<Begin Segment 1>

DG: Can you take us back to before the war and tell me about your family and what farming was like for you before the war? What did your family farm and what was that like?

AS: How farming was?

DG: Uh-huh.

AS: Before the war?

DG: Before the war. What, what were you farming and what did your family do?

AS: I was young yet and I was still going to school, so I didn't have too much to say then.

DG: I have listed that your occupation -- and this is from a government record that we found that they did on you before they took you to camp...

AS: You got you got to speak a little louder. I can't...

DG: Okay, I'll shout.

AS: Honest to God. Even with this on, [points to ear] it's terrible. Five thousand dollars?

DG: You need a, yeah, oh...

AS: You know what I mean?

DG: Yeah, that should, it should work. Okay, so you were listed as a truck and tractor driver. Is that true?

AS: No tractor.

DG: No tractor, yeah.

AS: I had horses.

DG: You had horses. And what was your job on the farm?

AS: Who was the last farmer on Bainbridge with a horse? [Points to self] Right here.

DG: When was that?

AS: 1951? No other... I drove the truck all right, but no tractor. All the, all the Japanese that were here came back... well, I had to pay the land off. So I didn't have no money so I couldn't buy a tractor. Everybody else bought a tractor. In 1951 or '52, I bought the first tractor. My, I couldn't afford anymore because I had to pay for the land now. So...

[Interruption]

DG: So, can you tell me again -- you have to repeat yourself -- tell me about... tell me about farming with your horse.

AS: Farm what?

DG: Tell me again about being the last farmer to have a horse.

AS: Where?

DG: Yes.

AS: I don't, I don't... you know my social security? I report on the net, right? So it's peanuts. I don't even make enough for groceries so I have to keep farming. I got no choice. Like, the guys that work at Boeings, they put in social security on the gross. Well, a farmer only puts it on the net. And my net is nothing, you know, after taking all the expenses off. So my social security is nothing. I don't, I can't live on my social security. I don't, I don't even count it. So I have to keep farming. I got no choice. But it, maybe it's a good thing for my health and longevity and... I don't know. I don't know what the real answer is.

<End Segment 1> - Copyright © 2006 Densho. All Rights Reserved.