<Begin Segment 11>

TY: [Jpn.] After you got married, where did you live?

MK: [Eng.] Sunnydale.

TY: [Jpn.] Oh, Sunnydale.

MK: [Eng.] Yeah.

TY: [Jpn.] Did your father live there, too?

MK: [Eng.] Yeah, uh-huh.

TY: [Jpn.] I see. Were you planning to move to Sunnydale before you got married? Or did you decide to move because of the marriage?

MK: [Jpn.] No. After we got married, we bought a piece of land.

TY: [Jpn.] I see.

MK: [Jpn.] Then we built a small greenhouse...

TY: [Jpn.] I see.

MK: [Jpn.] Then, after that, we were poor. We had nothing but our bodies. It was not like in Japan.

TY: [Jpn.] I see.

MK: [Jpn.] Besides, you need a lot of money to build a greenhouse. We borrowed all that money.

TY: [Jpn.] I see.

MK: [Jpn.] See? So even if you built a greenhouse, you had to work hard to pay back the debt.

TY: [Jpn.] I see.

MK: [Jpn.] Uh-huh. But one greenhouse was not enough to support us so we built the second one. Then we had more debts to pay back. So we often had no money.

TY: [Jpn.] When you married Mr. Kurosu, he was not adopted by your family, so he didn't have to take on the Kaneda name, did he?

MK: [Eng.] Huh?

TY: [Jpn.] When Mr. Kurosu, Mr. Naoe Kurosu married you, he didn't have to take on your family name, but remained Kurosu. Right?

MK: [Eng.] Oh, yeah.

TY: [Jpn.] But he lived with your father?

MK: [Eng.] Uh-huh. That's all.

TY: [Jpn.] Did Naoe agree to that?

MK: [Eng.] Uh-huh, yeah, uh-huh.

TY: [Jpn.] That he was going to live with your father after the marriage...

MK: [Eng.] Yeah, that's right, uh-huh. Yeah, yeah that's right.

TY: [Jpn.] So the three of you started a new life.

MK: [Eng.] Yeah, yeah, that's right, uh-huh.

TY: [Jpn.] Then you worked for Mr. Araki until you bought your own home?

MK: [Eng.] Mmm, yeah.

TY: [Jpn.] Did you choose the greenhouse business because you and your father were familiar with it?

MK: [Eng.] Yeah, uh-huh, yeah.

TY: [Jpn.] But was it a new line of work for your husband?

MK: [Eng.] Uh-huh.

TY: [Jpn.] Because he was working for a lumber company till then.

MK: [Eng.] Uh-huh, yeah.

TY: [Jpn.] But when he married...

MK: [Jpn.] Yeah, he moved here.

TY: [Jpn.] Yes. After marriage, he moved to Sunnydale.

MK: [Eng.] Yeah, move to here.

TY: [Jpn.] Then three of you started the greenhouse, farming.

MK: [Eng.] Uh-huh, yeah.

TY: [Jpn.] Who taught you how to plant in the greenhouse?

MK: [Jpn.] Oh, my father and uncle started a greenhouse in South Park. We started the same greenhouse. So then know how to do it.

TY: [Jpn.] Then your father brought it to Sunnydale.

MK: [Eng.] Uh-huh.

TY: [Jpn.] He taught your husband.

MK: [Jpn.] No. Just moved.

TY: [Jpn.] I see. Then Mr. Araki...

MK: [Jpn.] Mr. Araki had the greenhouse at the same place.

TY: [Jpn.] Sunny... at South Park.

MK: [Eng.] Yeah, uh-huh.

TY: [Jpn.] Then you bought that 15 acres of land in Sunnydale?

MK: [Eng.] Yeah.

TY: [Jpn.] Do you remember who was the official owner of the land? Who was the main person?

MK: [Eng.] My uncle's kids. Uncle's kids, that's a boy. Boy, born, American-born. That's why we gonna, that's name --

TY: [Jpn.] Yes.

MK: [Jpn.] We borrowed.

TY: [Jpn.] I see.

MK: [Jpn.] We could not do that.

TY: [Jpn.] Because Japanese people could not buy land.

MK: [Eng.] Yeah, yeah.

TY: [Jpn.] Then how did your uncle do? When he bought it in Sunnydale?

MK: [Jpn.] My uncle had his own greenhouse.

TY: [Jpn.] Yes, I know that.

