Densho Digital Archive - Toshiko Sakata Interview (denshovh-stoshiko-01-0011)

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JS: So your husband's, the Sakata Brothers, the business, that was your husband and his brother?

TS: Yeah, brothers. They had the farming.

JS: In Clarksburg.

TS: Yeah.

DG: After the war, they started that?

TS: Yeah, after the war.

DG: And what did they grow?

TS: Well, there were, they had, they were farming in Woodland too. They had asparagus over there. They used to pack it, wash and pack the asparagus and send it out. Five S brand, that's what they called it. Five brothers, so... and then they came to Clarksburg and they started raising onions, and they had, they had all kinds of things, onions and tomatoes and sugar beets, all kinds. 'Cause they had five brothers.

DG: Did they lease the land, or did they start buying?

TS: They leased for a while, and then they bought land again 'cause they were able to buy it. Yeah.

JS: And your husband, their business lasted for a long time.

TS: Yeah.

JS: How many years?

TS: They lasted pretty long, then they sold the land -- the island over there, Prospect Island -- they sold that and then they decided to disband. And then my husband decided to stay in farming for a while, until he got a stroke, and then my son took over, the second son took over. They did it for ten years. I'm glad they quit because right now everything is, the expense is too high. I was trying to keep books for them, and everything is too high now. You can't come out with it. And then right now, like, there's no tomato cannery around here. They're all closed up, like Campbell's closing now, and then our tomato used to go to Heinz cannery and they're, they decided to build a plant in, they got one in Stockton, or Tracy. But they have a big plant in Australia. I think it's, labor is cheaper that way, and bring it in with a big ship. Yeah.

DG: Where was the local cannery?

TS: Stockton, Tracy was, we had, we went to Heinz cannery and Campbell's Tomato, they had one, they called it Valley Tomato, which they make tomato sauce only, and so our tomato went over there for a long time. Then they had -- this is a co-op -- they had, I can't even think of what the co-op was. They built, the farmers get together and built a cannery, and they, they pack and ship pears and -- there was pear growers in the co-op, and tomatoes.

DG: Where was that?

TS: That was in Stockton too.

DG: And was that all Japanese American?

TS: No. Everybody. Yeah, everybody. And it's too bad that these canneries all folded up. There's no work for a lot of people now. I don't know what all these Campbell people are gonna do.

DG: Did your father or your husband sell produce at the market in Sacramento?

TS: No, no.

DG: Why not?

TS: Well, they just went into big farming. They'd send it out, and the trucks would come and pick it up and take it to the canneries, in bulks anyway.

Off camera: They weren't, you guys weren't growing, you were growing canning tomatoes, not fresh.

TS: No, just all canning tomato. It comes in a big bulk.

Off camera: What did the families do? Did people, did your family have, like, a home garden?

TS: No. It was all by machine.

Off camera: No, but I'm saying for, did you have a home garden where people would grow their own lettuce or tomatoes?

TS: No, we didn't have any of those.

Off camera: You didn't.

TS: No.

Off camera: Did other families do that?

TS: No, just for themselves. Not to sell.

Off camera: No, that's what I mean, for yourself. You had, you had a garden at home?

TS: Yeah, yeah. Small garden. Some do.

Off camera: What would you guys grow in that garden?

TS: Whatever, tomatoes or cucumbers or whatever. Yeah. Whatever you eat every day. California's pretty good. You can raise anything you want. I mean, it grows good.

DG: Did you work in that home garden when you were a kid? Did you help out?

TS: No, no. That home garden is just for yourself, for the family to eat, not to send out.

DG: Right, but who took care of it?

TS: Well, everybody in the family.

JS: So in the -- we've done interviews across the state, and there are so few, so many Japanese were in agriculture, were in farming before the war, and there are very, a small number of communities that still have farming.

TS: Yeah, there's not many.

JS: Right. But Clarksburg, farming lasted in Clarksburg for a long time after the war, through maybe the '80s?

TS: Yeah, I guess. Well no, not '80s. '70s.

JS: '70s? And that was mostly because you were doing more, working with the canneries, you think, with Heinz and...

TS: Yeah. I know my boys just stayed ten years. That's all, they call it quits.

DG: And when did they quit?

TS: What?

DG: When was that? When did they quit?

TS: It's been a while now. My son that was farming is in, he's in, what is it?

JS: He has a gallery.

TS: Art gallery. Yeah, he as an art gallery. And the younger one just does any odd jobs. He didn't want to go to school, so I told him, that's what you get.

JS: So how did you feel... it was also unusual for, like, the Sansei to take over farming. So it must've been nice for you and your husband, for the boys to be involved.

TS: Yeah. But there isn't many. Like in Woodland, Aoki Brothers are still doing it. Sansei, third generation, they're still doing it. But there's not many.

DG: Hard work.

TS: It is hard work, yeah. And you know, the crops they raise isn't, they don't raise the price on those, and then everything else, expense is so high, the fertilizer and the fuels and everything that goes into that product is so expensive now. I don't know how they do it now.