<Begin Segment 10>

Mitsu I: So I went to Alberta in 1941, and it was a sugar-beets farm in Alberta, and you have to work on the sugar beets, doing sugar beets.

Mary I: Who ran this farm?

Mitsu I: It was owned by hakujin people, and in the wintertime, we went up to Rocky Mountain, I was, worked in the logging camp in the wintertime, and then come back in the spring and then work on the sugar beets farm all summer. Then in the wintertime, we go to the, up the mountain for logging.

Mary I: And what was it like working on this farm?

Mitsu I: It's just, it's hard labor. It's pretty... it's not easy.

Mary I: How many hours a day?

Mitsu I: From sunup to sundown.

Mary I: Did you get any breaks?

Mitsu I: Yeah, for lunch, well, you worked. There were a lot of sugar beets, two hundred acres there. And in the spring, you have to do, get rid of the weeds and then get ready to get to the fall, when it gets time to dig it up, the machine would dig it up and then you cut the head off and throw that in a pile.

Mary I: How many other people like yourselves were on this farm? Other Japanese people?

Mitsu I: On this farm we were the only family, and there were other Japanese families, but they were working for other people. Every farmer had one Japanese family working for them.

Mary I: How were you treated by them?

Mitsu I: Very good, we were treated very good. And they built a Buddhist church there, so every Sunday we went to Buddhist Church, or on days you don't work, we went to church just to talk to other people. Reverend Kawamura was the minister then. He was our friend, so we used to go there all the time.

Mary I: How did you feel when you were told you had to go there?

Mitsu I: We didn't think anything of it.

Mary I: What about with your property in Mission? What happened to that?

Mitsu I: The property in Mission was sold to a man that used to work for us when we were running the farm. He was an ex-veteran, and he bought it. 'Cause most of the farms were sold to ex-servicemen who were, they had the first priority, I think.

Mary I: Do you know how much it was sold for?

Mitsu I: No, I don't know. No.

Mary I: Do you know what's happened to that land today?

Mitsu I: We went back there when Mission had a reunion. It's all built up, it's all townhouses; there's no more farming. 'Cause after the Japanese left Mission, nobody grew any strawberries at all.

Mary I: How much do you think it'd be worth today?

Mitsu I: Should be, we had thirty-five acres, so it should be worth over a million, anyway.

Mary I: What about your dad? Did he ever say anything about losing the farm and having to go work on the sugar beet farm?

Mitsu I: No, they didn't say anything, really.

Mary I: So how long were you there?

Mitsu I: You mean...

Mary I: On the sugar beet farm.

Mitsu I: Five years.

<End Segment 10> - Copyright © 2005 Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre and Densho. All Rights Reserved.