<Begin Segment 12>

JS: So you had, I believe you said earlier, twenty, you personally owned twenty acres and he was leasing several more acres.

ES: Yes.

JS: And then later on, I believe you said that he purchased more land through you, because you had reached twenty-, maturity at twenty-one years old so you could do that, right?

ES: Yes.

JS: How much land came into existence for the Sakauye farms after that?

ES: After that we gradually grew and grew.

JS: How large did you grow to?

ES: Well, after, including after the war, we grew to be 175 acres of pear land.

JS: Pear, pears?

ES: Pears.

JS: When did -- and we may be jumping ahead a little bit on this -- but when did pears come into the plans of your farm?

ES: Well, these were already planted orchards that we bought into.

JS: Okay. And this was before the war that you bought into these pear farms?

ES: Some of 'em, and lot of it after.

JS: Okay. Was there any reason why you bought pears?

ES: Well, the reason was that we know our culture of pears more than anything else. In certain areas, pear do much better than other varieties, and being specialized in pears, we were able to join a co-op and become a member of co-op, thereby we can market, have a co-op market the fruit. Otherwise we'd be individually marketing the fruit.

JS: So your father began to specialize in pears?

ES: Right.

JS: And when was that around?

ES: When was...

JS: Yeah, when did he begin specializing in pears?

ES: Oh, in early stage. After he bought this 20 acres, he had prunes, apricots, and pears. Well, prunes didn't do so well because they had a lot of water content, and apricots also. So when they dry, they dry pretty much to pulp, other words, so to speak, other words, in the other area, the fruit had more sugar contents, so the packers liked those fruits more than the fruit that's grown in the high water table area. But pears and apples, they like high water table area, and they grow better. So that's the reason why.

JS: And your property had a high water table?

ES: Yes.

JS: Okay. What do you mean -- there's probably people like myself who don't understand what these terms mean, so kind of just briefly define, what do you mean by "high water table" land?

ES: Well, the soil itself is more saturated with water. And pears are the type of fruit that like to grow in sat-, not exactly real saturated, but more water contents in the soil than apricots or prunes. If you grow apricots in the same ground as we do, did in pears, prunes grew a nice size. But when you dry 'em, it just comes to a pit. Apricots same way; when you, when they are harvested, they're beautiful apricots. But when you dry 'em, it comes to a very small size, and you lose all the weights.

JS: So your father, who began as a carpenter, had accumulated quite a bit of knowledge about what type of crops to grow and what type of crops would be profitable during the course of this period, didn't he?

ES: Well, that's all experience, because he had no experience of growing fruit trees or anything. But gradually, through trial and error, I would say, that he had big success, because other Japanese farmers here, they're also on trial and error. Because like I said one time to a group of people, that Japanese farmers grew quality but not quantity, and they always have small acreage. So that small acreage got to produce good money, otherwise they won't break even. So all along, after the wartime, Japanese farmers worked for quality and not quantity. But after the war, or during the war, it's all quantity, not quality. So today's vegetables, some of the vegetables does not compare with those of the Japanese farmers' era.

<End Segment 12> - Copyright © 2005 Densho and The Japanese American Museum of San Jose. All Rights Reserved.