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FC: What did you call your husband?

GK: Oh, I used to call him his nickname, Gunt. [Laughs] Because "Guntaro" was, you know, us Niseis, how we don't like to call them full names. He didn't like it at first; he wouldn't answer. But he got so used to it because my family's big, they all started calling him Gunt. Then later on, when we came out of camp, well, when he started working, they don't like to call him his Japanese name 'cause it's too hard for them, so they starting naming him Harry, Dick, you name it, so he says, "Write my check 'G. Kubota', and then," he said, "You could call me George." So that's how George stuck with him. So we all had initials that started with "G," you know. That's how it started, really, but his name was Guntaro.

FA: Was he a good farmer?

GK: [Laughs] Well, you know, he never touched dirt before, 'cause he used to teach before we went in camp, and he worked for the churches and stuff, see, because he just came to this country to visit his brother and look around a little bit. But he liked being free, because in Japan, he said they lived on a big estate with fence around it and he couldn't get out and do whatever he wanted to, so he decided, well, heck with going back, so he stayed. He came on the last boat that came to this country. And he stayed, and he got even disinherited from his family because he won't go home to carry on the name. He said, "Who cares, huh?" So we had nothing at the time, but he just... and he learned, he was very smart so he passed the contractors license and he was artistic, and he did Oriental landscaping. And in fact, some of his work got on the Sunset magazine book. So people, I guess, really liked his work. And in fact, he designed about three acres right near us, so that really put my two children through school, 'cause Gracie went eight years to college and my son went seven. So really they, he did beautiful work, and for a thank-you they took pictures of their place, the photographer came and took pictures and they gave us an album with his pictures in it.

FA: Before the war when you settled down on the farm, was he a good farmer?

GK: [Laughs] Well, my father thought that I should have something to do so he gave us an acre of his blackberries, Himalayas, they called it, and we did pretty good with that. So then my husband thought, well, we'll rent our own place, so we rented 5 acres down the street on Doyle Road, and we decided, well, the horse too slow for him, and you have to feed the horse, you have to go take care of the horse, so he says, "I'm going to get myself a tractor." And I said, "Nobody has a tractor." He says, "Well, it's going to be tractor for me. I'm not going to feed the horse twice a day." So we bought this John Deere tractor, and everybody was laughing. Pretty soon, everybody is renting his tractor, so my brother and his friend started working for him and driving the tractor, and all those acres that we had, neighbors, and sometimes he'd get on it himself. And he did more damage by knocking down the poles. [Laughs] He'd turn too fast. You can't turn too fast 'cause we had blackberries on poles and it's got four wires, and you wind the vines around it. Well, if you knock the ends down, well, it's heavy so it has to be put up again. And oh, I used to tell him, "Can't you be more careful and drive?" So in his sleep, he used to say, "My wife always makes fun of me and she picks on me," and he doesn't know he's talking in his sleep. So I'll tell him the next day and he says, "I didn't say that." I said, "You did in your sleep." But anyway, I was the farmer, really, and he, you know, he was my helper. [Laughs]. But he taught school at that time, Japanese language.

<End Segment 3> - Copyright © 1993, 2005 Frank Abe and Densho. All Rights Reserved.