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BN: So your father must have been pretty young when he first came to the U.S.

KS: Yeah, I'm not exactly sure, but I think under the age of twenty.

BN: And then what did he do, and where did he come to the U.S.?

KS: So he came to the U.S., and I think he did a lot of bracero type work, where you go from farm to farm picking fruits, because he mentions that. And then I think over there at Little Tokyo, kitty corner from JANM, Japanese American National Museum, I think there were rooming houses like that around there. So if you lived there, then I think what would happen is that in the morning, a truck would come looking for laborers, and I think that's one way they got their jobs. But I think he did a lot of fruit picking and stuff like that.

BN: Primarily in California?

KS: Yeah.

BN: Southern California?

KS: Right. So he did that in Southern California. And then after he got married, I think he settled down. And the thing that he did before the war was that he had a fruit stand, fruit and vegetable stand at a market. So there were hundreds of those in southern California. And then the way it usually worked was there's a hakujin guy that would be the butcher and do the sales of the canned goods, commodities, and the Japanese guy would run the fruit and vegetables. So then if you ran the fruit and vegetable, that meant that so many times a week, you'd have to drive down to the produce market in your state truck, and get all the fruits and vegetables and then bring it to the market, and they had to wash it and display it. In those days, they used to have these stores, in the front they had accordion doors. So you open the accordion doors and push out the stands which were on rollers, they'd have these stands, the fruit stands, partially on the sidewalk. So that's what he did for five, ten years, and I think lots of Japanese were doing that. So my father was working for another guy that did that kind of work, and then he learned the trade, and then he did it on his own. But that's a difficult work because you have to work six days a week. And they had to wake up early in the morning, like three o'clock or so, and go down to the produce market, and they had to probably work until six or seven at night. But that's what he did before the war.

BN: You may have mentioned it, but I want to just clarify, your father and your mother's names?

KS: Okay, my father's name was Shosaku Sahara. And then his maiden last name was Tatsui. Now, my mother's name was Ayako Sahara, and then when they got married, then my father changed his last name to Sahara because he had a lot of brothers, lot of other Tatsuis, and my mother was the only child, so they wanted to save that Sahara name.

BN: Ah, I see. I forget the term for that. What is that called?

KS: I forgot, too.

BN: So he ran a fruit, a retail produce stand.

KS: Right.

BN: Where was it?

KS: Okay, so it was on Pico and Los Angeles, and I think it was close to Vermont. But I'm not... I mean, I went there after the war, maybe about five years ago, drove by, and I forgot what it is now. But it was located around there.

BN: And you're the youngest of four?

KS: Right.

BN: And then your two older sisters are quite a bit older, right?

KS: Yeah. So then I was born in 1934, and I think my oldest sister was born in 1944, and then the second was 1926.

BN: And then the third was pretty close.

KS: Right.

BN: I forget now with regard to your sisters, but you have only a Japanese name? You don't have a quote/unquote "English name."

KS: Right.

BN: Did you always just go by Kanji or did you have a nickname, or did someone give you an "American," quote/unquote name?

KS: So my name is Kanji, and then my oldest sister's name was Mariko, and then a lot of people shortened that to Mike. And then my second sister was Sumire, and she shortened it to Sue. And my third sister was Toshiko, and she shortened it to To. But I always went by Kanji.

BN: No Kan?

KS: No.

<End Segment 2> - Copyright © 2018 Densho. All Rights Reserved.