully because he would be smoking a cigarette. And if he ever threw the cigarette out the window that they should escape as quickly as they could. And once they were stopped by two immigration officers, and so Mr. Komai told them that all he had in his truck were some cantaloupes, and so the immigrant officer said, "Well, if that's all you have, why don't you drive us to Los Angeles." And that's what happened. But the people who were smuggled in beneath the cantaloupes were wondering when they would get to this dangerous curve and finally they got to it and when they saw Mr. Komai throw out his cigarette, all these 20 men escaped, quite unknown to the immigration officers. Once Mr. Komai realized that the men in the back had escaped, he drove a little bit further and then he drove the truck into a ditch—overturned the truck into a ditch--and he jumped out the cab. But the immigration officers were killed as a result. The people who were smuggled in were saved as was Mr. Komai. However, Mr. Komai finally was captured later, and he never returned to Visalia. However, Mr. Komia did visit Visalia once. He was a very small man, but quite strong. So strong that even with his small size he was able to lift up one end of a one- ton truck.
MRS. YAKUMO: What happened to the people who sneaked into the United States?
MRS. KATANO: Those who sneaked in successfully make their way to Los Angeles where they were helped by people who were from the same province in Japan as they were. The people who helped them gathered as many passports as they could. I understand that they bought the passports of people who died. But once they made their way into the country and started working on the farm, they were safe because there apparently was no way of discovering whether they had been smuggled in illegally or not. There were times when the illegal aliens were asked for their passport, and they would just give the name of whatever passport they had either purchased or gotten their hands on as a result of their friends from the same province. But there were many times in which the name of the person and the name on the passport were different.
MRS. YAKUMO: What happened when an illegal Japanese alien was found or captured?
MRS. KATANO: He was deported back to Japan. When the Japanese were placed into relocation camps, then all those people who had entered illegally were discovered, and these people were deported. However, there were other Japanese who, even though they entered the United States legally, wanted to return to Japan, and therefore they said that they had entered illegally, and they were deported.
However, if a person was an illegal alien and the immigration officers came to pick them up, the only way that it could be determined whether he was an illegal alien would be if a person spied on him and told the authorities. Because of the problems that would occur both to the person and also to the person who gave out this information, most illegal aliens gave themselves up to the immigration authorities, and there were relatively few illegal aliens who were captured through the effort of the immigration authorities.
Generally, I would say, that those Japanese who came to the United States before the war, came with the feeling that once they had succeeded here in the United States and made a great deal of money then they would return to Japan, because of this reason they did not come with the idea of living their entire life in the United States.
World War II was really a turning point for most of the Japanese in the United States. They had to decide one way or the other whether they would return to Japan or whether they would spend the rest of their life in the United States. However, because we lived a backward life just running a laundry here in Visalia and didn't keep up with the news very much, we didn't think too strongly about whether we should return to Japan or to continue living in the United States.
However, a neighbor of ours Mr. Aoki, who ran a store, was quite up on the news and even before the war started he realized that a war would break out between the United States and Japan. And for that reason, without even selling his store, he returned to Japan. And because Mr. Aoki did not sell his store and all the goods that he had on sale there, he lost a great deal of money. He returned later and tried to recoup his losses, but he had already lost everything. So Mr. Aoki even took his younger sister's daughter back to Japan. However, we did not have the means of returning to Japan ourselves. We did return to Japan several years before the war, and when we returned our parents and relatives urged us to leave our children in Japan to educate them there. We could not leave our children, so we returned to the United States with them.
MRS. YAKUMO: It really was better that you did not leave them in Japan, wasn't it?
MRS. KATANO: Yes, it certainly was. But now that I think back at that time, at my relatives who urged us to leave our children in Japan, it makes me wonder if they did not know that war was going to break out between the United States and Japan. And now that I think about it more, separating yourself from the children is extremely difficult, and I'm very glad that we did not do that. We know quite a few Issei people who did leave their children behind in Japan to be educated, but it's very difficult to be separated from your children. It seems that our neighbors here in Visalia felt that we would leave our children in Japan to be educated in the Japanese ways when we left for Japan.
MRS. YAKUMO: What organizations do you belong to?
