<Begin Segment 2>

SY: So the two of them, then, where did they eventually end up? Or actually, let's go back to your father, when he came with his parents, where, do you know where they ended up when they came to the United States?

AM: No, I don't. I think my mother said that they landed in San Francisco when she came with my father, and she was talking about getting on this amusement pier and how she lost her jewelries and things on the Ferris wheel. Maybe she was exaggerating, I don't know. [Laughs]

SY: That was, she remembers that from San Francisco, when she got here?

AM: Yes, I believe so.

SY: I see. And when they first came here, do you know what your father was doing for a living?

AM: No, but I assume that they were farming.

SY: And he and his brothers were still together when they got here?

AM: I don't know that either, because I don't remember much until we got to Venice and we were farming in some acreage over there.

SY: And that was after you were born, obviously, and you were a young, youngster. Like how old?

AM: Well, I found a photograph of the Japanese school, and then it's dated 1934, but I remember walking to Japanese school.

SY: So that was fairly, fairly soon after your parents... what, exactly how did they end up in Venice? How did, do you know how they...

AM: That I don't know either. I know I was born on the farm, and then the next thing I knew, I was in Venice.

SY: Venice, which was about two or three miles from Santa Monica.

AM: In the '30s.

SY: And what, was there a thriving population of Japanese Americans in, living around you at that time?

AM: Yes. We, the Kitaokas farmed on the corner of Inglewood and Culver Boulevard, and then we farmed with, oh yes, his younger brother was farming with him, and then the other farmer to the east, Yoshimoto, Mary... I'm getting too old for this. [Laughs]

SY: Can't remember names. Me too. So what was the crop that was being farmed? Do you remember that? Do you know what they were farming in Venice?

AM: Well, it was either, I think it was string beans at least, because they used to have those lath sticks planted in the ground and we used to pull them up and play samurai with it, so that much I remember.

SY: And there were just a few of these Japanese people that worked for other, for the farmers, or did they have their own farms at the time?

AM: I think they, most of them had their own. They probably leased it 'cause they couldn't own the land.

SY: Right. So did you actually know your grandparents on your father's side? Did you, did they...

AM: Yeah.

SY: So did they stay with you as you moved through southern California?

AM: That I don't know. I think they were on their own on the, for their own business. But I remember my grandparents, they liked to swim and so they usually swam in the evening in the Santa Monica water, or Venice water.

SY: And you, do you know why they chose to, that particular area, Santa Monica?

AM: No. Today I understand Santa Monica is a well-known place for people from Japan to stop and visit, but why they did I have no idea.

SY: Because it wasn't, it wasn't really a place where a lot of Japanese settled, was it? Or...

AM: Well, in that area, including West L.A., there were many village friends farming.

SY: From your parents' village.

AM: Yeah.

SY: I see. So they sent, they might have been there because they knew others from their home village.

AM: That could be.

SY: That could be, yeah.

<End Segment 2> - Copyright &copy; 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.