<Begin Segment 10>

TI: Well, eventually you and the rest of your family got the order that you had to leave, and this is around, like April or so, that you were, you're gonna have to leave. So what happened to the farm and all your other belongings?

KT: Well, all the personal belongings, we put 'em in crates and stuff and we stored 'em at, what was the, Natsuhara, Natsuhara had a big store that dealt in fertilizer and all kind of Japanese food and stuff, so they had a huge building. And not only us but I think a lot of the Japanese stored their things there. Course, a lot of the things were broken into. During the war the guys broke in there and they lost a lot of things, I guess, but who knows.

TI: And then, like your farm, the crops and everything, the tools, what happened to all that?

KT: There was a, there was something like a farm management corporation or something, and they were supposed to take over and harvest the crop and pay us. And to operate they had borrowed money from the government, and then, I don't know, this is maybe a year later, there was a meeting and we went to the meeting and they said the, the farm management, they're unable to pay the government back so they're unable to pay us too. And the thing was, if we sued them and then the government'll take the money first so we wouldn't get anything, but if we let 'em operate there might be a chance for us to, they might be successful, then they'll be able to pay us. So they all, so the guy sat down and said, "Hey, they didn't do anything. We did all the labor, and all they went in and did, went in and harvest this thing and they couldn't make any money. How're they gonna make money if they have to produce the stuff?" So they said no, let the government take the money, and I don't know, they must've sued 'em or something. I don't know who was running all this stuff. I think it was a farm management corporation or something.

TI: And who were these people in farm management corporation?

KT: They were, I don't know. They were like carpetbaggers, I guess. They had us, saw a chance to make money. The story at the time was that they hired everybody and their family, give 'em a big monthly salary and that's why they ran out of money. But who knows, all that's rumor.

TI: And as, so the farm management corporation, when they took over the farm they had all the tools and everything there also? [KT nods] And so when the farm management corporation was done, what happened to everything?

KT: I have no idea.

TI: So you essentially lost all that.

KT: Yeah.

<End Segment 10> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.