<Begin Segment 2>

AM: Okay. And they were in farming in Alviso around the '30s or '40s?

JS: They were from the '30s, yeah, early '30s, and then that's about it, to the wartime, yeah.

AM: Right, in 1942...

JS: Yeah, that's --

AM: ...your family decided to move?

JS: Well, see, that's when we got the notice to evacuate, and if you went to Zone 2, we didn't have to go to camp. So that's what my dad did; he sold all our farm equipment for five hundred dollars to the neighbor, and hired a semi, and we went to the islands in Stockton, which is Zone 2.

AM: Okay. We're gonna talk about that more specifically, but we're gonna go back to a little bit more about your parents...

JS: Uh-huh.

AM: ...okay, right now? Now, you talked about your dad working, running a boarding house, and then he contracted laborers for Spreckels, and then a good amount of the time, he ended up being a farmer in this area.

JS: Yeah.

AM: And your mother did...?

JS: Housework, yeah. I mean, just home, she had too many kids. [Laughs]

AM: Okay, and how would you describe your parents' financial situation?

JS: It wasn't that good, no.

AM: Didn't earn a lot of money.

JS: They, like a lot of other families, it was the same. They had a lot of problems.

AM: Uh-huh. What language did your parents use when they talked with you?

JS: Well, mostly Japanese, but partly English, but -- [laughs] -- not too good.

AM: And then when you spoke back to them?

JS: Well, you got the mixed, mixed languages.

AM: And you mentioned you went to Japanese school.

JS: We went to, after grammar school in Alviso, we had to go to Japanese school across the street. Boy, hated that. Didn't learn anything, but we had to go.

AM: Well, you did what your parents said, I guess.

JS: Yeah, that's what...

<End Segment 2> - Copyright © 2004 Densho and The Japanese American Museum of San Jose. All Rights Reserved.