MR. KATANO: We belong to the Buddhist Temple and also to the Japanese-American Citizen's League. However, when I was 23 years of age, there was an organization called the Tulare County Young People's Organization. This was organized when I was 23 years old in 1921. I have photographs that were taken when this organization was first created. At that time there was not a Japanese young people's organization even in Fresno. It was only because there were so many young Japanese here in Visalia that such an organization could be formed. We had about 20 or 30 members. However, because most of our members were migratory, our membership changed quite frequently. Later a group from Dinuba challenged us saying, "If you call it Tulare County Young People's Organization, it should include Dinuba also," so we changed our name to the Visalia Young People's Association. And later, as I became older, and also with the coming of Reverend Tominaga, who established the Visalia Buddhist Temple, I came up with the suggestion that since we were getting older that we should think more of spiritual matters, so rather than the Visalia Young People's Association, we affiliated ourselves more formally with the Visalia Buddhist Temple and called ourselves the Visalia Young Buddhist Association, and this became the forerunner of what is now the Visalia Buddhist Temple. A major part of our activities was sports, and the particular sport that was quite popular in those days was that of sumo, Japanese wrestling.
In all modesty, I was quite good. And, as a matter of fact, I went as far as Sacramento to engage in a sumo tournament there. We also performed Japanese plays as part of our Young Buddhist Association. When we were young, a drama group from Japan called Seiyukai under the leadership of a man named Yoshio Aoki toured the Japanese communities all over the United States. And when he left, a member of his group called Yamazaki Hinosuki (who played female parts) remained behind in the United States. He taught us about performing in plays, and because we were so good--our play acting was so good--we toured various areas such as Lindsay with our plays.
MRS. YAKUMO: What sort of plays did you perform?
MR. KATANO: I've forgotten the names of the plays, but they were modern plays. They were not the old, or traditional plays. They were modern ones. We were very highly and enthusiastically received by everybody who saw our acting. I still have photographs taken during that time. However, almost everyone in these photographs has already passed on. This photograph was taken before I married.
MRS. YAKUMO: These are the kinds of things that you did for pleasure, weren't they?
MR. KATANO: Yes.
MRS. YAKUMO: Thank you, Mr. and Mrs. Katano, for this interview.

Description

Local ID	FCPL Katano, Masuji and Kaneko
Project ID	csufr_stp_0028
Title	Masuji and Kaneko Katano
Creator	Katano, Masuji: interviewee, Katano, Kaneko: interviewee
Date Created	1980-04-30
Location	Visalia, California
Facility	Incarceration Camps--Poston
Subjects	Reflections on the past, Immigration and citizenship, Industry and employment--Agriculture, Identity and values--Issei, Identity and values--Nisei, Identity and values--Japanese American identity, Race and racism--Discrimination, Alien land laws, World War II--Mass Removal (""Evacuation""), Religion and churches--Buddhism, Japanese American farmers--California, Industry and employment--Small Business--Laundromats,
Type	Text
Genre	Oral histories
Language	eng
Source Description	14 pages, 21.5cm x 28cm
Collection	Success Through Perseverance
Collection Description	A Japanese American oral history project undertaken in 1979-1980, funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities and archived at the Fresno County Public Library
Project Name	California State University Japanese American Digitization Project
Rights	Copyright has not been transferred to California State University, Fresno.
