<Begin Segment 6>

JS: Now, when did the company come to an end, and why did the company dissolve?

ES: Well, you know the earthquake of 1906, that time out where my dad was, the partner's farm, NKS, had quite a land shake, and there was a huge difference between one field and another field, so they, then at the same time, my friend across the road there decided to subdivide the place. So my dad wanted to have them move over there, but no, they said, "We can move from one field to the next field and always stay on the very fertile field. We don't want to be moving all the time." Well, my dad says, "I don't want be moving all the time. When I set up buildings and buy equipment, I don't want to be moving all the time. I want to be able to develop my crop and stay there." So that's when it broke apart. Of course, Kino went back to Japan, it was only Nakamura. Nakamura decided to retire and come to town. He lived in Nineteenth Street for a good many years before he goes back to farming.

JS: So your father was the sole survivor in terms of continuing the farming business.

ES: Right.

JS: Can you tell me something about his farm and how he did after NKS came to an end?

ES: Well, first, as you know, it takes equipment to start farming. He didn't have much money or he didn't have any money. In fact, he borrowed a lot of money, even when buying property, he borrowed -- or mortgage the property -- but the crops didn't bring very much money, therefore it was very hard for him to pay it. And the bank, Garden City Bank here in San Jose on First and Santa Clara Street, foreclosed on it. [Narr. note: Garden City bank no longer exists in San Jose.] At that particular time, my dad was very anxious to pay off the debt, so he farmed the neighbor's farm there, over a hundred acres of tomatoes. And the landlord there one day... well, he wasn't feeling as well as he should, so he asked him, "What's wrong?" And he said the Garden City Bank began to close on him, foreclose on him. He says, and then he showed him the foreclosure notice, which I understand, and it was merely three thousand dollars. In those days, three thousand dollars was a lot of money. So that landlord where he farmed said, "Here, I'll loan you that money. You can pay me back anytime." So that's when he paid off his debt, and he felt much better and he was able to grow more crops because he wasn't in debt. He could borrow money.

JS: What type of crops did he begin growing?

ES: He started in a little orchard, because the old orchard was pretty well run-down. And between the orchard he planted row crops: strawberries, then for the wintertime, Chinese vegetable, daikon, nappa and Chinese mustard and all that stuff.

JS: So, but he's still leasing this land that he's working on at this time after NKS?

ES: No, he bought it.

JS: Oh, he bought the land?

ES: He bought the land.

JS: When did he buy the land?

ES: Pardon?

JS: When did he buy the land?

ES: He bought it in 1907 on a shoestring.

JS: Okay. So he was the owner of the property that he was now working on.

ES: Right.

JS: And when you talked about how he worked these tomato fields and this landlord forward, granted him this three thousand dollar loan, at that time, was he, he was working as a sharecropper then, wasn't he, for this other farmer, or not?

ES: Yeah.

JS: Okay. But he still had his own land in the meantime as well?

ES: Right.

JS: Oh, okay. Okay.

<End Segment 6> - Copyright © 2005 Densho and The Japanese American Museum of San Jose. All Rights Reserved.