<Begin Segment 7>

DH: You said he was not a very educated man. [Ed. note: Referring to the Narrator's father]

JH: No, he wasn't.

DH: At least, academically.

JH: That's right. He only went, I think, to the second grade.

DH: But he was known to be quite an inventor.

JH: Yes. He had a enormous talent, mechanical talent, and he was absolutely wonderful with his hands; he had the most talented hands of any man I've ever seen. And he would create machinery, and he would create bonsai, and he would have a tremendous artistic feel. And he had the most wonderful work ethic I have ever seen in a person. He worked, and worked, and worked, and worked, and worked, and never complained, and he seemed to enjoy doing what he did. It didn't seem like work for him. It did to me, but not to him.

DH: Describe some of the things that he invented.

JH: Well, the classic thing he built was one of the first mechanical chain saws. I can't swear that it was the first one, but he did build a mechanical chainsaw to cut through those huge timbers that we were talking about, the virgin timbers. And then to change the soil in the greenhouses he had fashioned out a railroad track system to escort the carts in and out. And one of the first things I wanted to see if there was any remnants of that after the war, and they had totally been stolen, there was not a trace of it. But even at my young age I remember, of course, riding in those little carts while they were emptying and filling the bins.

DH: What was it like?

JH: It was a actual track that you could assemble, and there was a little cart with steel wheels on it that rolled on the track, so you can dump the soil and then throw the old soil out and dump new soil in. And, of course, when we were kids we rode in it. We were probably not supposed to, but we did anyway.

DH: Sounds like a lot of fun.

JH: That's right.

DH: And did he invent some steam pumps for the greenhouse?

JH: Yes, he did. Yes. The greenhouses went through a tremendous transition as far as the source of fuel. At first it was the natural wood because there was a lot of slab wood available for burning, then we went into coal, and finally to oil. But there had to be -- the greenhouses were all steam heated, and he had to build the steam tracks, the piping underneath the greenhouses, and engineer that. And he did that pretty much on his own, and he had figured that all out, and it's quite an engineering feat actually, with no background in engineering. So it was quite a wonderful feat.

DH: Describe his relationship with bonsai. I know you've written about it before, Zenhichi's relationship with the bonsai.

JH: Well, I think if you work with bonsai miniature plants, I think it's not only...well, in his case, I think, he did 'em to sell 'em, but I think he very rarely sold 'em because he would not want to part with 'em; and they became part of his soul. And if you ever work with bonsai plants and you get involved with it, you kind of get lost in a different world. It's a small world around, centered around a miniature tree, and I think you totally get involved in it, in a bonsai piece. And I think, as I recall, he would work on those late in the evenings when he couldn't work outside, and he worked under a light. And I think it was more for his amusement than for profit; and there is a lot to be said for that.

DH: There were some other nursery stuff that he would become very attached to.

JH: Yes, that's right.

DH: Some he wouldn't even sell.

JH: That's right. He would have lots of signs up saying "Not Sale," "Not Sale," as he refused to sell them. And I remember many customers that would beg him to release that plant for sale, and he wouldn't do it. He was very stubborn and [Laughs] he loved his plants. And he probably would have been better off to sell 'em because we were starving to death at the time.

DH: You paint him as a very hard worker, very spiritual, sort of reflective. Was your mother that same way, or was she more the business person?

JH: My mother was the hard-nosed business woman. Yes, she was. She was more practical, a little bit more conservative, and I guess she was really truly the backbone of the business from the standpoint of being business oriented. She -- I don't think she -- I don't know that she really loved her plants as much as my dad did. From the practical matter I think she raised them to sell so that we had sustenance in our lives. [Interruption] And I think... as far as her role, it was a difficult role. She not only worked in the greenhouses and as a retail clerk, but she had to raise the five kids, and then work on her own personal vegetable garden. So it must have been a long hard day for her. It must have been -- I'm not so sure what they found for entertainment in life. I do remember though that one of her -- the fond thing she did have was that she loved to read and she would read anything she can possibly get her hands on. And I would often remember finding her asleep with a book in her hand, wee into the morning hours, and I guess that was her world.

DH: How did she get those materials, because they were all in Japanese?

JH: Yes, they were Japanese books. And what they did was they had an informal book club among the community, and they would trade books.

<End Segment 7> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.