<Begin Segment 18>

TI: Okay. We were talking earlier about right after high school, you wanted to go to the university but you really needed, was needed back at the farm so you couldn't do that.

MT: Uh-huh.

TI: So, talk about that. So after you graduated high school, what year was that? And what did you do after high school?

MT: That was in, graduated Kent High School in 1937 and, like I mentioned, I couldn't afford to get to the schools, so -- higher education -- so Mr. Makiyama started a farm supply store in Kent where they had, they sold seed and twine and fertilizer and insecticide. And so, Mr. Saito is the one that tutored me on Japanese. Well, going a little bit back, which I appreciate and I'd like to mention it, is during JACL and Buddhist Church in White River they had these oratorical contests, both in English and Japanese. JACL, we had oratorical contests in English and Japanese. So my brother and I would draft our, my speech in English and Mr. Saito would translate that into Japanese. And then he, I would go to his home in Kent and he would tutor me how to present, how to stand, how to use the Japanese word correctly. And he did that for five or six years. And so, he was my, actually my mentor during those growing-up days of JACL, Buddhist Church and high school.

And so, when I graduated high school he had that much confidence in me, and so among other people of my age that graduated, that had sons, Mr. Saito recommended that I, that Mr. Makiyama hire me. And so I was very happy that I got the job. My pay was, I think, eighty dollars a month. He furnished the car for my, to visit, to do outside sales where... I got to eat breakfast there and dinner there, and lunch I was on my own. But that's... so I went on the road to all the farms in the valley taking orders for seed, fertilizers, twine and insecticide and... but we, I did that for about a year and still, we didn't, the farmers didn't have that much money, and so business wasn't that good and so Mr. Makiyama had to let me go. So, I came back and we went back to Smith's farm to pick up potatoes that fall.

But in those days, I mean, not only did the Niseis that were educated couldn't get jobs, but imagine me. I knew, with discrimination, I could never get a job. But, so, I figured I've got to create my own job. And even if I, one of us left the farm we couldn't make it. But I knew that if I left the farm and I could get a job, and like my brother, we brought in some cash to feed the family, and then, then we can make it. So, finally, during my year that I was with Makiyama, I get, I got to know Mr. Lebo, the Marine Byproducts. He was... he manufactured fishmeal in Alaska. And he had a plant in Seattle. And he mixed all these fertilizer. And he was the one that sold their fertilizer through Makiyama and Makiyama retailed it out. And so, I met Mr. Lebo, but he had a hakujin salesmen there at that time. So Mother, so I'd tell Mother, "I'd like to see Mr. Leibow from time to time to see if he can put me on someplace because... and of course, his hakujin salesmen, they're seasoned salesman, they're outside salesmen, they were good. And here, what am I, nineteen years old at that time. But finally I kept going to, Marine Byproducts, Mr. Lebo; he was on Alaskan Way near the Bell Street dock there, and had a plant there. And so finally I convinced Mr. Lebo to hire me and do what I was doing with Makiyama. Only instead of the White River Valley, I went to Vashon, Bainbridge, Olympia and Yakima and took a broad area. But during that time, like I mentioned, the farms, farmers didn't have any money at all. And by the time fall came it was --

TK: Just to, just let me clarify. So, the reason that he did this was because you could then sell to all the Japanese farmers in all these different places? So you were, you would really focus on the Japanese farms?

MT: I felt that I could create my own job that way.

TK: Right, exactly.

MT: And so, I thought that would be the answer.

TI: Okay, so going on --

MT: And so, it worked out very nicely because... I'll bring it back to the White River Valley again. As much as I was going to out area, I got to know Mr. Roy Andre of Andre's Market in Fife. And nowadays we have what we call, you know, big Safeway stores or Kmart. The Andre, father Andre, had a store like that, that it was just like a equivalent to a Safeway nowadays where he sold groceries, meat, hardware, fertilizer, lumber. It was a beautiful store, and he was doing a wonderful job. And he was doing business with all the Japanese farmers there, and like I mentioned, I keep saying we didn't have any money. And we didn't have any money because by the time they raised their farm crops and fall came, we ended up... so, the farmers, Japanese farmers were actually richer in the fall when the White River Packing House, the Sumner kumiai, Auburn kumiai, would give a little advance to all these farms to buy rice, fertilizer and things like that, and so, some of the farmers would buy cars with that. And that's why I say, these Japanese farms down in the valley were a lot wealthier in the fall by the money that was being advanced by all these packing houses. And they were shipping all these lettuce and cauliflower into Chicago and New York during the summertime, that short season.

But, get back to Roy Andre, he again... but the amount of money that they advanced these farmers wasn't very big. But... it worked out very nicely because as much as the Andres were helping the Japanese farmers, the farmers relied on Andres. It was a complete life as far as raising the family was concerned. And so, but, when I was working for Marine Byproducts, like fertilizer, Roy would give me a list of, say, oh, twenty farms or twenty-five farms, and he said, "Min, this is a list that I will go three thousand, five thousand dollars, eight thousand dollars as an advance for their fertilizer, twine, seed, and insecticide." And so, it made it easier for me. So, when, in October/November I could take the order and Roy would give me cash to bring back to Marine Byproducts so he in turn could use that cash to buy fishmeal in Alaska and make the fertilizer to, to sell to the farmers for March delivery, February/March delivery.

TI: So why did Roy do this? Was it financially good for him also to do this?

MT: Oh yeah, because they sold groceries, meat, and hardware, and lumber and lot of the things that the farmers needed was all supplied by the Andre Market. So, like the Andres always told me, they... "I help the Japanese, but the Japanese help me." And so I'll never forget the relationship or Japanese connection of all that area.

<End Segment 18> - Copyright © 2003 Densho. All Rights Reserved.