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TI: Well, so let's talk a little bit more about your father. So where did he come from and what was his original name?

NH: Oh, he, of course, he came from Japan, he came from Kyushu in Fukuoka Prefecture. And his, my uncle, his brother, older brother was here already. And he came and he landed in -- as I understand it -- Seattle, and then from Seattle he came down into Sacramento Valley. And in the, and in that area, Colusa and a little bit north of Sacramento, that used to be, it's all agriculture. So my father worked with my uncle and a couple of other guys, well, Isseis, and they made rice, they grew rice and they made a fortune.

TI: They made a fortune?

NH: Yeah, several times over. [Laughs]

TI: And so, so before we go there, I mean, so in Japan, were they rice farmers?

NH: Well, my father -- oh, yeah, my father was a... my, I guess it would be my grandfather, he had acres of land in Japan and was a farmer.

TI: So they knew how to raise --

NH: Oh, they knew how to do that, yeah. They knew how to, how to grow rice.

TI: And so in the Sacramento Valley, that area, they knew that that was a good place to grow rice, and so they were very successful.

NH: Yeah, they were successful.

TI: And so what did they do with their money?

NH: Oh, they, all the money that they earned, they plunked it down for the next year, and therefore they leased larger farms, then the next year after that it was larger farms, and they would keep making a fortune. But then one, one year the rains came and flooded them out and they lost everything.

TI: Wow. So it was like...

NH: It's all gone.

TI: So it just got bigger, bigger, bigger, and then one year could just wipe them out.

NH: It just wiped them out, yeah.

TI: So it sounds like your father was kind of a gambling type?

NH: Oh, no, I don't think so. Well, it wasn't conservative, 'cause, of course, he was very young then, I guess that's part of it. They, that's what they did, they said, "Well, if we get" -- I don't know how much money they had really, but they had a certain amount of money. Whatever money they had invested it all into a larger piece of land so they can grow even more rice. And the rice sold, so they made, made a lot of money. And then when the, when the rains came and they got wiped out, they just packed up and came to the Bay Area. It was amazing.

TI: And what would they do down here? Why did they come down here?

NH: Oh, well, they came here 'cause he could find a job. They did anything. One man became a shoemaker, Mine-san became a shoemaker, my father and my uncle became gardeners, and many of the gardeners came from the same sort of situation. They were in farming or agriculture already in Japan, and they came here and they tried it. Some were very successful and remained successful, some were just wiped out. I guess that's how agriculture is, it goes, goes up and down.

<End Segment 2> - Copyright ©2008 Densho and the Topaz Museum. All Rights Reserved.