<Begin Segment 23>

JS: Where was this land that you grew this crop located?

ES: We had fifteen hundred acres of all around the camp.

JS: Oh, okay. Outside the camp?

ES: Outside the camp, outside the barbed wire fence.

JS: You had free choice of the land that you wanted, or did you have to make some arrangements with the administration?

ES: Certain person is talented in certain way of growing crops, and we had to use them as a foreman for that crop, and they'll choose what type of land they would like. So we let them, we let him to take care of that crop and grow that crop in that certain tract of land. We grew beautiful tomatoes, beautiful daikon. We had so much daikon that we didn't know what to do with it, and so they started a tsukemono factory, and we dug, in the warehouse, we dug a big tank hole and put the daikon in there and got some sack for, for sugar and other ingredients, and they would pack the daikon in there and stamp 'em down, then let it ferment. And it turned out to be a beautiful daikon tsukemono.

JS: What did you, what did you do with all the... well, you had surplus, I would imagine.

ES: Yes, we had surplus, so we had to ship it to other camps. We cannot sell to the public.

JS: So that was a restriction placed on it as well. Did the camp administration have to be sold on the idea of you growing your own crops?

ES: State the question again?

JS: Did the camp administration, WRA or whoever it was, did you have to convince 'em that you could grow your own crops? Because they were shipping in produce for you, which you didn't like.

ES: Well, when I was statistician, I had made a survey of what crops we are going to grow and when do you expect to harvest them. So that helped the government select what to ship in. But produce is picked green, and shipped in, and there's nothing like fresh vegetables from the field. So with all the knowledge we had, and we selected these foremen for each crop, they each had their plots and planted 'em. We had 30 acres of cucumber and melon under hot caps, we had good many acres under this hot frame plants planted out in the field. And in order to select the variety that we had to choose, it took quite a bit of consultation between all the seed salesmen and the seed growers, because there's few seedmen left. They were mostly Isseis that had a seed store.

Then several of the seeds we were not able to get outside, but we had one person in southern California who had a seed store business, and he had stored his seeds in a government warehouse, and that was gobo. The Caucasian personnel, we told them we're gonna grow this crop, this crop, and one was gobo, burdock in English. He said, "Oh, we can get lot of burdocks along the railroad track, because they're growing wild and they don't want 'em. They're a nuisance." Says, "No, one, the burdock we grow, gobo, is cultivated. It's nice and tender, it's even size." Said, "No, no, you, we'll pick the seeds the railroad, on the railroad tracks." So we got in the car and went along the railroad track and picked those spiny seeds, and planted them. We didn't plant much but we planted just to show 'em that cultivated seeds and wild seeds are different. Because wild seeds, when the railroad workers from Japan came, they brought some seed, planted along the railroad track because they worked on the railroad track. And those kept growing as the seed dropped year after year. But year after year, the seed itself grew tougher and tougher gobo, because they got to survive severe weather also. But the one that the commercial seedmen had were the type that's been selected and we'd been growing for years, that we know that's good gobo.

JS: So the wild burdock that, that they suggested at first was just growing wild there? How far from the camp? Not very far from the camp at all?

ES: No, not very far. Along the railroad track.

JS: Oh, okay, that led to the camp area.

ES: Yeah. Because you know how plant breeds, the weaker ones die off and the stronger ones keep going. That's what happened.

JS: When did this project begin?

ES: Project begins... you mean actually... well, actually, it begins earlier, and as soon as the ground thaws out, because we've got to prepare the ground. First time we came there, we had anthill this high, sagebrush all around, rattlesnakes everywhere, short rattlesnakes. After we cleared the ground, we would stand there in the sun and the shade, we looked down, there's a rattlesnake. That's how full of rattlesnake it was. Anyways, tell that to people up there, "Oh, get us a rattlesnake, we'll make a rattlesnake stew."

JS: [Laughs] So who gave you the equipment to clear all of this stuff?

ES: Well, first, the administration Caucasian ordered the equipment. They ordered light equipment, mostly Ford tractors, but nearby CCC camp, when they were working on the canal, they had heavier equipment, but those heavy equipments were broken down and so forth. And to level the ground, get the ground prepared to grow the first crop, and we have only short day of 109 days, we can't sit around, we got to get it done right now. So when they, Ford, these Caucasian ordered these tractors, we struck because we just can't do it. It just won't perform like we used to farm. So they sent high school kids to run these tractors. Well, the kids were on the truck, we looked down from our administration building, the dust flying all over and they're having a ball of a time. So the administration just kept quiet and says, "Get what you need." So we ordered heavy dyrr disk and equipment from California, and Eversman and Landleveler, all heavy-duty material.

JS: Did they become camp property then?

ES: Oh, yes, government property, of course.

JS: Okay. How about irrigation?

ES: Well, that's when the, when the evacuee went to Heart Mountain, that was the first job that evacuee must complete the irrigation project. They had canals set, but wasn't finished. So they had already planned that we gotta grow crops there. Well, the CCC boys already had this project going, because I think they were gonna open up that area, which was never opened up before, it was just a Buffalo Bill country.

JS: So where was the water coming from?

ES: Water was coming from a dam near Cody. Quite a large lake, and that's for the town of Cody, and they had a generator there to give us light, and fuel was, during the wartime, I thought there's, those strategic areas were prohibited. And being Japanese, probably wouldn't go down there. But they took us down there and showed how the generator works and everything else. Never thought of sabotage, I think, here on the West Coast. [Laughs]

<End Segment 23> - Copyright © 2005 Densho and The Japanese American Museum of San Jose. All Rights Reserved.