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BK: So you were the eldest, and you had a houseful of brothers?

SU: Yes. And that's why my father decided to start a dairy, because he knew that milk and dairy products were good for children. And since he had so many, he invested in the White River Dairy, which had already been started by a group of people that had come from Japan, but they couldn't make a go of it. So my father bought them out, and bought this plant. People ask me, "How did you like milking the cows?" Well, I never saw a cow. Our milk was brought in from the White River Valley in a refrigerated truck. And then all we did was pasteurize bottles and deliver to restaurants and grocery stores, because before war there were quite a few Japanese restaurants and grocery stores.

BK: And where was the dairy located then?

SU: Oh, it's on Weller Street, right now, between, well, the address was 813 Weller Street.

BK: Here's a picture of the, of the dairy. [Shows photograph] Could you kind of tell us a little bit about it?

SU: Yes. There were quite a few dairy farmers in the White River Valley. Japanese had cows, and so that's why since our milk came from the Japanese dairy farmers, he named it White River Dairy. Here it is. White River Dairy. And this is taken in 1938, so the trucks are quite old here. But I do remember we had all new trucks at the time we evacuated.

BK: And you had a number of trucks, which means that the business was really thriving at that time.

SU: Seven trucks.

BK: Okay.

<End Segment 2> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.