Densho Digital Repository - Lon Inaba Interview

Densho Digital Repository
Densho Visual History Collection
Title: Lon Inaba Interview
Narrator: Lon Inaba
Interviewer: Tom Ikeda
Location: Wapato, Washington Date: May 27, 2023
Densho ID: ddr-densho-1000-537-15

<Begin Segment 15>

TI: I'm glad you're telling this story. Because again, we started the interview talking about how, before this interview, you gave us a tour of Inaba Farms, and it is quite the operation. And to think, right after the war, there was essentially nothing. I mean, you're starting from really ground zero. Other than, I guess, the reputation and friendships your grandfather had made, so some of these people knew him well enough to work with him and do these things. So it started off with your grandfather and father. Who else eventually, I mean, the rest of the family, what about the other Niseis, did anyone else show up?

LI: Well, my uncle Sheane, I think, came and farmed for a little while. But I think they lost their firstborn child and they kind of decided to go do something else. Gilbert and Tamaki and Reiko and George and Kay, you know, my dad was going to Laramie, Wyoming, I think, during the war years. I think he was trying to get, he wanted to be an electrical engineer. So he took some classes back then, but that was about all the education he had. He didn't have enough time or funds to do that. But when he came back, he helped to operate the farm and helped to make sure that his siblings all had the opportunity to go to college, most of them WSU. [Laughs]

TI: So let me... so your dad never got a college education?

LI: No.

TI: But the other Nisei siblings did?

LI: Yes.

TI: So it sounds like he, in some ways, sacrificed himself so the others could do that.

LI: And he hung around with my grandfather and my grandmother to make sure that they were well taken care of.

TI: Yeah, okay. So essentially, because Sheane didn't stay, he played kind of the oldest son role in many ways.

LI: Yeah, I think so. And I think Sheane had opportunities because he was in the military. And I think for the returning veterans, they had some opportunities, and I think he had the opportunity to go to college through, I don't know if it was the GI Bill or anything, but it was something that was related to the military service.