<Begin Segment 10>

DG: So you came back, and the Hollenbecks let you move back in...

GH: Stay, and then they told us to farm land there.

DG: And did you start with the same crops or did you change crops?

GH: Well, we had asparagus and beans, so we were changing around.

DG: Did you add any new kinds of crops?

GH: New crop? No, not during that time, only a few years. Then later on we started farming more, and we had safflower, wheat, corn, sugar beets, onion, tomatoes, mostly.

JS: How were you able to set up farming again? Were the other farmers helping --

GH: Well, there were a lot of other farmers all together. And then when you start farming, the company, cannery or market, they all start coming over and said, "Hey, how about selling your crop to us?" Naturally they want the business, so...

DG: So did they give you an advance?

GH: Well, when we were growing, they come and check, they knew what I was growing, so they wanted to do business with me. So it's okay, as long as they buy it.

DG: How did you replace the equipment that was lost?

GH: Oh, we had to buy it or rent the equipment.

DG: That seems like that would be a big hurdle.

GH: You mean the equipment?

DG: Yeah.

GH: Oh, yeah, it's a different price. But as we start farming more, why, we got to buy a better equipment.

DG: Did the returning Japanese American farmers help each other with this, or you didn't need it?

GH: Well, they come and ask you, or we go and tell them to do whichever way, if they ask question we'll tell 'em, there's no secret about it.

DG: I was thinking more like you'd share equipment.

GH: Oh. Well, we loaned them some equipment, we'd loan 'em then, which is okay, friends.

Off camera: I think she's saying like around harvest time or something would all the families pool the money together and rent equipment and move it from one farm to the next?

GH: No, we have our own equipment. And then wherever we sell it, they had an agent coming over, and if they say, "We want to buy your crop," we got to do business.

JS: Who were the other farmers nearby?

GH: Here?

JS: The Japanese farmers.

GH: Oh, Sakata boys, Sakata brothers, Iseri boys, Sakai, I don't know if you talked to Sakais or not.

JS: Oh, he wasn't able to meet with us.

GH: Yeah, Howard is, he's having a problem. The Sakai family, we're good friends.

<End Segment 10> - Copyright © 2012 Densho and Preserving California's Japantowns. All Rights Reserved.