<Begin Segment 10>

DG: Did you have much help from the Filipino community in, in farming your land?

AS: Not too much. Not too much. I had one from, that one that worked for your mother, I mean, Shigeko, and he worked for me for about two years. I learned a lot from him. I did, I really did. I mean, 'cause I never raised raspberries in my life, so I didn't really know how to take care of 'em. But she knew how to take care of it right. I mean... and credit goes there, should be. Not over here.

DG: And how did the Filipino farming community work with the Japanese farming community? Did you help each other out? Or did, was there a relationship there? Even like around the wartime and after?

AS: During the war I remember they were all on their own. I know after the war there was nobody in the business of gettin' all these fields ready for planting and stuffing. 'Cause everybody... nobody wanted to do it. It cost money, too, you know. I did all, most all of it on the island, for the Filipinos. They wanted to plant a little field, I'd work that ground up, then I'd go over here and I'd go over here. Different places and... 'cause I had the equipment then. You know, I mean... so, when they plant berries, they all call me up. I said, "Okay, I'll do it if I get time." Gee whiz, I put in long hours then, when they can't do it now. [Laughs]

DG: Did you... who was, who helped your family do the picking and the harvesting? Was it just the kids in the family or did you hire...

AS: I had what?

DG: What... around the wartime, or before the war, who was helping harvest the berries? Was it...

AS: Oh, the Canadian Indians. You know, they would come down here. There would be lots of 'em here. There'd be thousands of 'em here on the island. That's all there was then. But now it's different. I had, one, two, three... three come down this summer from Canada. I used to have about thirty of 'em, you know, during harvest. But I don't farm that big no more. I don't have strawberries, I just got little bit of raspberries and I raise pumpkin. I do quite a bit of that.

DG: Don't you sell strawberries at your, on your farm in, during...

AS: Hmm?

DG: I thought you sold strawberries. Do you grow, you don't grow strawberries anymore?

AS: No, I quit strawberries over ten years ago.

DG: Oh, whose strawberries are those that you sell then?

AS: They're Karen then. See, she's been with me about twenty years. You know, she, ever since she got out of high school she been workin' for me. But, I don't know. She's, she's got a good deal. I gave her land and everything for farming and, because she's been working for me a long time. I don't know. But farming is a tough life, though. I mean, I'm not saying it's an easy life. She's knows it now. I mean, after twenty years of work, you gotta work hard to get it. I mean otherwise you'd never make it, never make it. Not very many people could stay on a farm and work. We had four or five people livin' in my house up there and they -- you know, white people. They worked, they were young, worked on the farm. And out of that five, if you got one, you're lucky -- that want to work. You know, they just can't take it. I mean, if you weed all day, your back hurts and you know what I mean? They don't wanna do it. They just want to kick the weeds. It just, it's just not there. It's hard to find a good helper. I got a couple Mexicans pretty good now, I'm trying to hang on to them. Enough?

<End Segment 10> - Copyright © 2006 Densho. All Rights Reserved.