<Begin Segment 14>

TI: Well, in fact, you mentioned, what, one of the Kanemoto brothers went there. Did he have, he had a relative there, didn't he?

LH: It was Happy Fukushima that had the relative.

TI: Oh, Happy Fukushima. Okay. And so it was someone who had lived there for a while or had settled there before?

LH: They were the Nishiguchis and they lived in Garland, or, yeah, Garland. And they had a sugar beet farm. It was all flat out there. It's north of the Salt Lake, so it's a flat part of the valley, and I guess he arranged for this sugar company to hire us.

TI: So when you say "hire us," I'm curious what, can you tell me as much as you can in terms of what the arrangement was? Who did they hire? Was it just the adults, or were you part of the hiring?

LH: I don't say adults because none of the children were, we were teenagers and so, you know, juniors, because my brother's only one year younger than I am, but I don't remember, the first job I had, I think I said, was in the potato pit and at that time I probably was fifteen. But I went to work because, I don't know, it was expected of me, I guess, and I don't remember my brother --

TI: But these little jobs like the potato pit and other jobs you got, were those arranged through the sugar company or is this something that you --

LH: I can't remember that. I wondered about that, too. And it might've been, either that or they knew that we were there and wanted a job. I mean, we were, it was just us that lived in Fielding and the Kanemoto lived near Fielding, but it was Garland on the, on the Frontage Road. It's the road in the country, not the main interstate. So it was just the Kanemotos and the Kakus lived down further on that country road. And the Kaku sisters, there were two of them, my, close to my age. One was two years older, but then one was my age, so we, they and the Kanemotos worked in the potato farm, I guess, for Mr., forgot his name, Wynne? No, Mr. Adams. But it was a big open pit and they'd bury the potatoes in the fall and cover it up, so it stays like that during the winter and then the snow covers it and then in the spring we have to dig it out and they cut these potatoes into sections. And that's when I found out they have eyes then, and each one had to have an eye so, because that's where the plant sprouts up.

TI: And that's what they would plant, these little sections?

LH: That's right, in the field, and the, because it was in that kind of environment a lot of people had Quonset huts and they'd store 'em in there, but he didn't, and so it was an open pit, so that meant it had to go through the elements in the winter, so naturally a lot of 'em would freeze and rot and so the smell was just really bad. But it was work and I've said a lot that nobody complained. It was just part of our lives. We just accepted. And I look back and I think people now complain about everything and how the Japanese really endured.

TI: Now, were you aware of how much you were being paid to do things like the potato pit?

LH: I thought about that, too, but the only thing I remember was the sugar beets 'cause they had to count the rows and divide it up how many rows would make an acre, so they'd know how much a row cost, 'cause we worked by the rows. And, but I don't remember how much we got paid for picking the fruit or turkey plant. I don't remember any of that. Isn't that...

SF: Going back a little bit to when you, your family made the arrangements to go to Utah, with the families that were there originally, what kind of relationship did they have with the families over here? Were they good friends? How did, were they doing a big favor for someone or was it just...

LH: I don't know. I think because it was an emergency maybe, I wish I'd known exactly how it happened. All I knew is we, it was Happy's, and I didn't even, we didn't even know the Fukushimas and, but I don't know how it happened, but they probably knew they had relatives there and they didn't want to go to camp. They, so they went over there and renewed their acquaintance or whatever, because in those days people, most people didn't have the money and they didn't leave, if you're in Santa Clara Valley you don't leave Santa Clara Valley unless it was to go to San Francisco 'cause somebody's going to Japan. It's not like today. We were more, the community kind of just stayed within the community, I think.

TI: Okay.

<End Segment 14> - Copyright © 2010 Densho. All Rights Reserved.