<Begin Segment 12>

DG: So when you came back after the, being in the military, who, what was the farming community like here on Bainbridge? How would it change?

AS: When was that?

DG: After the war. When you, you came back from being in the military...

AS: There was only Hayashidas, Kitamotos, Terashitas, Horishige. There was only four farmers left. Out of what? How many farmers? You probably got it better...

DG: I think I have it written somewhere, but I don't know right now.

AS: Yeah, well, there were probably twenty or thirty, huh? All of that. You know, they were not big, but they were small. After the war, Hayashida had their own property, right? Koura had their own property, Terashita had their own property, Horishige, I think they bought it, bought it when they came back. They didn't buy much land. And then my dad had it, but that wasn't, that was up in the air, right, because we didn't really own it, so. Then after, after we all got back, the Filipinos more or less quit. They can't... I'm not saying we're better than them, but they couldn't compete as well, so they kind of more died off and went to work in the Navy yard. You know, a lot of 'em did 'cause they made more money there. Over?

DG: Were there other people farming on the island who were not Japanese or Filipino?

AS: [Laughs] Huh?

DG: I'm confused. How, was Bainbridge still a big agricultural area after the war?

AS: After the war what?

DG: Was there still a lot of farming on Bainbridge after the war?

AS: Nothing. After the war, Koura, Koura brothers stayed in, Hayashida brothers, Terashita brothers. And then that's all. It was my dad and then Horishige. They didn't have much. That's it.

DG: So did the amount that was produced on Bainbridge ever get back to where it was before the war?

AS: Before the war? They were big.

DG: And it never got back to that?

AS: No, not that big. Koura brothers were pretty big after the war. They got probably the same as before the war. But that was a headache. And after everything was over they all... their father and mother quit and they sold everything out. And that's when it went into Meadowmeer, up there. Terashita sold everything out, you know, he had fifty acres there. Koura brothers had a hundred and somethin' acres there. They all made good money.[Laughs] But, me, I could have sold mine the same way. And, you know, I'll be rich today, too, but... they gave me a pretty good deal, the city did. I got more, six more years to farm there. Then after the six years, if I'm still living -- if I, I doubt that, but -- I got the control of that fifteen acres. I get to farm it the way I want. I rent out part of it if I wanted to, and, and... so that was a pretty good deal. I mean, they're paying, they're paying me the interest, no principal, because, you know, my brother and sister will get it all, I mean, if I'm if I'm gone, so. But they gotta come up with the big income, income tax if I'm gone because it all goes to them, see.

DG: Your brother and sister.

AS: Huh?

DG: Your brother and sister.

AS: Yeah.

<End Segment 12> - Copyright © 2006 Densho. All Rights Reserved.