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TI: And so when you were young, it sounds like you remember having your sister there. What was kind of like a typical day for the family? I mean, when you think about maybe like around now, like in the springtime, what would a typical day be like?

TH: Well, I don't ever remember being on a vacation, not many people did. But I don't know, we just expected our parents to be out in the field working, I guess.

TI: But when you, like when you wake up in the morning, would someone wake you up and would there be breakfast? So tell me how, what would happen for you during that period?

TH: Oh. We would just wake up, my mother always had a breakfast for us. I don't even remember what it was, but we had a breakfast, and we always walked to school. They didn't have a bus, so it's just a couple of miles.

TI: But you said, so when you woke up, your parents were already out in the fields working?

TH: Probably.

TI: And so the breakfast was just like, on the table waiting for you?

TH: Just help ourselves to whatever's there.

TI: And then you had to get yourselves ready for school and just go to school?

TH: Right.

TI: And you would take a bus, or would have to walk to school?

TH: We usually walked. (...) I mean, didn't have school buses that I remember, because I never rode in one. But my friend walked two miles, and then we'd meet at school. And I think about a mile for me.

TI: And then after school when you came home, what happened?

TH: I'd go out in the field where my mother would be working, and I would either play or pretend like I'm helping her or whatever.

TI: And these were, again, the crops were flowers?

TH: Flowers and vegetables. Tomatoes, mostly tomatoes, (...).

TI: Now, did your parents have workers on the farm?

TH: No, it was just a small (farm) in Beaverton it was only seven acres, and they did it themselves.

TI: I mean, seven acres sounds like a lot to me.

TH: It does to me, too. But when you think... I remember it was seven acres. And there was a ditch, a little creek. I used to call it a ditch, and they used to take, some way, the water, I think they must have scooped it out to water the tomatoes and all that.

TI: And do you recall, did your father have, like, machinery and things like tractors and things like that?

TH: He had a horse, her name was Mary, and we weren't allowed to ride it. Mary was his treasure, he loved Mary more than us. But anyway, he would groom her, and my job was to clean out the barn, though, because it was kind of smelly. [Laughs]

TI: And how would you, why would you say that he loved Mary more than he loved the kids?

TH: Because we weren't to ride her, but soon as, like use it for plowing or whatever he did, he'd tell me I had to wash her down. Took very good care of her. That was his only machinery.

TI: [Addressing BY] I was going to move on to her sister, but any other questions about this?

BY: I just was wondering what... so they grew vegetables and flowers. Who would they sell them to, or where would they take them?

TH: He built a stand out in front (of our house). He must have been a little handy with a hammer. A little open faced store.

BY: Like a produce stand and flower stand?

TH: Right.

BY: Did he sell anything to, say, like a market in Portland or even to some other...

TH: And then when the vegetables came out, they used to... I remember radishes and tomatoes only, but I know there were some other things. There was a Security Market in Portland, maybe you're familiar with it? The ladies, mostly the wives, had little stalls, and they would sell produce there.

BY: Maybe something like Pike Place Market in Seattle, where these truck farmers would go and take their...

TH: Yes.

TI: How about, would they ever do any wholesale to, like a cooperative with the farmers, would pool their things together and sell to them?

TH: No. But after Beaverton, all the people farther west were strawberry farmers and they did have a big coop. And my dad... and when the war broke out, he had sixty acres of strawberries, and that's where he would have taken 'em. I think that was the first year that he had strawberries.

TI: Well, so your dad, by the time of the war, had expanded quite a bit. You mentioned originally seven acres, but then...

TH: Sixty acres.

TI: But grew to sixty acres.

TH: But that's the sad part. We moved out on May 2nd. Next month probably would have been berry season, because the berries, I guess, were ready to ripen. But all the money they had was put into that field. And the only money he had, he had a war bond. I think there were 750 dollar war bonds, that's the only thing. So whatever he had put in, everything was lost. They lost everything, all the Japanese farmers lost everything.

TI: And do you know if -- we're jumping around a little bit, but this is interesting -- did someone come in when the family left, and they came in and harvested, like the strawberries?

TH: That we don't know, we just left it. But some people, one family, my friend said that neighbors came and just picked whatever they wanted for themselves, didn't take 'em to the market or anything.

TI: That's so interesting to me. I mean, just this side note, thinking, so the war had started, you have all these fresh fruits and berries, I would think it would be so desirable or so needed during this time. It's such a waste that it was not really harvested.

TH: Right. Like ours, I think... well, the worst part for me was leaving our dog. But one of the neighbors, after about a half a year, wrote to, got a hold of, found us someplace. Anyway, they took the dog and they told my dad that they picked some of the strawberries for themselves(...). And not only us, some of the Japanese people had hundreds of acres.

TI: And for your family, you know, these 60 acres, did your father, was your father leasing it or did he own it?

TH: No, you couldn't own land then. My brother was too young to own.

TI: So that was all really lost then, he just had to walk away from it.

TH: Yeah, just walked away from it. That must have been hard.

<End Segment 7> - Copyright © 2022 Densho. All Rights Reserved.