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AI: Well now you were discharged at the end of July, in 1946. So you were in the service almost two years. And in the meantime, what had happened to your family, your folks who were back in Heart Mountain?

KO: Well they had eventually left Heart Mountain, and since we had nowhere to go, nowhere to, or nothing to go back to in Raymond, they decided for whatever reason to settle in Seattle. I wasn't in on any of what went on during that time because I think they felt that I had enough problems anyway. And so, they were one of the many people that ended up in the old Japanese Language School. And from there, moving to an apartment not too far away, where we stayed for many, many years.

AI: So when you were discharged, what happened? You were discharged while you were there, in Germany?

KO: No, I came to Fort Lewis.

AI: Oh.

KO: And was discharged out of Fort Lewis. And, I came home and as I mentioned before, it was a tough experience coming into a big city from a small town. So I was a lost soul for several months, and didn't know what to do. And yet I had family obligations too, and that kinda' got to me a little bit. But, eventually -- and I knew I had to go to work -- so I did a little gardening. And eventually had a chance to go to Columbia Greenhouse with my brother, to work down there. That's an old time greenhouse business that had been established years and years. And so when -- they had a fair amount to come back to. And they were running their business quite successfully. And we stayed there about ten years.

AI: Right, so Columbia Greenhouses was a major business from prewar. They came back, reestablished, and then you and your brother were both hired there?

KO: That's right.

AI: About when was that?

KO: Oh, that had to have been... '46 or '47. Yes.

<End Segment 29> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.