Densho Digital Archive - Toru Sakahara - Kiyo Sakahara Interview I (denshovh-storu

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DG: Your father then worked there and what years are we talking about that he started this?

TS: My dad started to work as a manager sometime in the '30s. That left the farm in charge of me and my brothers so I could remember that he would be driving a Pontiac or Buick and I'd have to wash his car and that's all I'd see of him. And he never discussed what he was doing or what he had accomplished. And he would get in his car, drive off, come back. Before he left, he would (tell me): Well today take our (laborers) and do this, do that and do this. And I could remember he used to preach to me and tell me that I've got to get out there to the tool shed, about a half an hour before the labor force came. He (said) we're paying them good cash money and we don't want them to be paid (for) not working and just sharpening tools, so you sharpen all the tools before they come. Also, he had us schedule ten hours of labor and we started at seven, came home for lunch, and we quit at six o'clock. We didn't work after six o'clock, but during the work time, we just worked at full speed.

DG: When you went to school in the winter, did you have to work when you came home, too and things?

TS: We didn't have much time to work except on Saturdays. I could remember that there were some produce that couldn't be sold, for example cabbages and pumpkins, squash, and we would bring them to the store in piles in the barn. We would work on those things for the market during the winter time.

DG: You also went to Japanese school after you went to regular school?

TS: Yeah, I think regular school we got out about 3:20 and from 4:00 to 5:00 everyday we went to Japanese Language School. Sometimes we would study and sometimes we would fool around.

DG: How many kids were in your class?

TS: I just don't recall, just thirty or forty.

DG: Did you walk to the language school?

TS: We walked to the public school which was about a mile from the farm. It took fifteen minutes, walking as fast as I could.