Densho Digital Archive - Emi Yamamoto Interview (denshovh-yemi-01-0005)

<Begin Segment 5>

MA: So I'm curious about when you were, the time when you were sharecropping. So how many families would sharecrop on the same farm?

EY: Well, this was, he was a, Caucasian man was the person running the money and the farm, and it was, well, at the time we got to Watsonville, there was about half a dozen sharecroppers. We used to call 'em M&K Ranch. That, those two persons was the owner. And one Japanese man was the foreman, and he taught me how to drive a gearshift car.

MA: And were the families who were sharecropping, were they all Japanese families?

EY: Yes.

MA: And did the owner of the farm provide you housing?

EY: Yes, housing.

MA: And what was that housing like? What was your house?

EY: Just a regular, it was not much different from a farmhouse. There was a half a dozen rooms. There was about ten families started. And then we went from one, the boss found different places where they could rent the ground. Because those days, you only could raise berries one time, and you have to find a place. It isn't like nowadays where they fumigate and use same ground. So...

MA: So you had to move from...

EY: One place to another.

MA: ...one to the next.

EY: It was around La Selva Beach, near that place, on the coast, San Andreas. And then I was old enough, we got established enough to start our own farm.

MA: And when did your father establish his own farm?

EY: When I was, I was 1936, because that's when I started running his farm.

MA: Okay.