Transcript	MASUJI AND KANEKO KATANO MRS. YAKUMO: Today is April 30, 1980. I, Kazuko Yakumo, am privileged to interview Mr. and Mrs. Masuji Katano in their home at 4033 West Vassar, Visalia, California, 93277. Where were you born? MR. KATANO: I was born in Kanagawa prefecture, Ashigarakami district, Kaneda village, Japan. However, the place name has now been changed. MRS. YAKUMO: When were you born? MR. KATANO: I was born November the 20th, 1898. MRS. YAKUMO: When did you first arrive in the United States? MR. KATANO: In 1915, my father called me to the United States. MRS. YAKUMO: Where did you go on your arrival here in the United States? MR. KATANO: It was to a small place called Angiola, spelled A-n-g-i-o-l-a, where my parents were engaged in farming. MRS. YAKUMO: How old were you then? MR. KATANO: I was then 16 years of age. MRS. YAKUMO: How did you arrive in the United States? MR. KATANO: I came by boat, and I arrived in San Francisco, and from there I took a train to here, to Visalia. MRS. YAKUMO: What did you do here in Visalia? MR. KATANO: My father was then working in a dairy in Angiola, and I assisted him. However, there were times when we weren't particularly busy, so on those occasions I worked as a hired hand following the crops. And after some time passed I got a contract to cultivate grapes in Visalia, and I began working there. MRS. YAKUMO: When and how did you get married? MR. KATANO: In 1924. Just before the Oriental Exclusion Act was passed, I returned to Japan and found a suitable mate and married her, and brought her back to the United States. MRS. YAKUMO: So when you returned after getting married, then did you return to your job contracting grapes? MR. KATANO: No. By the time I left for Japan to get married I had already terminated my contract with, working with--contracting grapes. I was working together with my brother in contracting grapes, so when I left to get married, my brother continued on by himself. So when I returned from Japan, my father was then cultivating strawberries near Los Angeles. So I went down there and assisted him. More specifically, I arrived here in the United States back from Japan after getting married in June. And until July I assisted my father cultivating strawberries. And then, because my father said he wanted to return to Japan, we decided that for at least a short while we would come back to this area, and so we went to the area of Delano where we worked at growing grapes. We worked as migrant farmers, just picking the crops. So to be more specific, after I returned to San Francisco in June, I took a train to Visalia and my brother John Katano met me there, and I stayed in Visalia for two days and from there I went down to Los Angeles where I worked with my father working on strawberries until the end of July, and then I came back to Delano. MRS. YOKUMO: How many brothers and sisters do you have? MR. KATANO: I have two brothers and one sister. So there were four of us all together. MRS. YOKUMO: Then your parents, father and mother, and your two brothers and sister, the six of you, were together then, is that not correct? MR. KATANO: Yes, we were together for a while. But then my father returned to Japan. My younger sister was born here in the United States, so that makes her a citizen of the United States. MRS. YAKUMO: At that time, did most of the Japanese cultivate grapes? MR. KATANO: Yes, most of them did. But not too long after they started to grow peas in and near Ivanhoe, so all the Japanese went over there and started growing peas. MRS. YAKUMO: And then what did you do? MR. KATANO: When my eldest daughter was a year old, a man who was running a laundry in Visalia, a Japanese man Mr. K. Yoshida, asked me if I would work for him, and that if I would he would sell out to me after three years. So I did work for three years, and in 1929 I bought him out. And from that time, I ran a laundry. MRS. YAKUMO: Then you ran the laundry all this time until recently, is that correct? MR. KATANO: Yes, that is correct. My laundry was located right next door to the Japanese Buddhist temple. It was located near the temple on the corner of Santa Fe. In the furthest location was the Japanese gambling den, and then Mr. Okino's fish market, and then my laundry, and then Mr. Hashimoto's restaurant. MRS. YAKUMO: Were most of your customers Japanese? MR. KATANO: No. Most of my customers were Caucasian. Now that I think of it, most of the Japanese at that time were quite poor, and they couldn't afford to have their laundry done by someone else, so they did it themselves. And, therefore, most of my customers were Caucasian. MRS. YAKUMO: When you first started out there probably were not very many laundry machines, so you probably did all the laundry by hand, did you not? MR. KATANO: Yes, that's right. I did all the laundry by hand, and it was not until some years later--I'm not sure just when it was--I believe around 1936, that I bought my first laundry machine. MRS. YAKUMO: Did you have any dryers in those days? MR. KATANO: No. We didn't have any dryers at all. Dryers first came to be used after World War II. So in order to dry the clothes, I heated up my house and hung the clothes to dry. And in order to get them dry, there were some days when I did not go to sleep before 12 o'clock just in order that the clothes would be dry before I went to sleep. MRS. KATANO: And then in 1934, my husband became ill and therefore I had to take over the work. And particularly