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MA: And what was your maternal grandparents, what were they doing in Sacramento? What jobs did they do?

NM: Let's see. They had a boarding house. And then that didn't go too well, so they opened a laundry store and they couldn't read or write English, so that didn't go too well. And then they opened a noodle shop, and my grandparents were so generous that they didn't let 'em pay for their food. [Laughs] So that didn't go too well. So they finally established a grape farm in, not Florin, Perkins, California, just about, oh, fifteen files from Sacramento.

MA: And you said that was what kind of farm again?

NM: Wine and table grapes.

MA: And were they pretty successful?

NM: I thought so. Uh-huh.

MA: And so when your mother was born, that's what they were doing at the time? They were farming?

NM: Uh, no. No. I think that was way before. Or way after, I'm sorry.

MA: Way after. So let's talk a little bit then about your birth father. And just a little bit about maybe where he was from in Japan, if you know?

NM: He was from Aichi-ken. That's near Tokyo, I think.

MA: Do you know why he came to the U.S. and what he did when he got here?

NM: No, I don't know too much about him. Except that he was pretty well-to-do, he had a business with his brother in Sacramento, or Marysville area, I don't know.

<End Segment 3> - Copyright © 2008 Densho. All Rights Reserved.