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Densho Visual History Collection
Title: Helen T. Sasaki Interview
Narrator: Helen T. Sasaki
Interviewer: Patricia Wakida
Location: Emeryville, California
Date: April 7, 2022
Densho ID: ddr-densho-1000-505-3

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PW: And then let's go to your father's side. So your father, of course, his parents also came to the United States before him because he was born in San Francisco.

HS: Yes.

PW: Do you know anything about your father's side of the family?

HS: I just know that he's the only child. My grandfather was, he came as a farm laborer. And I don't know how my grandmother got here because she married my grandfather. And he was working in an area in what they called the Delta, which is outside of Stockton. There were many little small islands where farming was done. And the one that he was working on when my father was born was called Frank's Tract. And so my father was named Frank from the fact that he was working on Frank's Tract. But I'm afraid I don't know that history of why my grandmother would have come here to get married in a strange land. And so that happened, and eventually -- I don't know whether you want to go further -- but eventually they were able to buy, I guess from the money that my grandfather earned, and as I said, I don't know what my grandmother did during that time. He had enough money to buy property in Linden, California. And that property was under my father's name because the Japanese immigrants couldn't buy property or land. And so my father was born in 1913, my grandfather and grandmother only had the one child, and they had no others. Then my grandfather became, had a stroke when my father was very young yet. And so my father, at a young age, had to take care of the farm, take care of his parents and the farm. And so he had a rough life when he was young. And because he had no brothers or sisters, it was an isolated life. But of course he did go to school, so that's the way that he made friends. So he used to walk to school, which is about three miles away from his home, and walked back and forth from school in the elementary time.

And later on, way later on, I went to the same school my dad did. When we came back from camp, we went to the same school and it was called Delphi, D-E-L-P-H-I, Delphi school. He went on and went to Linden High School. But because of my grandfather's stroke, and it was just too hard for my grandmother to work by herself, he couldn't even finish high school. It said that, in his bio, that he graduated from Linden High School, but it's my understanding that he actually did not graduate, wasn't able to graduate from Linden High School. And so he worked hard all his life.

PW: He continued with farming even after...

HS: Yes.

PW: After he didn't finish high school?

HS: Yes, yes, he continued farming. Of course, that's the reason why he didn't finish high school is because they needed him on the farm. And at that time, they couldn't afford to do anything else. I don't know, as I said, they gathered the money just to get the farm and that was it.

PW: Do you know what they were growing?

HS: They were growing, they had (...) a fruit orchard. And I heard during the years that it had changed (...). The way I remember it, we had cherries and walnut trees on some of the property, which is about thirty acres. And the rest of the acreage that Dad had was used to plant row crops and was being sold. And he sold the harvest to wholesalers who would sell it to stores. And the crops included everything from tomatoes, onions, potatoes, spinach, and even asparagus. When asparagus came out, I thought, "What is that?" We'd never eaten asparagus before, and I didn't really like it even at that time, but now it's like, yeah, I like it. But yeah. So that's what my father did.

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