since there was no longer anyone who could deliver the laundry, our customers began to come to our laundry to pick up and deliver their own laundry. My husband was ill in the hospital in Fresno, and I would go to see him from time to time which took even more time, which made it even more difficult to continue our business. MRS. YAKUMO: What was the nature of your husband's illness? MRS. KATANO: He had appendicitis. At first we tried to cool it with ice packs and things like that. But the appendix ruptured and this forced him to be hospitalized. MRS. YAKUMO: When did you first return to Japan? MRS. KATANO: It was in 1936. We took three months vacation while our children were on summer vacation and went back to Japan. MRS. YAKUMO: How many children do you have? MRS. KATANO: We had two children. Our eldest daughter's name is Miyoko, and she is presently 55 years of age. And our son's name is Sam. He is 53 years of age. MRS. YAKUMO: The first generation Japanese had to work such long hours. It was very difficult for them to care for children, was it not? Did you have problems along that line? MRS. KATANO: No. Actually since we operated a laundry, and we worked at our own pace at our own jobs, we brought our children with us, and so they were always underfoot--not underfoot--but they were always within sight of us, and, therefore, we were very fortunate in being able to literally raise them while being with them all the time. In that sense we were much more fortunate than other people, because the others would follow the crops as the season went along, and they went from camp to camp bringing their children with them. And, therefore, the children lived a very unsettled life. In that sense, we were very fortunate in being able to stay in one place with our children and still always be able to care for them whenever they needed us. MRS. YAKUMO: Did you experience any discrimination as a result of being Japanese? MRS. KATANO: I don't believe so, particularly before the war, before World War II. I didn't experience anything that I can recall. Although I probably was, but there's nothing specific that I can recall. However, I believe we did experience some discrimination after the war. For example, our children--regarding school and also getting employment--found it quite difficult. More specifically, our eldest daughter, when she was seeking a job, would go to the employment office, but it would be very difficult for them to find anything for her or for them to help her in any way in finding a position. But when they did and she would go to interview for a job, she would often as not, not be accepted. So it got to where even though she had an interview for a position, she would go feeling that she would not be accepted anyway. And, therefore, she became very reluctant to even go out on interviews. And, finally, it got to where our eldest daughter said she didn't even want to go out on an interview, but the last time the employment office said, "Well, rather than sending youout on an interview, we'd like to have you work in our office," and so she finally found a position. And then in the case of our son Sam, he wanted to become a doctor, and he took the entrance exams. But no matter how long he waited he just did not get notice of his acceptance. His Caucasian friends, who took the exam at the same time, would receive their acceptances, and they would go to schools either in San Francisco or Los Angeles, but our son Sam just was not accepted. And our son's friends, his Caucasian friends, were all being accepted at various medical schools, but he alone was not accepted. He had a scholarship from the government, but the term was going to expire rather soon, so he just felt he had to be enrolled someplace otherwise he would not get this scholarship. And, yet, he could not be accepted at the medical school to become a M.D., and finally he decided he would go chiropractic school. So my son decided to go to chiropractic school. The school did not have any summer vacation or anything like that, so he would be able to finish his training in three years. However, after he returned, I asked him what he could do, and he could not give injections or drugs of any kind, and so I asked him what kind of patients he could expect to have as a chiropractor. All he could do is just manipulate spines. So I asked him what kind of patients he could expect, and he wasn't particularly satisfied with what he would do. But then he heard that he could get into osteopathic school, so he went there for two more years and he graduated as an osteopathic physician. So he went to school for a total of 5 1/2 years. But now that it's over my son is quite satisfied with the position that he has. But, at any rate, it was in these kinds of areas such as my daughter trying to find work add my son getting into school that we sensed discrimination after the war. MRS. YAKUMO: Were you sent to relocation camp during the war? MRS. KATANO: Yes. We were sent to camp in Poston, Arizona. MRS. YAKUMO: When did you leave relocation camp? MRS. KATANO: Our children were both in the East; one in Chicago and the other in Ohio. So during the war, we planned to live with them. But while we were in the process of thinking about it, the camp in Poston was going to be closed and we were now able to return to Visalia. But before we did so, we saw a notice for a job in Nevada, so we went there for a while to earn some money, and then we returned to Visalia. MRS. YAKUMO: