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VY: Okay, so there was one big nursery, but there was houses all around it?

NH: On the perimeter, except the frontage, we had access from the main road, (73rd Avenue). And they had a big house that we all lived in.

VY: So when you say "we all," who was that?

NH: My grandfather and grandmother, my uncle, ten years younger than my dad, my dad and my mother and four kids, three (boys plus my sister later). And we actually ate cafeteria-style, you know, a long table.

VY: Did everybody participate in making dinner or was it primarily...

NH: My mother and grandmother, and my grandmother got a little older. It's interesting you say that, because around the sixth grade, my mother just blew up. (She) went up to the room and started crying and all that. What happened was, when she finished cooking and serving everybody, when she sat down, everybody was finished. So that was six years or seven, I think the next week my dad and mom looked for a new house in Hayward, California.

VY: Oh, really?

NH: Yeah.

VY: Oh, was she just tired of...

NH: She's actually the lowest lady on the totem pole in the house. It wasn't intended, but I'm sure that was...

VY: Oh, I see, because there was other family members there?

NH: No, just my grandmother and grandfather. And then my uncle, there's no female to help with the cooking and everything.

VY: So she was left with most of the work?

NH: Yes.

VY: I see. So then your father went, found a house so they could move out?

NH: Yeah.

VY: I see. That was nice. [Laughs]

NH: Yeah. [Laughs]

VY: Okay, so they moved out into a house, but (Dad) continued to work the same nursery.

NH: Yeah. My dad, at the beginning, before the war, managed the nursery.

VY: Your dad did.

NH: Yeah, through the depression eras and other conflict with my grandfather's siblings went through that.

VY: What kind of conflict was that?

NH: I don't know, but it divided (the family), my grandfather retained sole possession, and the rule was no (family) females working in the nursery (after that time).

VY: Whose rule was that?

NH: My dad and my uncle, when they reestablished (after the war).

VY: Do you know why they made that rule?

NH: Apparently... gee, I hope I don't offend anybody. My grandfather's children were all female, and I guess when it came to dividing it up or whatever caused it, it was a lot of problems there.

VY: Interesting. So your grandfather's children were female.

NH: My grandfather's children were male.

VY: Were male, okay. So he had no female children.

NH: One female, but she went back to Japan and became practically a Japanese citizen. I think she went back quite early (just before the war).

VY: I see. Okay, so I'm just trying to figure out why that rule was. So they didn't want any females to work or own it because they...

NH: In the management part.

VY: In the management part, okay.

NH: Probably they were interfering too much with the management.

VY: Oh, interesting.

NH: Unfortunately, I can't verify any of that, because my dad and my uncle, they passed away.

VY: Okay, so that happened, that was your dad and your uncle that made that rule.

NH: Yeah, my uncle, actually, was quite young, he was late teens at that time, before the war. So the burden was on my father. And he, by nature, is a quiet guy, I don't think he wanted to be in the nursery itself. He was actually a UC Davis (grad), he wanted to be an engineer, and in those days, a lot of prejudice, so he switched to horticulture and ended up in the nursery business.

VY: Because he couldn't find a job?

NH: I don't think he even tried, as far as I can tell. Because he was the sole successor to my grandfather, so he just took the job, assumed the position.

VY: I see. And then his brother joined him.

NH: Later, yeah, after the war. When we get to that, I could give you that detail.

<End Segment 4> - Copyright © 2019 Densho. All Rights Reserved.