Densho Digital Repository
Densho Visual History Collection
Title: Norm Hayashi Interview
Narrator: Norm Hayashi
Interviewer: Virginia Yamada
Location: Emeryville, California
Date: March 12, 2019
Densho ID: ddr-densho-1000-468-16

<Begin Segment 16>

VY: How many nurseries... maybe you don't know, but how many nurseries like you were there, that did those kind of crops?

NH: At that time there was Sunnyside Nursery, another one... actually, that's about all, but he was a big nursery. There might have been a couple other growers, oh, Kawahara, who was a smaller type bedding plant. When they moved, they started growing crops like we grew. But there was crops beyond our area, that grew similar crops.

VY: Was Sunnyside Nursery also a Japanese American...

NH: Yeah, Yoshida family, very good family. They tried to buy us out, and at that time I wasn't married. They buy us out and we would manage it. So my uncle, I was not, at that time, not an official partner, later they gave me a partnership. My uncle said, "Well, I'm not going." Because I'd been to Sunnyside, and they're a big corporation, and I just told them, "I'm going to lose my little freedom I have," so he didn't sell. He could have had a very good salary, much more probably than he was pulling out of our nursery, and probably could have retired earlier, he kept it from... by then I was ten years into working there. Those, all those factors kind of added in what my family did for me, so I didn't quit. It wasn't, you have to sign a contract to work for so many years. Gave me a lot of leeway, gave me, I didn't know it, a voice in the decision-making. [Laughs] I didn't know it at that time.

VY: Do you think, were most of the other families, most of the other nurseries, were they family-run?

NH: Yes. Usually two people, brothers or something. I don't know too many nurseries, the Yoshida family, the kids came in. I think Kawahara later, the kids came in. And I think those kids appreciate, I later appreciated the freedom. There's a freedom there, when you work for your family, you know there's a lot of constrictions, but there's a lot of freedom, it's hard to explain.

VY: Did a lot of kids go into this family business?

NH: I don't think so, I don't think so.

VY: Why do you think that is?

NH: It was a time, long hours, it was hard work. If I had my choice now, I don't think I'd go into that business. Just plain hard work. And each generation, they want their kids to be more successful, I don't know what, professional-wise or whatever, don't they? And when I'm growing up, I hear these subtle things, "Oh, he's a doctor, he's gonna study to be a lawyer, or he's a captain in the army," subtle things like these high positions. And to myself, I thought, "So what?" to myself. I took an aptitude test, and one was not being a lawyer and not being a minister, the lowest things (scoring).

VY: Those are the things you should not be.

NH: Yes. [Laughs]

VY: What were the things you should be?

NH: It was all mathematics type of things, science things. So I just went that way and unfortunately, in our high school, four year program, was college prep. And I wanted to take auto mechanics just to learn, but the counselor said no. Senior year you got to take solid geometry or some stuff. See, I didn't, at that time, didn't work a lot making things and stuff, they came a little later.

VY: Do you think that's because you just didn't have the opportunity to do it or because you weren't interested?

NH: I was pretty busy in school, grammar school and junior high school and high school. I was pretty busy studying.

VY: In grammar school?

NH: Yeah.

VY: What did you study then, what did you like?

NH: Basic stuff. But I was always given extra credit stuff. I hated that my friend and I, we'd have to make up a special project. But later on I understood that you learn more, you learn things that you don't learn... and I guess we kept up in our regular studies, we were able to do that.

VY: What were your friends like, actually, back in grammar school? Who were your friends? Tell me about that.

NH: Just practically within walking distance, one guy, my best friend was like me, we're thrown in academic situations and stuff like that. They were all hakujins, all of them. I never had any Asian friends, so actually, growing up, palling around with my two brothers, we'd do things. And until I left to Los Angeles, then I started going with Asian people, actually Japanese Americans. I joined a Japanese American diving club, free diving club. I lived in a boarding house with all Japanese Americans. And so my best friends, I made friends there, we went to the same college together.

VY: That's interesting. So when you were a kid, were your friends not from other nursery families, then?

NH: (Yes).

VY: I see.

NH: We were kind of forced to go to church to try and assimilate. I hated that because there was a bully there. I don't know why, he just came and he hit me in the arm as hard as he could. I hated that. But I'm not a fighter, I don't even know how to fight.

VY: What would you do when he did that?

NH: I would try to suppress the crying, and then fortunately the school started, he'd leave me alone.

VY: Did that happen frequently?

NH: It became worse after I was selected to go to Mt. Herman. Mt. Herman was a week, representing church and do activities in the Santa Cruz area.

VY: And it got worse then?

NH: Yeah, the hits came, two hits instead of one.

VY: Why do you think that is? Do you think he wanted to go to Mt. Herman?

NH: I don't know. Same thing, I went to Cal, I took judo or something, freshman. And one guy there was a junior, he was going to show the things, and he really got me. Flipped me over and I got out of breath, and I know he did it on purpose, because he was kind of a bullying type of guy. I said, what the heck? And at that time, I respect people older than me and bigger than me. Later I verbally fought back.

VY: So later on you learned to kind of stick up for yourself?

NH: Yeah, or I'd pretend like -- it happened in grammar school, too, two hakujin guys, they were the biggest guys in our class, played touch football, they hit you harder and this and that. But after a while, you could get up and then you hit them or something, and after a while, little bit of respect.

VY: Why do you think all these different kids picked on you?

NH: I was quiet. I guess I looked like a meek kid. And I was asthmatic as a kid, so I felt different. It felt like I'm not a complete (person)... I don't know.

<End Segment 16> - Copyright © 2019 Densho. All Rights Reserved.