<Begin Segment 2>

DH: How did they acquire the land that was here?

JH: The land that sited on Bainbridge Gardens, we believe was acquired through trade. And obviously the land was reasonable in price, but of course, it was still dear in those days. But the significant part about their acquiring their land was not so much how they paid for it, but whose name it was in, because there was an alien land law at the time. And they placed the land in the name of a young Nisei friend. So that's why they were able to acquire this property.

DH: When did they move from the New Brooklyn farm then to the site where we are now?

JH: Approximately 1911.

DH: So then again they started farming.

JH: Yes, they did. They, both of them, my father and my uncle were partners, and they began the clearing operation of the land, which as I mentioned previously were huge timbers, virgin timbers, that were extremely huge, and they had to do that all with the team of horses and dynamite. And I'm sure in order to clear that land it must have taken 'em literally years to be able to clear that land and get all those huge stumps out of the ground.

DH: So what were they clearing the land for? What was in here?

JH: Their ultimate goal was to have a nice produce farm, and of course, significantly in those days, when you raise produce you had to have greenhouses because of winter protection for your vegetables. And so they began building greenhouses.

DH: During this time then, Zenhichi got married.

JH: Yes, he did.

DH: Describe the details of that.

JH: Okay. Well, like many marriages at the time it was an arranged marriage by a matchmaker,baishakunin, and she was brought over to the United States in about 1920.

DH: Her name was Shiki Sugiyama?

JH: Her name was Shiki Sugiyama.

DH: What was her background?

JH: Well, she came from a city family, and I really don't know that much about her background, but she lived in Kobe.

DH: And Zenhichi was from Gifu.

JH: Gifu, yes.

DH: Does she ever talk about being a picture bride, or coming to this new country and not knowing any of the language?

JH: We didn't have a conversation about that particular era of her life. It was quite a common thing to have arranged marriages, and I guess in those days the role of the woman was to accept things like that. I'm not so sure it would be so popular today, but most of those marriages did work though.

<End Segment 2> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.