<Begin Segment 4>

DN: What age did you become aware that you had Japanese neighbors?

EH: Oh, when we were building the house, or when -- I shouldn't say "we" -- when Dad was building the house, we were living in Pete Oness's home, and I'd always have to take lunch up to my Dad. And the place we would take a, I would take a shortcut, and it went right past the greenhouses and past the Takayoshis' place. And Mrs. Takayoshi would always open up the window, and she always would say, "Ah, I see-a. You bring Father lunch-y." [Laughs] "Yes, I do." And then, not too many years after that, why, they, they left and then they moved out to Pleasant Beach, and put in bigger greenhouses out there.

DN: Can you describe their operation a little?

EH: Well, they're in Eagledale. I'm, I think it was tomatoes that he was growing. Because they told us that we could not eat the tomatoes unless they were washed, because they, he had to spray 'em with something, you know, to keep, keep the bugs or whatever. Like in the summertime, they had vents in the top of the glass roofs, and they would open them up. And then open the doors, we could just walk right in, 'cause whew, it was hot inside. And I've often wondered how he got his tomatoes to market, but I think the auto freight used to come in and pick up the tomatoes and take 'em off.

DN: And how did they heat it in the winter?

EH: Coal. They had a boiler, there was a boiler there, and the, the water pipes were probably about that big. Probably about two-inch water pipes running all over in there, under, underneath... well, the planters were up probably about that high off of the floor, and there was probably about that much dirt in, in there, and that's where they grew the tomatoes. And there was pipes up above, and then underneath all of the planters. And they were, let's see, there was two greenhouses there. And they were probably, oh, I'll betcha a hundred feet long or so, each one. So he grew an awful lot of tomatoes.

DN: Did they have, did they have children?

EH: Yes, but I didn't know them. Whether they were older than me or younger, I don't remem-, I don't remember. What I do remember, though, is the Akimoto family, and when we lived at Pete Oness's house, the neighbor across the street owned the greenhouses down below. And there would, boy, those were humongous greenhouses. And I'm sure they raised chrysanthemums. 'Cause we would always go down and, on a good day, we would go down and play ball out in the street, but the boys had to do their chores before they could go out and play ball.

DN: This was the Akimotos?

EH: That's Akimotos, yeah. And if you get a chance to meet Jerry Nakata, they're cousins of Jerry's, which I didn't find until later in years, life.

DN: But these, were those your first Japanese playmates?

EH: Yeah. Yeah, oh yeah. They were, oh, they were neat kids. But poor Tanio, he was the youngest boy, and he was so pigeon-toed, and he could hardly run. And when they left Eagledale, they moved to, I think to Auburn, and then they went to Denver, Colorado. And I think they live, the whole family lives in Denver now.

DN: Did, and what about at school? You must have had Japanese classmates as well.

EH: Oh, yeah. Pete, well, see, there, the road didn't go -- when we lived in, in Pete Oness's house, they, there was not a road going down to what we called the lower road, where the greenhouses were. And they went to Pleasant Beach school, and I went to McDonald school. And the only one that went to McDonald school was Pete Ohtaki, and Pete was the head of Japanese Air, Japan Airlines for the United States. He was later stationed, I think, down in San Francisco or someplace. But he died -- oh, I don't know how many years ago now. And then when I got into the, the high school, that's where all the Japanese kids come in together. And that's where I met some of the fantastic guys.

<End Segment 4> - Copyright © 2004 Densho. All Rights Reserved.