Densho Digital Archive - Nancy Iwami Interview (denshovh-inancy-01-0021)

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MA: And how did Watsonville, the Japantown in Watsonville, how did that change, or did it come back after the war?

NI: Uh-uh.

MA: No?

NI: No. Because so many of those people probably didn't want to go back into the, anymore, or they did not come back. So oh, it just disappeared. And then there was, some people did, like... no, I can't say that.

MA: And what about the Chinatown? Did that sort of diminish?

NI: It disappeared, too, a little later. It was still pretty active when we came back after the war, the Filipinos, too, but gradually, I guess the younger generation just didn't want to do what the folks were doing. It seems that way. Even the farmers here, Japanese, big farmers, the children just didn't want to go into it anymore.

MA: Are there many Japanese farmers in Watsonville now, presently?

NI: Oh, there's quite a bit, yes. There's big farmers, but they're the bosses, I think. [Laughs] And then, well, it may bring in good money, but there's a big expense, too, in farming now. It's all hired labor. If you have hundreds of acres, you can't just have your family run it. But they're the boss.

MA: And the workers now are mostly Latino?

NI: Latinos, uh-huh. They have, I don't know how many, but they, I think they come back every year, try to have the same people.

MA: So they don't stay, they kind of come during the season?

NI: Some, some stay, and some people take sort of a vacation and go back to their country and come back. But that's the way it is.

MA: When did the Latino workers start coming into Watsonville?

NI: Gee. When my brothers were farming, they were what they called green card holders or whatever, they come for the season and go back. But I don't know when they started.

MA: But it was after the war?

NI: Oh, it's after the war, yeah. They, well, they didn't farm big, but it was much larger than sharecropping, so they had to have these people. And you could just, they come from Mexico every year, and they'll stay with you and then they go home. They had to, I think, in those days, wasn't it called... they had green cards.

MA: And your brothers are farming?

NI: No, they're retired now.

MA: But they were farming in Watsonville after the war?

NI: Uh-huh. It was, it was hard work being the boss, but, because you're not doing any of that labor anymore, you hiring people to work for you. All that work that goes in, getting the supplies and whatnot, is your business.

MA: And what type of farms did they have?

NI: They had strawberries.

MA: And is strawberry farming still the major crop in Watsonville?

NI: It seems like in Watsonville, because Watsonville was called the "Apple City," but not anymore. They're, just cut down the trees and enter strawberries and maybe lettuce, acres and acres. Or, I guess, apples just one time, one crop a year, whereas strawberries you could get more than one, so was lettuce. I'm not good in agriculture. [Laughs]