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JA: And then, so when your parents left their two children with the grandparents and returned to the United States, where did they settle?

MH: They settled in Bellevue. They were able to find... a lot of Okayama people were in Bellevue kind of half settled, and so they recommended these different spots. So my dad started to clear and fix a farm up on 108th and Southeast Main Street. It was a 5 acre place and so my mother and dad worked very hard clearing that place for this American people, and so they got it all cleared. As I understand, my mother was up bright and early, worked with Dad right beside him with long dresses on during that time. And a few years later, they were able to get green khaki pants for women with knee-highs so they won't trip on their long dresses, but until then it was all long dresses. They were out there with pick and shovel, working with the men and doing that kind of work. And in the morning she had to have breakfast ready, lunch to take over there, and the dinner has to be half prepared because by the time she come home it's nighttime, when they were working.

JA: Now when they cleared the land, was this of the virgin timber?

MH: Yes; that was, yes, all that had to be dynamited, too, they told me. Cut down and dynamited and things like that. And the women did all the picket and shoveling and help that way with the men.

JA: Was this on leased property?

MH: It was on what property?

JA: Leased property.

MH: No, it was the hakujins -- no, I mean it belonged to the American people. They were doing it for a certain family, is what it was. And when they got through with that place then they -- let's see, they were there 1915 to 1917. And then, then they moved down to their own property, which they were able to buy. They bought in 120th and Northeast Seventeenth over in Midlakes. That's when all the farmers moved over there and bought property. And then they had to clear that hunk of property again, too. That was another 10 acres they had to work for years and years and years to get it all cleared so they can make (it) into farming field.

JA: I see. Now, I understand that there was like a dozen stumps per acre that had to be removed from the old growth?

MH: Uh-huh.

JA: That was quite a process.

MH: That's a terrific process and so Mom used to say, "I don't know why I came to America, to tell the truth, to have to work so hard beside him." She said her leg was just swollen at night she could hardly walk, she said, and I'm sure it was hard. And after they took a hot bath, they have to, you know, do a lot of other work besides just working during the day.

<End Segment 4> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.