Densho Digital Archive - Ben Uyeno Interview (denshovh-uben-01-0001)

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DG: Your father was born when?

BU: I can't tell you.

DG: But your guess?

BU: He came over to this country when he was only about twenty.

DG: And that was about 1910?

BU: 1910, 1909-1910.

DG: So then he was born about 1890.

BU: Yeah. That was before the Sino-Japanese war.

DG: Right, right.

BU: And, but there was major upheaval among the young people.

DG: Why was that?

BU: Well, because they had no jobs.

DG: Well, you know, we should put it into the tape. [Laughs]

BU: I think it was mostly because my father's generation was around twenty, and they needed jobs to get to where they wanted to go if they were going to go anywhere. I'm talking about economically and family-wise. So therefore, they had, they had to do something different. So four... my father's friends -- were four -- even in Japan, not a single one knew that the other one was going to come. All four landed here in the U.S.A. and they met out there at the Yakima, Yakima railroad, railroad gang. They all four got the same day. They walked in, "Hey you, Mokitaka." So all their life they, they were close together.

[Interruption]

BU: Franklin, Garfield, Broadway. In terms of pictures.

DG: Taking pictures?

BU: Taking pictures for the yearly annual. Mr. Mizuki had a, had a greenhouse, greenhouse in the south end of town on Empire Way, and Mr. Mizukami, he, he started a greenhouse down there in the south end of Fife, and all four of those people have been helping me at Keiro all these years. It crosses over.

DG: It does.

BU: So, because whenever I, like one, one Christmas I needed some Christmas trees so I went up to see Ojisan and I said, "Ojisan, ii koto shite chodai," okay? I told him what I need. You can't just have any old Christmas tree, you have to have fireproof. See, I wanted fireproof so ever since then for twenty-one years now, every Christmas I get three Christmas tree, one for the front, front, and one for each floor. I get three Christmas trees.

DG: So that's from Mr. Mizuta?

BU: No, Mizuki.

DG: Mizuki, that's right.

BU: Yeah, Mizuki. And Mr... the other one is Mizukami. Just last Friday -- no, I called him up before, but he called me, and he says he'll bring me my bedding plants --

DG: From Puyallup.

BU: -- that day. Well, Puyallup, same thing, Fife. Anyway, he say he will bring me a load of... so I get on Saturday and I sold it. I sold, sold it to make some money for projects I got. Well, anyway...