MK: [Jpn.] At South Park.

TY: [Jpn.] Well, how did he do it?

MK: [Eng.] Huh?

TY: [Jpn.] Your uncle came to the U.S. for the first time and opened a business at South Park, didn't he?

MK: [Jpn.] No. I heard it was not South Park where he started his business. I don't know where. Anyway, later you know, my father, and my uncle, together then make it greenhouse.

TY: [Jpn.] Then did the Arakis already have a child?

MK: [Eng.] Yeah, that's right.

TY: [Jpn.] Then were both greenhouses registered under the names of those second-generation children of his?

MK: [Eng.] Yeah, that's right.

TY: [Jpn.] I see.

MK: Uh-huh. Yeah, yeah. Uh-huh, uh-huh.

TY: [Jpn.] That's right. That's the only way, wasn't it?

MK: [Eng.] Yeah, only way.

TY: [Jpn.] Yes.

MK: [Eng.] Uh-huh, otherwise, you know, American born only, that's why we gonna borrow his son's name. Uh-huh.

TY: [Jpn.] Then the registered name was of your cousin, wasn't it?

MK: [Eng.] Yeah.

TY: [Jpn.] So you borrowed his name.

MK: [Eng.] Yeah.

TY: [Jpn.] You could buy the land.

MK: [Eng.] That's right.

TY: [Jpn.] But then who paid for it?

MK: [Jpn.] We had to pay for it.

TY: [Jpn.] Your father...

MK: [Jpn.] And...

TY: [Jpn.] Asao.

MK: [Jpn.] Yeah. But in my father's case, we had to pay everything.

TY: [Jpn.] I see.

MK: [Eng.] Because I move to Sunnydale, so that's different, you know. Make a start over there. So, naturally we gonna pay. They don't want it.

TY: [Jpn.] By "they," do you mean Mr. Araki?

MK: [Eng.] Yeah, because separate.

TY: [Jpn.] I see. Then did your father and husband pay for it?

MK: [Eng.] What?

TY: [Jpn.] Did Mr. Kurosu, your husband, pay for part of it?

MK: [Eng.] Yeah, same time. Uh-huh.

TY: [Jpn.] So you put money together.

MK: [Jpn.] Yes.

AI: [Eng.] In Sunnydale, what did you grow in the greenhouse?

MK: [Eng.] Yeah, greenhouse, that's hard work, though. Yeah.

TY: [Jpn.] What did Mr. Araki's greenhouse grow in South Park?

MK: [Eng.] First time was the usual cucumbers and then later, all flower.

TY: [Jpn.] Then what did you grow in Sunnydale?

MK: [Eng.] First time was tomato and then cucumber, then later we gonna change the all flower.

TY: [Jpn.] Why did you grow vegetables first and then flowers?

MK: [Eng.] Because most Caucasians likes flower. That's why change to making flower, yeah.

TY: [Jpn.] I see. Well...

MK: [Eng.] Look, now bedding plant all over the place. That kind of start. Yeah, uh-huh.

TY: [Jpn.] You said it was hard work at the greenhouse.

MK: [Eng.] Uh-huh.

TY: [Jpn.] What was your day like?

MK: [Eng.] Because start you know very hard, one by one, one by one, one by one, that's why I said hard. Because when we don't have money, you know.

TY: [Jpn.] Well, can you explain again in Japanese what you had to do first, or what kind of work you had to do?

MK: [Eng.] Uh...

TY: [Jpn.] When you built the greenhouse.

MK: [Jpn.] Yes.

TY: [Jpn.] Well.

MK: [Jpn.] Greenhouse?

TY: [Jpn.] Did you have to do different things for each season? Or...

MK: [Jpn.] Greenhouse...

TY: [Jpn.] Yes.

MK: [Eng.] -- build greenhouse, then, another one, another one, so we gonna always hard work, you know, always be very poor. Pay-out, pay-out, pay-out, you know so... uh-huh.

TY: [Jpn.] What was your typical day's work like in the greenhouse?

MK: [Eng.] As I said, first time cucumber and tomato, that's all.

TY: [Jpn.] I understand.

MK: [Eng.] But later on, change to flower business.

TY: [Jpn.] Right.

MK: [Eng.] Uh-huh, so much better. More easier.

<End Segment 11> - Copyright © 2000 Densho. All Rights Reserved.