<Begin Segment 5>

SY: And so your parents... and what was your father doing at the time?

FO: My father was a produce buyer. He went out to the surrounding area where the Japanese were farming, and if they grew lettuce or celery, he would go out there and calculate how many crates of celery or lettuce that they can harvest on this ground, and then his boss will buy the whole patch. So... and then they would cut that celery or lettuce and bring it back into the packing house, and then they would ship it back east.

SY: And so he worked for someone else doing this. What was the person's name that he worked for?

FO: Well, my dad was working for J.T. Bunn, and they used to call it J.T. Bunn & Company, I guess. And during the Depression, Mr. Bunn really helped our family by paying my dad a certain price each month, so we didn't starve.

SY: Wow. And this was someone who... do you know how he met Mr. Bunn?

FO: No, I don't. I really don't. But he lived in, Mr. Bunn lived in the Wilshire area, north of Wilshire. And I remember we used to go to his house every Christmas to present to present a Christmas package and stuff like that. So he lived in, he was relatively rich as far as we were concerned.

SY: Uh-huh. He had a pretty big operation?

FO: I guess so, but I'm not sure.

SY: Was your dad one of several produce buyers or was he the only one?

FO: He handled the Japanese farmers. Now, I don't know if there was other farmers who were not, that Mr. Bunn wanted, but Mr. Bunn used to concentrate on the Japanese farmers.

SY: I see. So your dad, then, became pretty familiar with the other farmers in the area.

FO: Yeah, yeah. He used to go up to Venice and Culver City, Santa Monica area, where all the Japanese famers were. And he did business with them.

SY: Do you remember that time, would you go with him when he went to some of these farms?

FO: Yeah. When I was in high school, I drove him around during the summer whenever we had a vacation, and that's how I got to know all these farmers, Mr. Sakioka, Mr. Chikazawa, and Mr. Kita. There was a female farmer.

SY: Female farmer, really?

FO: Yeah, her husband died and left her with a plot of land, so she farmed that. And everybody felt sorry for her, so she always got the top price. But she was a very capable young lady.

SY: That's amazing. So there were quite... I mean, if you had to say how many farms that you would visit...

FO: No, I don't.

SY: You can't say.

FO: I don't remember.

SY: But there were quite a few Japanese in the area at that time?

FO: Yeah.

SY: With... I would imagine land that they were just farming, they didn't own the property?

FO: No, in those days, we couldn't own any property.

SY: Uh-huh. So they would just farm this land, and then your father would know them. So he did this for all the years prior to the war?

FO: Prior to the war, yeah.

SY: So that was quite a few years he was involved in that business.

FO: Right.

SY: And I would imagine that Mr. Bunn was, like you said, he was fairly prosperous doing this, then?

FO: Yeah.

SY: I see. Were there others, do you know, that did this kind of work?

FO: No, I don't. There must have been, but I'm not familiar.

<End Segment 5> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.