What were your childing doing in the East? MRS. KATANO: Our daughter Miyoko was working in Chicago, and our son Sam was going to school in Ohio. We left camp in May of 1945 and in August of the next year, 1946, we returned here to Visalia. MRS. YAKUMO: Was your laundry in good shape when you returned? MRS. KATANO: When we were sent to camp, we asked the man who sold it to us if he could recommend a buyer to us. But he said that we shouldn't worry, that he would find someone who would care for it while we were in camp and until we returned. MRS. YAKUMO: It must have been very difficult for you to return, was it not? MRS. KATANO: Yes. Particularly those people who did not own a house or any land in Visalia found it very difficult to return. While we were away, the Chinese bought up all the land where we used to live. However, the person who sold us the laundry--we were very fortunate--took very good care of it for us. And, therefore, we really did not have any major problems when we returned. MRS. YAKUMO: Does that mean that you were the only Japanese who returned to that area? MRS. KATANO: Yes, that's correct. We were the only Japanese. However, the laundry that we had, just rented, and therefore, when we opened our laundry, it had to be in a different location. Our house was also in an area different from where it was before the war. The Japanese who returned to Visalia were those who owned land here, but all of them owned land outside the city. Therefore, although our children were not in Nevada (they were in the East), we saw an advertisement for a person to help in a laundry in Nevada, and, therefore, we went there to earn some money before we returned to Visalia. So when we returned to Visalia, we fixed up the garage of our home into a laundry and with our daughter's husband (his name is Noboru), we jointly restarted our laundry. However, our son-in-law and also our daughter were not particularly desirous of continuing to work in the laundry, so after a while, they found a position in San Diego and moved there. So several years after we jointly restarted our laundry, my husband and I found ourselves again the sole proprietors of the laundry. So when Noboru left us, we had to hire someone to take over the job that he did, and we continued in that way. And then because of the expense of hiring people to work for us, we gradually cut down on the volume of our work, and finally delivery became such a large problem that we sold all of our large laundry equipment, and we continued to decrease the size of our business until, finally, after a while, my husband began to take odd jobs from time to time, helping our son and other people with odd jobs. And we gradually kept decreasing the volume of our work in the laundry until finally we closed up shop altogether 10 years ago. And then our next-door neighbor, a Japanese person, decided she would move. And with her gone, we decided it would be far too lonesome for us, so that was why we moved to our present house. MRS. YAKUMO: You frequently work at a car wash, don't you? Who is the owner of this car wash? MR. KATANO: That car wash belongs to our son Sam, and I just go there from time to time for exercise so that I won't get stale. MRS. YAKUMO: Finally, is there something that you recall which you would like to preserve for posterity? Is there anything that you remember that gave you particular pleasure? MR. KATANO: Well, we work within the city of Visalia and, therefore, we were rather different from the other Japanese who had farms and who were always working. And because we had our laundry we could schedule our work and always have our weekends free. At that time, there were not very many Japanese who had automobiles, so during the weekends we used our delivery truck to haul kids all over to see the sights, to visit, and to go out on picnics and things like that. And since everybody knew that we had a delivery truck which wasn't being used on weekends, everyone came to our house sort of expecting us to drive them to various places, and we were very fortunate in being able to make so many children happy. And became not very many Japanese had automobiles, whenever it would rain or become difficult to get around, people would come to our house, and we would use our delivery truck. Actually, it was a van, to bring children to school and to other places that people might want to go. MRS. YAKUMO: This is something that I heard from the Hatakedas the other day, but I understand that during that time whenever someone would get the idea--suggest that they go out to the countryside to see the flowers, that everybody would put everything into a pickup truck and bring cooking utensils and even the bathtub to where the flowers were most luxurious and cook food, make sushi and take a bath in natural surroundings. And this was a great part of our social life. This was about the only way in which they could get any pleasure during that time, isn't that correct? MR. KATANO: Well, we didn't do that sort of thing too much. However, we were requested by children to bring them to various places very frequently. MRS. YAKUMO: Then the Japanese children played among themselves a great deal, did they not? MR. KATANO: Yes, that's true. When you look at photographs taken during that time, you'll see all the Japanese children together. Here is something that I recall. It was when our son Sam was three years old. All the children in the neighborhood were going to school