Densho Digital Archive - Shoichi Kobara Interview (denshovh-kshoichi-01-0006)

<Begin Segment 6>

TI: So let's kind of move more about your life. You had just started mentioning that at about six years old, you moved from Watsonville...

SK: Yeah, to Salinas.

TI: Okay, so let's talk about that. So why did your family move to Salinas?

SK: 'Cause he was running this ranch with a couple other families under him. They had sheeps, strawberries, apricots, pears, pretty big ranch out there. And my father asked -- because it was 1927 or '28 -- asked him could he get a better share. Running on a share basis, I guess. And the guy, Irishman told him, "You have no rights. You can't ask for anything, you have no rights." And Dad said, "That's it." And Yamamoto family in Salinas, there were three brothers. Two, one in the Sherwood Ranch and the other in Oak Grove farm. With the help of H.A. Hyde Company, used to be a nursery, he was partner with one of the brothers. The third brother was in Turlock, he was growing over there. So he says to go over, "The heck with you," and he left. So anyway, ironic that when we came back after the war, he lost all the, the guy lost all the ranch. 'Cause my in-laws were working under my father, and then there was another family. They stayed for a little while, how many, few years after my father left. But eventually they went, the Shikumas and something. But the time war came, they weren't there no more.

TI: Okay. So let's go back to Salinas when you're a young boy now. What are some memories that you have of Salinas?

SK: I have no bad memories.

TI: Well, what were some of the good memories? I mean, what were, just like in terms of playing, what kind of things, what kind of activities did you do when you were growing up in Salinas?

SK: Well, it's nothing like nowadays. 'Cause when I went to Salinas, Natividad School, they had a one-room school. The lady taught all eight grade in one room.

TI: So there were eight grades, one...

SK: In one room.

TI: So that's the old, what they called the one schoolroom.

SK: Yeah. And you sit in different rows in the different grades, and she would assign things and go around. I went there for three years.

TI: And in that room, how many other Japanese were there?

SK: Let's see. Yamamotos had couple... yeah, I don't think there were more than eight or, seven or eight.

TI: Out of about how many were in the whole school?

SK: Probably about thirty-something, I guess. But the people didn't treat you any, bad or anything. I never had any bad experience. Even the teacher was really good to Japanese. Except when we went to move to Santa Rita district, that place had four rooms for each, two grade each. And at one time, I was walking by noon hour, and teachers were talking, "Damn Japs. We got lot of kids that, we have to build more rooms," and stuff like that. Because when more Japanese used to move towards Salinas because I guess they were running out of ranch in the Watsonville area. They were, more and more Japanese started coming in. In other words, lot of family had four or five, six, seven kids, some of 'em. So it was crowded. But by the time I graduated from the eighth grade, the principal especially, he liked Japanese, 'cause they study hard and always had good grade.

TI: Going back to when you heard that teacher say, "Damn Japs," do you remember how you felt when you, when you heard that, or what you were thinking?

SK: I wasn't thinking too much. But I didn't like it when they said that. I just never said anything about it. I come home and tell my father, you know, they always talk about, you have your rights in America. But my father always tells me, "You don't have rights. You have to earn your rights." When you're a little kid, you have to study hard and do whatever you have to do, and the parents' supposed to take care. That's their duty. It's duty. You can't sit back and demand rights, it won't work. That's when he would say, "Study hard." And my mother never spoke English, so she couldn't help us. My dad would help little bit, but not much help.

TI: So in other words, he was saying, "Don't let that bother you. Study hard or work hard, and that's how you will succeed or that's how you will advance."

SK: His philosophy was obey the law and study hard. And whatever you do, do the best you can. If somebody else could do something, he says, "You could do it, and try to improve on it. Do a little bit better." His philosophy was real good.