After a long days work on the farm, many Japanese Americans enjoyed relaxing in their traditional style "furo," bathtub. The bathtubs were usually located behind the house and used firewood to keep it warm.

"My chore was to drain the tub outside the bathtub, clean it, fill it with water and come back around 5 o’clock and I start gathering the water and burn the wood so we can make the water hot. And we jumped in the water at the end of the day and took a bath. And that was the best part of the day for us."

-James Higashida

"...We all had a separate structure. And you always have a deep tub and then you have a fire underneath... yeah, I mean the tub is metal and then the building is a separate building and then you put the fire underneath and you don’t wash yourself in the tub you just sit there to soak and then I used to soak in the tub with my mother and she would rub my back... one day... we had a Japanese who worked for us and he lived in a separate house. But I jumped in the bath before he did and my father, for the first time, he hit me on my bottom. He said, 'You should never have taken a bath before the guest.'"

~ Mary Oda

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Farm house

Image Contributed by: Nancy Takayama

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© California State University, Northridge 2008

For more information about this project, please contact:

Edith Chen, Professor Asian American Studies Dept.
18111 Nordhoff St., JR 340
Northridge, CA 91330-8251
edith.chen@csun.edu
818-677-4966

Nancy Takayama
San Fernando Valley Japanese American Community Center
nt.high.mtn@juno.com