<Begin Segment 5>

TI: Okay. And then after you were born, I guess in about six months after you were born, your family then moves back to the Imperial Valley?

JK: Right, El Centro.

TI: And do you know why your father decided to move back to Imperial Valley?

JK: Well, see, he was in, by the time he got, started out gardening, right, then somewhere along the line he got involved in becoming a truck driver and he started driving a truck, and he'd make, from somewhere in Los Angeles he'd make runs down to Imperial Valley to haul produce back. And so at that point, then he made a decision to move down there and get into the trucking business, so he'd live down there, haul produce to Los Angeles and then come home the next day. And see, by then the Imperial Valley was populated by a great number of Japanese truck farmers, so those were his clients, customers. So that's how he established his business.

TI: 'Cause he had those connections, both in the Imperial Valley and in Los Angeles.

JK: Yeah, in Los Angeles.

TI: So that seemed like a good connection. Plus he was a chauffeur, so he knew how to drive.

JK: Oh yeah, he knew how to drive. And then remember I told you, because he's buddies with my mother's oldest brother, Stockton Papa? Okay, Stockton Papa started working in the produce, wholesale produce market in Los Angeles. See, now you get all the connections, so these guys all gravitated into the produce businesses, truck farming.

TI: Okay, so with these connections, how did the business go for him?

JK: Well, my dad, he just, it was starting to go and go, and it kept getting larger and larger, and he ended up with a fleet of trucks of either twelve or fourteen trucks by the early '30s. There are pictures of him with the trucks -- you know how you'd see a fleet of trucks all lined up with the numbers on the radiator and stuff like that?

TI: So early '30s, this is, I guess, really impressive given that this is the Depression.

JK: Absolutely.

TI: This is a very difficult time.

JK: But see, that's what happened, he got bigger and bigger and bigger, and then I don't mind telling you, by the time he got to the middle '30s and the late '30s it was all gone. [Laughs]

TI: Okay. So yeah, whether a bad loan or something...

JK: A bad loan, and also, he also ventured into farming, and he lost his shirt doing that too 'cause I guess he figured, well, he'd gamble, see if he could make some money farming.

TI: Probably just, and I'm speculating here, but it seemed like almost any other time he would've been a very successful entrepreneur. I mean, trying to do this during the Depression would've been very difficult, but given his connections and if the economy were growing in any way, this could've been a very large enterprise, if he had continued.

JK: I've often laughed, people ask me, "How come you're an engineer?" I say, "I probably, if it wasn't for World War II, I'd probably be a truck, I'd either still be a truck driver or, two, know what I mean, I'd still be hangin' around kicking tires and telling the truck drivers what to do, something like that."

TI: Yeah, because if your father had had a really successful business you would've been asked to work there.

JK: Oh yeah. You see, in the Japanese culture, right, you do what your parents tell you to do, right? So I have every reason to believe he would've told my brother and I, "Go ahead and get your education, but come on home and I'm gonna make you work."

<End Segment 5> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.