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VY: Okay, so we'll finish up with Amache, is there anything else you remember in there? Any adults that made an impression on you?

FN: Well, it was very interesting because here you have this population of Japanese, all Japanese, and there were all kinds of Japanese. And so in our block, we happened to have a very remarkable person, his name was Mr. Koda. And when you say Koda, immediately, every Japanese thinks about the Koda family that raised rice. Well, Mr. Koda, an Issei from Japan, was in our block, and he was our block manager. And he had an expensive rice-growing operation in central California before the war, was one of the biggest rice farms in the state of California. And the family is still running this farm, the rice farm. And it's now in the third generation that they're here in California. But Mr. Koda started this operation in central California. But from what I understand about his story, is that he didn't first start growing rice, he started other businesses. But they weren't always very successful, and finally he started growing rice, and it became a huge operation before the war. And, like I say, his family is still in the business, and they're doing different things. They're doing one thing that I think is really interesting, they grow sweet rice, and sweet rice is rice that we use to make our mochi for Christmas, you know what mochi is? But one thing that they've also done is they make mochi powder, and you could see that all over the United States in these one-pound boxes, and they're sold all over the United States, the Koda sweet rice flour. So I think that's a remarkable thing. And then also, Mr. Koda was very, very progressive. Before the war, he hired, I think they're from Japan, geneticists who came and hybridized different kinds of rice, and he found a rice that was particularly suitable to this area, and he was very successful because of that, being one of the first ones to make a special rice. And the family, I think, is still working on hybridizing... I mean, he knew, even though he was an Issei, that there was room for improvement, and he did a lot of things for the rice industry that is remarkable.

There was another family that is from Livingston, and her name was Pat Suzuki, and she was always interested in singing and dancing, and she's always performing. And she went on to make her living as a performer, and I know that was not easy. And that family is still, her family is still living in Livingston, but Pat Suzuki became a star on Broadway, which is, I think, remarkable for somebody of my generation. I would never think of going into the arts. I mean, artists have a hard time making a living, especially if you're Asian, it's very, very difficult. So I think those two people kind of stand out in my mind.

<End Segment 10> - Copyright © 2019 Densho. All Rights Reserved.