<Begin Segment 6>

SP: So where did your family go? Did they have to leave Selleck once the sawmills closed, to find work?

KA: Oh, yes. To find work.

SP: So where did they end up going and what did they end up doing?

KA: Well, my father came to Seattle to look for a job. And he couldn't find anything, so I think he heard that there might be an opportunity on Bainbridge to get a strawberry farm, but, so he went over there and found that this family had changed their mind. They didn't decide to sell after all. And so he called (...) his friend in Beaverton who had a big strawberry farm, forty-acres.

SP: In Oregon?

KA: Uh-huh. And they were from the same village in Japan, so their name was Yoshihara, too.

SP: No relation, though?

KA: No relation. And he was willing to come, drive up and pick us up. So I remember it was, I think maybe February. It was cold. He brought his huge truck and we moved down to Beaverton and lived with them. He didn't have any children, he had a wife from Japan, and they took us in. And my parents worked for them as well as us kids. And my parents were paid twenty-five cents an hour, and we were paid ten cents an hour. But I guess that was the going wage then. But we had a place to stay. And it was a learning process of how to have a strawberry farm. My father found a twenty-seven acre field, which was up for lease. But in those days, even leases were not available to non-citizen Japanese. So I think they had to use our friend's wife's name to lease the property.

SP: Was she born in the U.S.?

KA: Yes, she was born in U.S., but educated in Japan and came back and was married to him. And so we were able to work on the farm. And it takes two years before you get the first crop. I know my mother was real disappointed, because it was like a shack, and the barn was better than the house. [Laughs] And we didn't have any electricity, and we had a well, you had to pump the water, and she was used to all that in Selleck, you know. We had electricity and we had running water, bathing in the house. But over there, you had to have an outhouse. And anyway, I know she was very disappointed, but God was with us then. It was amazing how He directed my father. Everybody was, all the farmers were saying, "You have to fertilize your farm, otherwise you won't get a crop," which sounds reasonable. And as my father was praying, the Holy Spirit would speak through him and said, "You do not need to fertilize. I'll take care of it." Because God knew that he didn't have the money. He had to borrow the money to lease the land, you know. And then I remember... oh, yes. These friends, because they were Buddhist, they said you have to have osake, Japanese liquor, in order to entice all those pickers from the skid row. They won't come unless you could, you could treat them. And so my parents fell for that. And even though they didn't have much money, they bought the rice and they made the osake. And then the Holy Spirit spoke again. [Laughs] He knows everything that's going on. Makes you tremble. And when my father knelt down to pray, the Holy Spirit spoke to him again and said, "I want you to dump every bit of osake. You have no need for it." My mother said, "Can't we keep one gallon for sukiyaki or something?" [Laughs] But my father felt it was a test of obedience, and so he woke us up, the kids, and he says -- oh, I think the Lord told him, "You have to dump every bit of it before the sun comes up." So my parents woke us up, and everybody had to carry a gallon jug and dump it in the creek behind our farm. And it was amazing. Art and I and my kids went over to visit the farm, and we knew the fellow who bought it, bought the farm. And I said, "Did you see the gallon jugs out there by the creek?" He said, "Yeah, I was wondering where in the world those jugs came from." So I was able to share what happened. He was a Christian, so he said, "Oh, is that right? God was here?"

Anyway, sure enough, they had no use because... oh, yes, another thing the Lord told him, "I feel sorry for the Japanese, but you will be relocated." He didn't say where, He just said inland. And this was before the sign went up. And sure enough, but He said He will be with us, "Fear not, I will never leave you." And so that assurance really brought peace into my parents' home. I'm sure they were still wondering, "What's gonna happen?" Whether we'll be sent to Japan or whether we'll be separated. Because some of the fathers were being picked up, and we didn't know what was going to happen. But anyway, God was real to my parents.

<End Segment 6> - Copyright © 2008 Densho. All Rights Reserved.