<Begin Segment 6>

RP: So you would work after school at your, at your cousin's stand.

FN: Yeah.

RP: And what did you do at the, at the produce stand? Did you sell?

FN: Yeah, then I used to deliver for him.

RP: Oh, you delivered around the Santa Monica area?

FN: Yeah, uh-huh.

RP: So you were driving some more.

FN: Oh, yeah. I used to deliver to Malibu and used to, those movie actress or actors calling down there. They used to call us and we used to deliver it to them.

RP: Did you get some good tips?

FN: Huh?

RP: Did you get any good tips?

FN: No. We never got, we just delivered from the back and leave it there so I never did see them, but their cooks or whatever used to call and we used to deliver to them.

RP: Your cousin George...

FN: Uh-huh.

RP: ...he was involved in the Japanese rice business in California? Did you...

FN: He had a Japanese wholesale in Los Angeles and then he used to import pineapple. He was known as a pineapple king. I don't know, right now you see pineapple all over the place but before he was the only one that was importing pineapple from Hawaiian islands. So he was called the pineapple king and that's where he made his money. Pineapples all over the...

RP: You don't remember him involved with the rice business at all?

FN: Well, he used to have a wholesale Japanese mercantile called Japan Foods.

RP: Uh-huh, Japan Food Corporation?

FN: Yeah.

RP: Uh-huh. And there was a rice called Botan Rice?

FN: I don't remember.

RP: So he was pretty well-established.

FN: Oh, he was a good businessman. I mean...

RP: He was a good guy to get on with, huh?

FN: Oh yeah. He, he looked after us. I mean financially, too, he kind of looked after the family. He was a, looked after our family, I mean he's a, he's my big brother. And he looked after our folks and financially he helped them out, so he wasn't selfish at all. I mean he was... financially he was helping my folks too because big family, you know, Depression time so and he was, he had money so he wasn't selfish at all. He helped the family.

RP: You said you later worked for Roberts Market?

FN: Yeah, uh-huh. Well, it got to the point where we weren't making enough money in our fruit stand so I just went and got a job at Roberts Market and my sister was working too so she and I and my brother, we pooled our money together to support the family.

RP: What was your father doing for work?

FN: He wasn't working because it was pretty hard for him to get a job. And then later on he got a job with my cousin George at his wholesale place. He was working there.

<End Segment 6> - Copyright &copy; 2011 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.