<Begin Segment 14>

JS: Oh, I know what I wanted you to tell me a little bit about. So the Nakagawa family, they had the ranch in Caruthers. And what happened to the ranch during...

RN: Oh, we evacuated, our neighbor, the Ravens took care of it. And they took real good care. When we came back, they made money on the ranch. They gave it all to my father-in-law. All the jewelries, we left with them, and they had it all in a box, cigar box, yeah.

JS: So they looked over your special property?

RN: Yeah, and then they gave so much for the making the money on raisins. And so they were really good to us. Some of 'em, I hear, got robbed, you know. They let some people take care of it, and they got nothing, even lost the ranch.

JS: Oh, they even lost the ranch?

RN: Yeah. Whereas like ours, we had good people. They took care of the ranch, and whatever they made, they took care of all our jewelries and everything. Everything was intact.

JS: But when your father-in-law came back after the war, did he still farm the ranch, or did he...

RN: Yeah, I think he farmed.

JS: He did? Wow.

RN: There was a lot of white people that was against the Japanese, you know. In fact, when we got off the train, there was a couple of hakujins, they didn't greet us. They came to see what's what, and they said, "You sure got a nerve to come back," say things like that. "You Japs got a sure lot of nerve to come back." But we didn't pay attention.

JS: So that was right, you remember that as you were returning.

RN: Yeah.

JS: Wow.

RN: Right by our, near the train station, whereas our friends, the McClurgs and the Ravens, they welcomed us back.

JS: Wow.

RN: They were there at the station to welcome us. So there was good people and bad.

JS: Right. So the Ravens and the McClurgs, for being allies to the Japanese Americans, did they receive any treatment?

RN: Yeah, uh-huh.

JS: What happened? Did other people in the, you know, mainstream community, did they say, "Oh, you're friends with the Japanese?"

RN: Uh-huh. The Ravens and the McClurgs were good, still good to us.

JS: Okay.

KN: Remember Dad tried to get gas, and they told 'em...

RN: Yeah. "We don't sell to Japs."

KN: How did Dad feel about that?

RN: He was...

KN: Would he ever say to you how he felt?

RN: No.

KN: Like hurt or angry?

RN: Yeah. Angry.

<End Segment 14> - Copyright © 2010 Densho and Preserving California's Japantowns. All Rights Reserved.