then, but, of course, he was only three years old so he was not old enough to go to school. But still the other children urged him to go with them. But since the other children urged him to, our son Sam also went to school although we did not know about this. We were busy so we thought he had gone to someone's house to play, and we didn't think anything more about it until noon, at which time we would drive to the school and bring the children back for lunch. So we got into our van, went to the school, picked the children up, and among the children that we normally picked up was another very small youngster. And when we looked more carefully, it was our son Sam. Our son Sam had just followed the other kids to school and into the classes and apparently during recess the children were given milk to drink, and they were supposed to sit for drinking, but since Sam was so small he could not sit on the stool so he drank while standing. But, apparently, he was told by the teacher to sit down and drink. And when the classes started, he would follow first one Japanese child to his class, and when that class was over he would follow another Japanese to this other person's class. And he just sat beside the children while they studied. MRS. YAKUMO: The school was very informal, apparently, in those days, was it not? MR. KATANO: Yes, I guess it was. MRS. YAKUMO: What did you do for entertainment? MR. KATANO: Well, there wasn't too much. Although at that time we received quite a few motion pictures from Japan. At that time, there weren't very many talking movies, but there was a thing known as katsuben, which was a silent movie that was shown and there was a man who would recite the parts. He would narrate some of the action, and he would also recitenthe parts of each character. Sometimes there would be a woman, sometimes there would be a man, sometimes a child. There were quite a few times the men who would speak the parts of the characters in the movie would bring movies to Visalia. MRS. YAKUMO: Was there a Japanese language school? MR. KATANO: Yes, there was. A man named Saikichi Shirozawa started the school in 1922. At that time, Mr. Shirozawa was the head of the Japanese society. He made his living by teaching the Japanese language. The school was located on the corner of Center and Tipton Streets. In 1927 a school was started in Ivanhoe. During that time the country children attended classes on Saturday while the town children went to classes on Sunday. Mr. Masao Otani bused the country children in a Dodge automobile for a year, but was later replaced by the instructor. In 1929 the Japanese school purchased a new Chevrolet which was driven by Bill Hibama and later by Sam Yukawa. Reverend Tominaga replaced Mr. Shirozawa as principal of the Japanese School. About that time a new school was built on the Uota farm. Part teachers include Reverend Itahara, Reverend Kawasaki, and Reverend Nagatani of the Visalia Buddhist Temple. But as time went by, the students became rather tired of just studying Japanese so I and Mr. Katano suggested to Mr. Shirozawa that he teach something about the Japanese spirit to the students. And so he said, well, maybe I should ask the minister of the Visalia Buddhist Temple. The first minister was a man named Reverend Tominaga. On my suggestion, Reverend Tominaga was asked to teach something about the Japanese spirit to the students. Until Reverend Tominaga was assigned to our Visalia Buddhist Temple, whenever we would have some sort of service or some occasion, we would send for a minister from Fresno to officiate at our service. MRS. YAKUMO: Were there many Japanese here? MRS. KATANO: Yes, there were quite a few Japanese. However, since most of them were migrant farmers--we call them season workers--their faces were always different. There were always different people around here. So when summer came around and it was time to pick crops, there were a great number of Japanese in Visalia. There were almost as many Japanese in Visalia as there were in Fresno. And these people all gathered in Visalia and then went around to the various labor camps. There were many labor camps around Visalia. There were many ranches such as the Kishu Ranch. There were quite a few labor camps in Lemon Cove, Exeter, Farmersville, Lindsay, and also in and around Visalia. So many Japanese gathered in Visalia, and from here they went to the various labor camps. And it was these Japanese who, since they were not permanent residents, did not return to Visalia. MRS. YAKUMO: After the war, did you experience any sort of discrimination? MRS. KATANO: Not particularly. At least not other than those things that we mentioned about our children. Actually, when we returned from camp, we were rather afraid of what the Caucasians in this area would think, and, therefore, we did not start our business immediately. However, when our former customers learned that we had returned, they came to us and urged us to restart our laundry. So we decided to do so. The only people who returned as a result of their former ties to the area before the war, were Reverend Kawasaki of the Buddhist Temple, Mr. Sumida, and our family. There were Caucasians who became more open in their distaste of Japanese because of the war between Japan and the United States, but there were also a great number who were not affected by it. And for this reason, we decided to restart our business. MRS. YAKUMO: Finally, is there anything that you feel you would like