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RP: Eventually your father was able to acquire enough money to purchase some land? And where was that?

DT: Well, he helped his brother-in-law. But one year they made a lot of money and his brother, in Japanese homes they have a bath with a tin bathtub and little pallet on top because you had a little fireplace and you burned woods and things and heated the water. Well, that year they made so much money that his brother really worked up this fireplace and all the men were drunk, they were celebrating and they got drunk and the house burned down. The bathhouse, it's a separate place but it was attached to the house and it burned and it burned the whole house down and all the money. And my father, the only thing he could think of was what he's going to sleep on next night so he said he tried to drag the mattress out through the window, nobody even thought about the money. Of course the rest of them were drunk, but my father could've got the money but he didn't get the money, he was more interested in the mattress. So the house burned down, the money burned down and nobody got paid and then they had to start anew.

RP: And your father purchased forty acres?

DT: And I don't know when he did that. He must have done it about 1922, 1921, no it had to be 1922 'cause my sister was born in 1922 and he already had the land bought.

RP: He was an Issei and he was ineligible for American citizenship. How did he work around that?

DT: No, let's see, we figured about 1913 they had a land law, I don't know exactly, but immigrants couldn't buy land. And so my dad couldn't buy land so he had his neighbor's son buy the land in his name and then when my sister became eighteen then they changed it to my sister's name. But all the Japanese people did that. If they bought it before 1913 or something they could buy it in their name, but my father wasn't eligible. And then when I can't remember now where they were able to become citizens and our minister at church, must have been about 1950 so I can't remember. But anyway, minister conducted a class and they all became citizens and my mom and dad went to that class and became citizens and my dad was able to change the name to his name.

RP: Do you remember that day when they became citizens?

DT: Yes.

RP: What was that like?

DT: Well, I guess they were thrilled but it was kind of, it was okay, you know. 'Cause I don't know, I should have been real excited for them but I wasn't. 'Cause I was a citizen and so I didn't even think of it, I don't even know if I went to the graduation. I can't remember going to their graduation but I know there were quite a few people that the minister taught.

RP: Just to go back a little bit, when your mother and father came to the United States or your father was bringing your mom back to the United States, you have an interesting incident that occurred relative to Angel Island. What happened?

DT: Well, something, I guess some disease or contagious disease or something was going on over there and Mama and Papa didn't have to stop there and everybody else stopped there but I don't know. I understand that Mama and Papa didn't have to stop there they just came directly to the states.

RP: And your father, like many of these Issei guys, worked really hard to get their land in shape. Can you describe to us how your father worked the land to get it into a condition to plant grapes and strawberries?

DT: Well, Papa's land was very hilly and it wasn't level at all. And he had to use a small scraper and a horse and I don't know how he was able to level that land and see that it was level. Because it was just through his eyes I don't think you were able to measure like laser now you can... and then you have that great big equipment. And I don't know how long it took him to do that but he was a very small, you know, small man so he must have really worked hard. But there was a creek right in the middle of this land, forty acres, and you can't change the contour of the land so he moved that creek to the end of his land 'cause otherwise he couldn't plant a lot of things. And it's Elder Creek and they made it into a canal now, it's pretty deep but my dad moved that over. To this day I can't imagine how he did it and his land was all level 'cause he had strawberries, first he planted strawberries and then he put little grape vines in it. But only my mom could... he was such a perfectionist everything had to be measured and she was the only one who could do it for him. Because they had Caterpillars going through and you have to have everything so that you don't run over your grapes. But they planted grape in the strawberry field and so first they had strawberries and then by the time the strawberries were no good they had grapes, kind of coming up. But that land was pretty level and where it was not level he would put little mounds of dirt and then put newspaper to kind of hold back the water. Every so often he had but not very much so he was... and then he was a carpenter and I don't know where he learned carpenter 'cause he came here and he used to build his own buildings. But he had a man who knew how to work carpentry and I guess he learned from him. And he did plumbing, he did electrical, he just did everything and I guess he just learned from somebody else or just by reading, I don't know. But my mom and dad were perfectionists and they were able to do all that.

RP: Did you have farm animals too?

DT: We had chickens and they fought over who was going to chop the chickens' head. [Laughs] Mama wouldn't do it and Papa wouldn't do it 'cause Papa was kind of a soft hearted person and Mama ended up doing it. And they chopped it... well, Papa did sometimes, and they'd chop the head and the chicken would just be running around, no head. And then one of us would have to put it in hot water 'cause you can't just pull the feathers. So then we got the job of picking the feathers, then Mama would put a newspaper or something so that all the little pin head or whatever would burn off. But that's what we had for animal, but my dad had horses, two horses for the land before he bought a Caterpillar but that was just for farm work. But then we had eggs and we had the job of going getting the eggs. We didn't want to do that 'cause the chickens didn't like you going in their hen house. [Laughs] And then my mom always had vegetables. After work she'd work from sunrise to sunset just about, but they always had all kinds of vegetables. And then she canned it and she like cured it and so we had vegetables. And then my dad, somehow he was I guess they must have... everybody like him 'cause he had all kinds of unusual fruits and he had a fruit orchard just for the kids. And so we had chestnuts and we had pomegranates and cherries and persimmons, that flat persimmon, I think we were the only... first ones to get that flat persimmon. And then we had that persimmon that puckers. Well, Mom used to peel that and you peel... you have to cut it certain way and she peeled it and she hung it up and then she would massage it and all that sugar would come out and she would send it to her friends. But they just... so we never did go without eating, we always had fruits or vegetables and then we had the eggs and chicken and I guess they bought fish or sometimes she'd go over someplace and she'd bring home things, you know. But families all kind of shared everything that you didn't have.

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