<Begin Segment 12>

AM: Now we're gonna move on to the period we call the resettlement, you know, period --

JS: Uh-huh.

AM: -- which is after World War II. And we'll talk a little bit about your parents first and then we'll talk more about your business and things. But when did your parents return to Santa Clara Valley from Utah?

JS: I think they came back... let's see. 194-,... let's see now. '46 or, yeah, 1946, I think it was.

AM: And what did your parents -- well, we talked about this. Your parents didn't have much of anything when they returned.

JS: No, they had nothing. Absolutely nothing. They came and sharecropped, yeah, uh-huh.

AM: And sharecropping was possible because --

JS: Strawberry, strawberry.

AM: -- they gave 'em, yeah, the owners would give 'em the land to work, and some of the equipment, and some of the seeds or plants or something?

JS: Yeah. You shared the... what you call it? The --

AM: The profits?

JS: Well, it was strawberry. Yeah, the profits, uh-huh.

AM: In 1946, when you were discharged, you had talked about going back to Chicago and you stayed there a little bit. What kind of work did you do there?

JS: Well, I ended up cooking for my father-in-law that had a restaurant there. [Laughs] And that wasn't too good, but it couldn't be helped, I guess.

AM: It was something to do, right? And then when you came back to the Santa Clara Valley, it was only you and your daughter.

JS: Yeah.

AM: And tell me when that was.

JS: That was 1948 I came back to California, and to my parents' farm.

AM: Right. And your daughter was how old, then?

JS: She was two-and-a-half.

AM: And how did you travel?

JS: We came by train to, I went from Chicago to Denver, stayed there for one week with these people that I knew before, and then came back to California.

AM: Right. And you told me about, you weren't very happy on train. You had motion sickness?

JS: No, no, I was, I was carsick all the way through. But these people on the train took care of my daughter for me, so it was pretty nice. They were real nice.

AM: Okay. And your parents were in the Santa Clara Valley and they were living on a farm, then, and sharecropping, and that's where you went to stay when you got here?

JS: Yes, uh-huh.

AM: Okay. And how much money did you have when you came here?

JS: Nothing. [Laughs]

AM: Boy. And so you started to work. What kind of work did you do?

JS: Well, I stayed on the farm, and then took odd jobs all around.

AM: And you did some truck driving, I think, too.

JS: Yes, uh-huh. I drove a truck.

<End Segment 12> - Copyright © 2004 Densho and The Japanese American Museum of San Jose. All Rights Reserved.