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MN: And after they released you from Angel Island, where did you go?

TN: Right that day, my cousin in Turlock, only hour and a half drive to San Francisco, he took me to his home.

MN: And you worked at your cousin's Turlock farm?

TN: Yes. It's a little town, Denair, they call it. It's about five, six miles from Turlock.

MN: Denair?

TN: Denair. And he has a nice place, and that's the house, workman house. It's empty, offseason, you know. So anyplace we have a place to take.

MN: But you were working for free. Why?

TN: I think that age, that time, you know, most of Japanese people just a laborer carrying a blanket, season to season. And my cousin's father has a hundred-some acre, big farm there. And a lot of people worked the season and stay there. And place to stay, too many house, and they have enough money to spend, long as they feed you free, I think that's the way they were. They don't pay, but they could stay. So I went, and that's the way it started.

MN: Can you tell us what your day was like, starting from when you woke up in the morning? What time did you wake up and what did you do at the farm?

TN: I started working next day. [Laughs] Yeah.

MN: What time did you wake up?

TN: See, they had a car. That time, maybe '30, some car. I'm the one, get up, and they send me to school there, high school. So I say, "Okay," I work, I get up early, milk the cow, clean up the barn, feed the cow, and go to school. And come home again, five o'clock, milk the cow, feed the cow, clean up the barn. Then I thought, "Oh, I can't join anything, so I better wake up myself." That's the way.

MN: How much English did you know?

TN: Well, I was determined to learn English, because I look at it, all the Nisei, ten, fifteen years from now, I thought, "Japanese language is no good no more." So if I wanted to be successful, live independently, I have to learn. So I start writing English, I mean, learn. You could see my diary, all Japanese, but all the spending, all English. I was, amazed myself. [Laughs] Dance, five cents, ice cream, ten cents, movie, fifteen cents, it's in there in my diary. I showed it to her.

MN: Where did you get the money to go the movies, get ice cream?

TN: First, I don't have a money. My brother, five dollar a month, he send it to me. Five dollar... five cents, I could buy a tobacco, you know, bought them in a sack. Last me a week. [Laughs] It still was okay.

<End Segment 4> - Copyright © 2010 Densho. All Rights Reserved.