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AI: Oh, excuse me, may I back up a bit? So before war broke out, say, earlier in 1941, had you already graduated from high school then?

JY: Yes, yes.

AI: 'Cause you would have been about nineteen, in 1941.

JY: In 1941 I graduated. June of '41, I graduated.

AI: And you mentioned that you had a brother who was already in the army?

JY: Yes.

AI: He had been drafted?

JY: Well, he just... yeah. No, he was, they were talking about it. In August I think, if I remember correctly, in August of '41 he was drafted, because it was either my older brother or this second brother. So meantime, I went down with my father after I graduate high school, I want to go Cal Poly, that was in San Luis Obispo. So went down look at Cal Poly and said, "Okay, that'd be a good idea." Somebody have to go in college. My other two brothers never went to college, and my second brother got drafted so, "That's why you better stick around." So, I didn't go to school that fall of '41, but the war broke out.

AI: And what do you recall about that day of Pearl Harbor bombing?

JY: Okay. Just talking about the Consolidated Produce that we sell produce to, they were the biggest produce house west of the Mississippi River. They had a basement so big, they could put a whole boatload of bananas downstairs. And they were very powerful. That, we didn't know how powerful, they were big; we knew they were very, very big. And a fellow named Ted Myers, he bought from us from time we moved to new ranch, this was about (1933) we first met him. Since, all through the years to 1941, he was buying for (seven) years from us and other farmers that's around there, and really traded good crops so that he was always picking the best crop, or the best items he can get. So he was kinda' steady customer for them, and Ted Myers was a single -- well, he was a married person, but no child, he was childless. Very small person. My father was not very big either, he was a short person. And the language had a little problem, but still my father loves to drink. He loves to drink, so after he does all his round, does all his (buying) vegetables, he would come back and sit down, and drink and talk. I don't know what they talk about because I was working on the farm.

And December 7th the war broke out, and late in the afternoon Ted Myers came by the house and told us -- he always called my father Yamaichi. "Hey, Yamaichi, I have to go to Los Angeles. My boss is calling me." He never liked to take a train so he drove down there. And Wednesday he came back. He didn't go home; he came from Los Angeles, he came directly to our house, and... we were surprised to see him back, says, "Back so fast?" He went to Los Angeles and come back. He says, "Yamaichi," he just leaned on my dad shoulder -- he's about the same height -- he cried. He says, "Yamaichi, they'll put all of you away. The big boss told me to look at all the farmland. 'Get the best farmland you can, and all the equipment, and see what you can buy. We'll buy everything. All these Japanese farmers'll be all gone, so prepare yourself and start, take inventory of the farms that's available that you think that we should buy.'" And after that, Ted Myers was very, very disappointed. He just said he told his boss, "I can't do it." These people were good to him, all these years we were faithful to him. He want a certain thing, okay, we'll do the best to supply his needs. We're not the only one. So he was so brokenhearted, and it killed him. He died from it. And never did what the company that wanted him to do it.

So we knew at that time, so we harvest our crop. We didn't plant nothing. So my father says, "Well, if we don't plant nothing, people are gonna' start wondering what's happening." So we just plant leaf item like spinach, something that just grows fast and get rid of fast. So the time we're ready to go into camp, we had nothing on the farm; it was all clean. But we decided to sell the farm, and pack up and move inland. But we had a good friend who was selling insurance to us, he was a Frenchman, a guy named Charles... Charles Buron. He told my father, he says, "Why don't you do this: keep the farm, and sell the equipment, and I'll take care of your farm for you. I'll be a custodian. I don't want no power of attorney, or nothing. I'll just be a custodian, I'll collect the rent, and pay the taxes. That's it." So we thought about it and says, "Okay, we'll do that."

<End Segment 3> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.