Densho Digital Archive - Kay Shimada Interview (denshovh-skay

<Begin Segment 11>

DG: So I was asking, I know that when many Japanese Americans returned and they couldn't find housing, like the churches or the language schools would serve as kind of a hostel.

KS: Right, right.

DG: So in Walnut Grove, when your parents moved there temporarily, do you know where they were living?

KS: See, my oldest sister was married to a person from Walnut Grove, so they all went back to Walnut Grove. My family, they invited my family, my mother and father to come over there. The rest of 'em were all on their own. My brothers, my sister, they were all on their own. So that's how we went to Walnut Grove. Otherwise, could've been Sacramento.

DG: I see.

KS: But Walnut Grove seemed like -- my sister, oldest sister's family was there and they had the space to put my mother and father, so that's what they did. Then when we started coming home from the service, then they moved to West Sacramento. They had one, one of our prewar neighbor, they owned some land in West Sacramento, he had a house there and so far nobody was living or farming that ground. So my brother said, "Okay, put us there and we'll farm it for you." That's how we started farming. Otherwise, I don't know what kind of business I would've been in.

DG: And what were you growing in that West Sacramento land?

KS: We used to grow, mainly it was tomato, cannery tomato, and sugar beets. They had a factory in Clarksburg, so we used to grow sugar beets. And as more, me, my brother was by himself at the time. Then I got out of the service and my younger brother, next brother was, got discharged also. So we formed the Shimada Brothers, Incorporated and started farming. We got to around three thousand acres at one time, farming tomatoes, sugar beets, wheat, and corn and all kind of crop. Wherever we could find some land, open land that people wanted us to farm, we would farm.

DG: So it was all leased.

KS: Leased, yeah, of course. On a share basis, all share basis. No cash, all share basis, so if you had a good crop then landowner'd make good money, but we got an equal share, anyway.

DG: And where did you live? Did you stay on that West Sacramento...

KS: Myself, we, after the first couple of years, we made enough money, so my folks, they were living in Walnut Grove yet at my oldest sister's place. So we bought a ranch with a house and a barn there, and we put them up over there.

DG: Near Walnut Grove?

KS: No, in West Sacramento. West Sacramento. So we made a headquarters there, Shimada Brothers, and we started farming, and yeah, we were farming about three thousand acres at one time.

DG: And where did you live?

KS: I lived in... that's a good question. My wife, my wife and I, we lived in Sacramento for a while, and then I built the house. Yeah, we built the house, we had, well, I had a contractor build a house from Sacramento. My brother-in-law, he had a five acre piece, so I bought one third of an acre on the corner and I had a house built there, three bedroom house.

DG: Where is that?

KS: That was, what year was that, '56?

DG: In Clarksburg, or West Sacramento?

KS: West Sacramento.