to record and leave for posterity? MRS. KATANO: Not particularly. We have just lived a very ordinary life as proprietors of a laundry. MRS. YAKUMO: However, the fact that you married in Japan and Mrs. Katano coming to the United States required a great deal of bravery, did it not? MRS. KATANO: Yes, it did require a great deal of guts. MRS. YAKUMO: Did you have any problems? MRS. KATANO: No, not particularly. Everything went quite smoothly. MRS. YAKUMO: Is there anything that you recall that was particularly funny or pleasant? MRS. KATANO: Well, there was a period when we first came when men carried pistols around the Japanese section of town. So it was rather interesting period, an interesting time. When we first arrived in Visalia there was no Japanese gambling den, so many of the young Japanese man, laborers, after working in the fields and collecting their salary, would make their way to the Chinese gambling den and quite frequently they would lose all the money that they had earned. I'm not saying that they were cheated or anything like that, but you can't help but feel that that was the case. And there were many gangster-like Japanese, particularly those who thought that they were leaders among these laborers, who were half gangsters, who would walk into a Chinese gambling den with the pistols and try to scare the Chinese gamblers into giving the Japanese a fair shake. MRS. YAKUMO: The Japanese seem to have lost an awful lot of money in those gambling dens, is that correct? MRS. KATANO: Yes. It was almost as if the young Japanese laborers gave all of their money to the Chinese. MRS. YAKUMO: Then when was the Japanese gambling den, the Tokyo Club, established? MRS. KATANO: That was very much later. The man who started the Japanese gambling den--the gangster, I believe his name was Komai--and although he was a gambler and he was quite rough, he was quite respectable among the Japanese. And he never did anything that would harm them. And in many ways he was quite helpful to the Japanese. Mr. Komai would frequently go to Arizona in a truck and there he would pick up illegal Japanese who had smuggled in from Mexico, and he would put them in a secret compartment and cover it up with melons and drive them back. And, of course, he would collect a certain amount of money from each person that he would haul. And Mr. Komai would tell the people that he was smuggling in, that when they would get to a certain mountain pass, it would be the place that is most dangerous, that they should watch him very carefully because he would be smoking a cigarette. And if he ever threw the cigarette out the window that they should escape as quickly as they could. And once they were stopped by two immigration officers, and so Mr. Komai told them that all he had in his truck were some cantaloupes, and so the immigrant officer said, "Well, if that's all you have, why don't you drive us to Los Angeles." And that's what happened. But the people who were smuggled in beneath the cantaloupes were wondering when they would get to this dangerous curve and finally they got to it and when they saw Mr. Komai throw out his cigarette, all these 20 men escaped, quite unknown to the immigration officers. Once Mr. Komai realized that the men in the back had escaped, he drove a little bit further and then he drove the truck into a ditch—overturned the truck into a ditch--and he jumped out the cab. But the immigration officers were killed as a result. The people who were smuggled in were saved as was Mr. Komai. However, Mr. Komai finally was captured later, and he never returned to Visalia. However, Mr. Komia did visit Visalia once. He was a very small man, but quite strong. So strong that even with his small size he was able to lift up one end of a one- ton truck. MRS. YAKUMO: What happened to the people who sneaked into the United States? MRS. KATANO: Those who sneaked in successfully make their way to Los Angeles where they were helped by people who were from the same province in Japan as they were. The people who helped them gathered as many passports as they could. I understand that they bought the passports of people who died. But once they made their way into the country and started working on the farm, they were safe because there apparently was no way of discovering whether they had been smuggled in illegally or not. There were times when the illegal aliens were asked for their passport, and they would just give the name of whatever passport they had either purchased or gotten their hands on as a result of their friends from the same province. But there were many times in which the name of the person and the name on the passport were different. MRS. YAKUMO: What happened when an illegal Japanese alien was found or captured? MRS. KATANO: He was deported back to Japan. When the Japanese were placed into relocation camps, then all those people who had entered illegally were discovered, and these people were deported. However, there were other Japanese who, even though they entered the United States legally, wanted to return to Japan, and therefore they said that they had entered illegally, and they were deported. However, if a person was an illegal alien and the immigration officers came to pick them up, the only way that it could be determined whether he was an illegal alien would be if a person spied on him and told the authorities. Because of the problems that would occur both to the person and also to the person who gave out this