<Begin Segment 12>

TI: So Marian, we're going to start the second hour. And we were in Rohwer, and we talked about that. And something you mentioned was your father would sometimes go outside camp to try to find jobs. And I was trying, was he ever successful? Was he able to find something for the family?

MS: Well, there was, one that interested him was a teaching position at Antioch College in Ohio, and I think he really would have liked to have done that. But my, he was responsible for my grandparents, and they didn't want to go to Ohio, they wanted to come back to California. So he turned that down, and who knows what would have happened had he made that fork in road. It would have probably been what he had studied, and been very fulfilling for him. And I know he went to Nebraska for some job interview. I think it was more, you know, physical kind of work, I don't know what it was. Those are the only two that I recall. So I don't know when it came about or how it came about that a group of seven families decided they would go and start a farming community in Little Rock, Arkansas, and so that's what we ended up, where we ended up.

TI: Oh, so this is interesting. Because you don't hear very many Japanese or Japanese Americans resettling in Arkansas. And so why don't, so describe to me, first, what type of farming did the seven families do?

MS: Well, I think it was all headed up by my uncle Harry who was the true farmer. And I know this was always going to be a temporary thing, just for a few years until things settled back down in California so that hard feelings would subside, and maybe they could have a little bit easier life in California. So I think all these, the seven families knew one another from Stockton, they all came from the same area. And so they decided to do vegetable farming. And at some point they must have gone out to scout places that might work. And I didn't learn about this until I met with my friend in Little Rock that we met when we went to Little Rock for a reunion a few years ago. And she taught me that her uncle was the plantation owner that my parents and the seven families leased land from. And the only requirement was that the land be very farmable, and that it be near water. I don't know how many acres, but it was quite a bit of land. It was right near what they called Old River, it was a tributary of the Arkansas River that had been cut off, so it was more like a lake, so they could irrigate. And Mr. Alexander, George Alexander, the plantation owner, agreed to lease the land to them. And they worked out some sort of agreement like the Japanese families would get sixty percent and he would take forty percent, or something like that.

TI: So kind of like a sharecropping...

MS: Yes, uh-huh. So, and truck farming had never been done in that area, it was all cotton. So this was some new venture. And I guess -- and my friend, the granddaughter of, or the niece of Mr. Alexander, said that they worked out a deal where he would, he insisted that we kids would be able to attend the white schools. And he said that we needed to be well-educated because he could, he knew that we were bright enough to be able to handle it. And that community was not for our coming into this little farming community, but that he would attest to our behavior. And so he stood up for us.

TI: So Mr. Alexander, George Alexander, the plantation owner, he must have had considerable clout within that area for him to...

MS: He was a huge landowner. He owned huge tracts of land up there, or there.

TI: Do you know how the families got connected to George Alexander?

MS: I don't know how that all came about. These are these little trips, so my dad would take off for a weekend or for a few weeks, and it must have happened on one of those ventures.

TI: But based on the venture, it sounds like the families had the idea, and they, perhaps, approached him with the idea.

MS: Uh-huh, I think so, yeah. So, and I didn't know that he had stuck his neck out for us until my friend Bitsy told me that that's what her mother had told her. So this reunion that we had in Arkansas a few years ago was, we had lunch together. I learned so much about what, how much they did for us to make us part of the community there.

TI: So how does this make you feel after all these years? Because that reunion was, it must have been about five, six years ago, so it wasn't that long ago, to hear about these acts of kindness that you didn't even know about.

MS: Well, it was really mind-boggling to me. I thought that we had to fight for every bit that we had all along the way, but we did have help. So kind of restored my faith in humanity, I guess, sort of. There were other people that helped us too along the way. They, I remember needing to use the public library, but you couldn't own, you couldn't use the library unless you had a card. And the only way you could get a card is to be a landowner. So I was thinking, "What am I going to do?" And this man who was standing behind me says, "Here, I'll sign for your card." He didn't know me from anybody. But, you know, there were a few people that helped us along the way. Now, if we were a Japanese community of thousands, I don't know that it would happen. But since we were just a few families, that people treated us kindly.

TI: And so how do you think the community viewed the seven families? I mean, you're right, there were just a few of you. And, I mean, especially as, after the camps closed and the other Japanese left the area, and you were pretty much the only ones left, what did people think about you and the others?

MS: Well, people that we kids directly had contact with, teachers and students, were always kind to us, and we attended the local community church. And we felt pretty welcome. And I know that during the winters, when there were hardly any crops to be sold, my parents had credit at the local grocery store, so they must have trusted us. But I don't know, maybe it took a few, couple years to earn that trust, I don't know.

<End Segment 12> - Copyright © 2009 Densho. All Rights Reserved.