<Begin Segment 4>

MN: Okay, now, so you were born in probably Monterey Park area, but then your family had to move out.

KK: Yeah.

MN: Do you remember why you had to move out?

KK: No.

MN: Then from Monterey Park I think you said you went to South L.A., does that sound right? That's where the big forest was.

KK: Oh... I think we moved to South Park, someplace in South Park first before we moved to Monterey Park. I think that's it. I think we... because I was still small then. I was a toddler, and I just started to go to school from there. And I remember walking through the forest to get to the school, and there wasn't any Japanese there. So I think I was kind of lonesome, and when they moved to this other place in Monterey Park, I think I was happier because there were more people there.

MN: So this was, and so when you moved back into the Monterey Park area, was this when you grew sweet peas?

KK: Hmm?

MN: Is this when your family grew sweet peas?

KK: No, this was before. I mean, growing sweet pea was afterwards. On Atlantic Boulevard we rented a house and grew sweet peas along the street. But that was way later.

MN: But that was before Hynes-Clearwater, right?

KK: No... I don't think so. I think it was afterwards. I think we were living... no, how come? I don't remember.

MN: Because you, when you went to Hynes-Clearwater you went to your grammar school?

KK: School.

MN: And junior high school and high school. And I think you said the sweet pea area, you were only there about a year?

KK: Yeah, that's right. I think it was a transition when we moved from, I think we moved from Hynes where we were, 'cause our lease was up. And we went to grow sweet peas on the street and sell. And after we did that, I think we found another place by Compton Boulevard.

MN: Is this when you were farming under the wire, the line, electrical lines?

KK: Yeah, we were farming under the electrical wire at that time. That was later years. But, because I was going, I was going there when I went to Compton, I think.

MN: I know it's confusing because your family moved around so much.

KK: Yeah, they moved from Hynes to Montebello and back to Compton, I mean, Compton Avenue, but in Hynes.

MN: It was in Compton Avenue in Hynes, and that was when the Edison lines...

KK: Yeah, we farmed underneath the Edison line.

MN: Let me ask you about your move to the Hynes-Clearwater area. I think you thought it was around 1933, because the earthquake happened in 1933.

KK: Yeah, 1933. Yeah, that was something else. The earthquake happened and I was in the house with a pot of noodle, and that thing fell. We had electricity by the way at that time. And so the house, those houses were made on a foundation of one of these four by four... what do you call it, foundation. So one of 'em broke, I mean, slipped, and so the whole one end of the house went down. So they had to get somebody to come and push it back, but they had to use one of those, I don't know what you call those things. Anyway, we lifted it up and pushed the house back. But I could see my father coming home with his horse, and I could see them swaying like a drunkard, really swaying. It was something to see. But they came home okay. But that was an earthquake that I'll never forget.

MN: So your foundation went off of one end, did you sleep in your house that night?

KK: Oh, yeah. Nothing happened except that it just went down on one end, so they got some people to help, and they came and they got one of these hydraulic lifters and they pushed it back on its foundation.

MN: I want to ask you a little bit about Hynes-Clearwater. What is the area called now?

KK: Oh, it's called Paramount, and it's been Paramount ever since.

MN: And when your family moved in to do farming there, was your family the only Japanese American --

KK: No, there were, let's see, one, two, three, three other people that farmed in that area. Two right by the street, and then one in the middle. We were way in. We had a narrow dirt road that went to our farm area. And then you could see the railroad track going to L.A. from our end of the farm.

MN: So there were four Japanese American families?

KK: Right there, right in that area.

MN: How many acres did your family farm?

KK: Oh, let's see. We all had about twenty acres each, I guess.

MN: And you mentioned earlier that your farm had electricity.

KK: Yes, uh-huh. The owner of the property that we were renting, he had electricity pulled all the way to our place. So if you're the owner, I guess you can do that.

MN: So you had an electric stove?

KK: We had an electric refrigerator.

MN: So you didn't have an icebox, you had a refrigerator?

KK: Yeah, we had when we were living other places, but by that time we had an electric stove and an electric refrigerator.

MN: How about a washer?

KK: Oh, yeah, we had an electric washer, too. One of those first kind that we had was... let's see. Washer, big washer, and a small tub. And the small tub, it was connected to each other. So it would wring it out, and you'd take it out and then rinse it and then you put it back in there and put there through again. But it whirled. But before that, we had one of those cranking kind, a washing machine, too.

MN: So the washing machine that you had is very different from what we know today.

KK: Yeah, because it had a big tub to wash, and you put the wash into that little round thing, and then it would spin out the water. And then you change the water in the washing machine and you rinse it, and then you put it through the wringer again. I mean, it was, spin dry it. Before that, we had the washing machine, and dryer, we had to hand crank it to get the water out, and rinse it again, and put it through the wringer. But I don't know when that new one came in, but we did have it when we were living over in Hynes. But we had two kinds, but we had electricity.

MN: It was very unusual for a farm to have electricity.

KK: Yeah.

<End Segment 4> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.