information, most illegal aliens gave themselves up to the immigration authorities, and there were relatively few illegal aliens who were captured through the effort of the immigration authorities. Generally, I would say, that those Japanese who came to the United States before the war, came with the feeling that once they had succeeded here in the United States and made a great deal of money then they would return to Japan, because of this reason they did not come with the idea of living their entire life in the United States. World War II was really a turning point for most of the Japanese in the United States. They had to decide one way or the other whether they would return to Japan or whether they would spend the rest of their life in the United States. However, because we lived a backward life just running a laundry here in Visalia and didn't keep up with the news very much, we didn't think too strongly about whether we should return to Japan or to continue living in the United States. However, a neighbor of ours Mr. Aoki, who ran a store, was quite up on the news and even before the war started he realized that a war would break out between the United States and Japan. And for that reason, without even selling his store, he returned to Japan. And because Mr. Aoki did not sell his store and all the goods that he had on sale there, he lost a great deal of money. He returned later and tried to recoup his losses, but he had already lost everything. So Mr. Aoki even took his younger sister's daughter back to Japan. However, we did not have the means of returning to Japan ourselves. We did return to Japan several years before the war, and when we returned our parents and relatives urged us to leave our children in Japan to educate them there. We could not leave our children, so we returned to the United States with them. MRS. YAKUMO: It really was better that you did not leave them in Japan, wasn't it? MRS. KATANO: Yes, it certainly was. But now that I think back at that time, at my relatives who urged us to leave our children in Japan, it makes me wonder if they did not know that war was going to break out between the United States and Japan. And now that I think about it more, separating yourself from the children is extremely difficult, and I'm very glad that we did not do that. We know quite a few Issei people who did leave their children behind in Japan to be educated, but it's very difficult to be separated from your children. It seems that our neighbors here in Visalia felt that we would leave our children in Japan to be educated in the Japanese ways when we left for Japan. MRS. YAKUMO: What organizations do you belong to? MR. KATANO: We belong to the Buddhist Temple and also to the Japanese-American Citizen's League. However, when I was 23 years of age, there was an organization called the Tulare County Young People's Organization. This was organized when I was 23 years old in 1921. I have photographs that were taken when this organization was first created. At that time there was not a Japanese young people's organization even in Fresno. It was only because there were so many young Japanese here in Visalia that such an organization could be formed. We had about 20 or 30 members. However, because most of our members were migratory, our membership changed quite frequently. Later a group from Dinuba challenged us saying, "If you call it Tulare County Young People's Organization, it should include Dinuba also," so we changed our name to the Visalia Young People's Association. And later, as I became older, and also with the coming of Reverend Tominaga, who established the Visalia Buddhist Temple, I came up with the suggestion that since we were getting older that we should think more of spiritual matters, so rather than the Visalia Young People's Association, we affiliated ourselves more formally with the Visalia Buddhist Temple and called ourselves the Visalia Young Buddhist Association, and this became the forerunner of what is now the Visalia Buddhist Temple. A major part of our activities was sports, and the particular sport that was quite popular in those days was that of sumo, Japanese wrestling. In all modesty, I was quite good. And, as a matter of fact, I went as far as Sacramento to engage in a sumo tournament there. We also performed Japanese plays as part of our Young Buddhist Association. When we were young, a drama group from Japan called Seiyukai under the leadership of a man named Yoshio Aoki toured the Japanese communities all over the United States. And when he left, a member of his group called Yamazaki Hinosuki (who played female parts) remained behind in the United States. He taught us about performing in plays, and because we were so good--our play acting was so good--we toured various areas such as Lindsay with our plays. MRS. YAKUMO: What sort of plays did you perform? MR. KATANO: I've forgotten the names of the plays, but they were modern plays. They were not the old, or traditional plays. They were modern ones. We were very highly and enthusiastically received by everybody who saw our acting. I still have photographs taken during that time. However, almost everyone in these photographs has already passed on. This photograph was taken before I married. MRS. YAKUMO: These are the kinds of things that you did for pleasure, weren't they? MR. KATANO: Yes. MRS. YAKUMO: Thank you, Mr. and Mrs. Katano, for this interview.

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