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TI: So he... 1907 he makes it to Los Angeles.

IS: Yes.

TI: So what happens next?

IS: And there, the way I hear the story is in the paper, so it must have been the Rafu Shimpo even in those days. He saw this ad in the paper where they were recruiting or looking for laborers. And he goes, so relying on that, he goes to Imperial Valley and finds a job with another Issei man. And I think in just one or two sentence, my brother writes that in book, that they work in the field, and the first year was real bad, but after that, things started turning, I mean, they had good crop and he was able to save some money.

TI: Because eventually, in Brawley, he starts leasing larger tracts of land.

IS: Yes. And when I knew, when I was living there, my father would -- there were a couple of big companies that had headquarters like in Cleveland, Ohio. But my father worked for a company called Gerard company, and I think that was back in the Midwest, too, was the main company. And they hired, they always had a Japanese working, and they had some hakujin bosses there. And then the Japanese Issei, and then it was that farmer, that Japanese responsibility to find a Mexican foreman. And then that foreman then had a responsibility of recruiting other laborers. So like the cantaloupe crop -- maybe I'm jumping, but --

TI: No, that's okay, but let me ask you this. So the role of the Japanese was to be the go-between between the white person and the Mexican?

IS: Mexican, yes.

TI: Why Japanese? Why would the Japanese play that role?

IS: I don't know. It just... I never thought...

TI: But was that common, though? That was kind of a common...

IS: Yes, like, Gerard company, my brother would know, but there were probably like close to a dozen people like my father, Issei farmer, and had that same setup, where they would have one or two Mexican foremen, then in a busy time they would probably have a hundred laborers under that. And they were all single men, the Mexicans were all single men, and then the foreman usually was a married Mexican, and his wife would do all the cooking and was able to charge the laborers for the food, for feeding them.

TI: Now, when this was happening, was this a time before Issei women were around? Or were there also Issei women?

IS: There were, yes. My mother was already there, and yes, all of the Isseis were married.

TI: And how would the Japanese communicate with the Mexicans? Would it be through Spanish? I mean, I was thinking about the language, I mean, what language would you use?

IS: Yes, lot of 'em spoke, probably their Spanish was as good as their English, which was not very good. So it was Spanish, yes. Well, because my father, I think, knew more, because of his two years of walking and dealing with Japanese without any English or Japanese, 'cause he was all by himself, and the only other people were Spanish-speaking Mexicans. So he spoke Spanish quite well.

TI: So in some ways, he was trilingual. He'd have a little English, Spanish, and Japanese.

IS: Yes, because his boss were hakujin. I can use "hakujin"?

TI: Yeah, you can use "hakujin." [Laughs] I understand hakujin. Well, interesting. So going back to, he's in the Imperial Valley as a laborer, and he starts making money, then what happens next?

IS: Well, he did farming, but he also raised cattle. Not a big herd, but he did have... and I don't know if it was milk or just cattle, but he did well with that. And then he did well with strawberry. And like when I grew up, Imperial Valley, it didn't have any more -- I think I'm correct -- it was all melon, cantaloupes, watermelon, and honeydew. And then sugar beets sort of started coming in, but they didn't have, like in Watsonville area, like strawberries. I don't remember that, but I remember hearing from my father that when he raised strawberries for I don't know how many years, about three years or five years, he did very well with strawberries, too. So I think in some way he was lucky. And even during the Depression, I still remember 1934, that was still the, toward the end of Depression. But yeah, I remember he bought a new car, and then my mother went to Japan. I never, those things didn't... whether or I was not interested or I didn't think of those things, but I still remember the Mexican, one of the Mexican laborers talking to me, saying, "Oh, your father did real well. Look, he bought a new car and the family went to Japan." Things like that didn't click with me at that, at that age. But anyway, I still remember, and then when I think about it now, 1934, that's when Roosevelt just came in, Depression was just barely over or something. So I guess what the Mexican said was true. People were having hard time.

And I still remember growing up at that time when it was, they called it migrant workers, and those people who came, they used to call them Okies, coming from Oklahoma, dust bowl, and Imperial Valley had a lot of those people just like the, Steinbeck's story. And I remember there was a railroad running in one of the ranch where my father was working, I guess they were thrown off or jumped off or whatever, they came and the guy came walking to our house and he said he hadn't eaten anything for, you know, all day and yesterday or something like that. And he went to get some food from my mother, and then I went in and I told my mother, "That guy said he didn't eat for two days," or something. And I said, "I'd like to give him more bread." I remember going in there and getting a whole loaf of bread and running after him and giving it to him. But it was that type of time was like that.

TI: So let's... so one question that occurred to me, back to your father doing really well, I mean, able to buy a car. And as he did better and better, do you know if there was ever any thought or talk of maybe just going back to Japan and, yeah, back to Japan?

IS: Well, I want to get that straight, too, but it wasn't always good. He was still a farmer, and there were some successful Isseis, too. I know there was one family that was very successful. But I don't think my father, after he got married, so he came to the United States, he came to Mexico and United States, then he went back to get married and came, and he never went back again. My mother went back before the war, was that two times or something? Yeah, twice I think it was. But I think my, her mother, my grandmother told me, when I went to, came to Japan, saying something like, "Boy, three years is a long time in the United States." Because I think when he married, he told his mother-in-law, my father told his mother-in-law that they would come back in three years. But I don't... I never asked him, but I don't think he ever thought... that was not in his plans or hope, to return.

TI: That's interesting. But somehow your father kind of told your mother's parents that, "Just give me three years, and after three years we'll come back."

IS: They'll come back, yes. But so maybe my mother always wanted to come back because there was some talk like 1940 they were going, there was talk of having '36, the Olympics were, some Olympic was in Berlin. Then 1940 was scheduled for Japan, I think, early, and they, my mother sort of hinted that that would be a good time to go to Japan. I was already... it was only planned or scheduled that I would be sent to Japan, my older brother would be out of high school, so they were free to leave him in the States, and the rest of the family, I think my mother sort of had that kind of dream in 1940 to go back to Japan.

TI: Interesting.

IS: But I don't think my father ever planned.

<End Segment 3> - Copyright © 2010 Densho. All Rights Reserved.