Densho Digital Archive
Manzanar National Historic Site Collection
Title: Kimiko Nakashima Interview
Narrator: Kimiko Nakashima
Interviewer: Richard Potashin
Location: Sacramento, California
Date: April 3, 2011
Densho ID: denshovh-nkimiko-01-0003

<Begin Segment 3>

RP: Now tell us a little bit about your father's farm. Did he, did he own his farm?

KN: Yeah. Twenty-acres. But I don't know. It was mortgaged. I don't think they owned it completely. It was a company that we shipped our strawberries to I think. And he had the mortgage.

RP: Oh.

KN: So I don't think we owned it. But we worked on it. I picked strawberries since I was a kid. Since six-years old I think I picked strawberries. That's all we did.

RP: So you were the, you were the cheap labor force on the farm.

KN: Oh yeah. Me and my sisters. That's, that's all we knew I guess, how to pick strawberries. That's all we did.

RP: So, was the whole twenty-acres planted in strawberries or did you have grapes or anything else?

KN: No, we just planted about five, six acres just enough that we can take care of. We had twenty-acres but we didn't plant anything on there. And some hakujin neighbor used it to raise their horses on our property. We let them use it 'cause we only used part of it for strawberry. We didn't use the whole twenty acres.

RP: Did your father rotate the five acres every year? Would he go to a different part of the twenty acres?

KN: Yeah. Uh-huh. We raised strawberries for about three years and then you gotta change. You gotta put new plants so we just rotated it.

RP: Did he raise his own plants or did you...

KN: No, I don't think so. The company made us buy those plants that came in a big box and then inside it had roots on it and everything and then we just planted that.

RP: Did you have to plant the plants too?

KN: Oh yeah. I know how to plant strawberries. If you want, if you want to raise strawberries, I'll help you. [Laughs]

RP: Okay, well sure, I'll let you know. Well there's some bare ground I saw out near our motel so...

KN: Yeah, raise some strawberries.

RP: Yeah. And do you remember the company that shipped out his strawberries?

KN: North American Farms was the company they were shipped to. I think all the Japanese farmers' strawberries sent to this Northern California Farms.

RP: Okay. And were the, were the berries shipped out at, from the Florin railroad station?

KN: Yeah, yeah, they shipped east on a car, carload of strawberries went east to market.

RP: Refrigerated probably?

KN: I think so, yeah.

RP: Now did your father, did he also pack his own strawberries too?

KN: Well, we picked and we packaged our self.

RP: Okay.

KN: Twelve, twelve basket crate and we picked the strawberry and we put it in there and filled it up and then just... everybody packed your own, own crate.

RP: Did you make the crates yourself or did...

KN: Yeah. Uh-huh. We ordered, they call it shook, heads and sides and then, then during the summer vacation we had to box strawberry crate. I was good at that. You know, you got to be able to hammer one time, one shot. And we had to make all the boxes during the summer, summertime.

RP: And how long would you work out in the field on strawberries? All day long?

KN: Yeah, every day after school and weekends. And during the harvest I think we hired some Filipino workers and they're real good workers. They come from the Philippines every summer to work in the strawberries. They were a good strawberry pickers. So we used about five or six of those every year.

RP: Did they, did they stay on the farm during the...

KN: Oh, we had a rooming house on our property that they lived there and they cooked for themselves and they did fend for themselves. And after the season was over they went home to Philippines.

RP: So they're contract laborers that came over.

KN: Yeah, uh-huh.

RP: Can you tell me a little bit about the house that you lived in in Florin?

KN: Just an old house with no inside plumbing. Outside toilet.

RP: Did you have electricity?

KN: Oh yeah. In the house... my father was a carpenter. All the houses, the neighbor's house and our house, my father built it.

RP: Did he have help? Did he have other neighbors who came over to help?

KN: Yeah, yeah, his brother and all the neighbors. 'Cause you had to help them build theirs so everybody helped each other build their own homes.

RP: So you mentioned that your father had a brother.

KN: Yeah, uh-huh.

RP: Also...

KN: Yeah, close by.

RP: In Florin?

KN: They helped each other.

RP: What was his name?

KN: Kajiro.

RP: Kajiro. Okay. And did he, did he have a family too?

KN: Yeah, uh-huh. Yeah. His kid's about my age. The oldest one is my age. The rest is much younger but then, they had six, seven kids too. They all worked on the farm like the rest of us. We didn't know any better I guess. 'Cause we raised strawberries and the whole family have to work on it.

<End Segment 3> - Copyright &copy; 2011 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.