<Begin Segment 27>

TI: I want to ask about land ownership. Because it seems like the families really wanted to keep the land, and at some point, because you're a U.S. citizen, Japanese Americans could buy land. And I'm curious, was there ever examples of people trying to buy land from the Browns or the Dyes to try to buy their house or their business so that they could own the land underneath their business?

DM: Well, that is something that I'm not too familiar. But they was nice enough to let you, you know, that whole land, they let the Japanese move in there, but he didn't want to sell it, see, 'cause everybody got settled down. So I don't think people complained about that too much. But toward the end, they said they should own the property and all that, so then they started hassling. It finally opened up, they were able to buy that, except for the Brown property. The Brown got nothing to do with that.

TI: Oh, so in the Back Town, they started letting people... because I think it would be hard, because if you have a house, and you wanted to start fixing it up, if you don't own the property, you could lose all that.

DM: (Yes). Well, Dad built a big house, and it wasn't his land, but he build that. You got to have it, so toward the end they said Japanese community, they called it, some kind of association, and they got that property so they were able to buy it. But they were nice enough to let you use it, see, that's, so people could get in. At that time, like my dad's generation, they couldn't speak English, and they got no place to stay, right? And this guy was willing to let them stay for a minimum amount.

JS: Do you think it would have been different -- so after the war, Nisei were starting to work, and they wanted to buy a home and invest in property, start a family. If Walnut Grove, if the land ownership was different, where they could buy a house and have a home to live in, do you think that would have changed?

DM: Oh, yeah, I think people, lot of people would have stayed, I think. If that thing was wide open, they would have stayed. But that guy, before, why build a home where you don't belong, the property is not yours? And the younger generation, that's why they all moved out. But there's nothing there, town. In fact, there's no jobs for young kids to get a decent job, unless you work in the farm labor or something like that. And nobody wanted to work that. [Laughs]

JS: So not many options.

<End Segment 27> - Copyright (c) 2009 Densho and Preserving California's Japantowns. All Rights Reserved.