<Begin Segment 64>

JA: Going back to your first arrival period when you returned in 1945, you had that two year period where you were trying to grow a crop to be harvested.

MH: That's right.

JA: You had... sounded like you pretty much depleted your savings to make the property tax payments during this internment time.

MH: That's right. That's right. That's for sure.

JA: You went to Caldwell to get, to be able to purchase a car and to have some money, but it would seem that it wouldn't be enough to pay for your living costs for a two-year period, right?

MH: So when we came home, we all went to work plus trying to work the farm at the same time. So my husband had more odd jobs you've never seen. He worked at the King Street Station cleaning cars, he got a job at Boeing part-time, lesser hours, he worked at Boeing, too. And then the boys went out and did anything they can find, too, and I think they went to work at the restaurants and things like that, and that's all we can do. And I went to housework, babysitting, anything I could find in that route, and I used to clean doctors' offices and dentists' offices and things like that. And plus, we had to keep the farm going, too, trying to build it up as much as we can.

JA: I notice you haven't mentioned your parents much during this rebuilding period.

MH: Oh, my parents were all kind of in another world it, seems like. They were so depressed. It seemed like they didn't have much energy. My mother got diabetes real bad and she was starting to lose her eyesight by then. And my dad was getting... he had a stroke and so, we had a handful with the older folks when they got home, too, but we all took care of them, until they passed on.

JA: So do you feel they were pretty devastated by seeing the farm?

MH: Yes, they were very devastated, uh-huh, with the farm and everything. And so, when we were going to sell it, Dad and Mom were kind of relieved, I think, to think that it was so much work for the young people to rebuild it again and to get, to be able to sell these things like we used to and things like that. It's a different story completely after that, so I think they were kind of relieved to know that we were able to sell it, all of us together.

<End Segment 64> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.