<Begin Segment 2>

RP: And so what age did the family move to West Los Angeles, how old were you?

MT: Well, I was just a freshman in high school when that happened, so that was, I must have been... what would a freshman be?

RP: Fifteen?

MT: Fifteen, I would say, yes.

RP: And what was the motivation for moving to West Los Angeles?

MT: Well, one was that my dad always wanted to be a gardener, and landscape gardening was an interest of his. And when he didn't work in the orchard he would work somebody's garden. And so eventually we heard about Southern California and the garden opportunities, and a lot of gardeners, Japanese gardeners in Southern California. And so after giving that serious consideration, we moved to West Los Angeles, which was made up of a large majority of gardeners who gardened, richer people in the neighborhood of Beverly Hills and so on.

RP: Right, it was quite an ethnic niche for Japanese gardeners. And what was the change like for you? You were used to living on a farm, and suddenly you were in...

MT: In the city.

RP: In the city boy.

MT: I would say, yeah. I adjusted very quickly, I didn't have any problems that I could notice or know about. For some reason I felt I could get along with people pretty well, and I didn't have any trouble adjusting to a new environment and a new, church life with young people and so on.

RP: Where did you live in West Los Angeles?

MT: The section called Sawtelle.

RP: I'm very familiar with Sawtelle.

MT: You're familiar with Sawtelle? Yeah.

RP: Uh-huh. I've interviewed a lot of folks from that community, and like you said, it was the community of gardeners.

MT: Well, I went to University High School, that may also be familiar, because a lot of those young people went to Uni High.

RP: Do you remember the street you lived on?

MT: Colby Avenue.

RP: Colby?

MT: Yeah. We moved a couple times, but Colby I remember.

RP: And you had your own single family residence?

MT: Yes, we had our own, rented our own house.

RP: And how did your dad do with his gardening?

MT: Well, he did pretty well. Yeah, I think he worked well, he sustained his family and provided for us.

RP: Did he work by himself or did he have...

MT: Yes, he worked by himself.

RP: Now did you ever help him out at all, say, on weekends?

MT: Oh, yeah. Then my brother George was also a gardener or landscape. That was something he did for income purposes, but he also did landscaping and gardening work. And I worked for him for a while, too.

RP: Now, you would maintain landscapes, but you also installed gardens?

MT: Oh, yes, we'd install gardens as the clients wanted us, and mostly he was taking care of the landscape, putting in new flowers, keeping the grass greener, putting in new lawns, that kind of...

RP: Did you ever on occasion install a Japanese garden?

MT: No, I didn't. My dad probably did, but I didn't have that kind of expertise. I always did what my brother told me to do, "Water those flowers and cut the grass." So I was more of a helper.

RP: And so you graduated Uni High School.

MT: I graduated Uni High.

RP: And you said you went on to Chouinard, so you had very strong ambitions to become a commercial artist?

MT: Yeah. I wanted to, had ambition to become an animator at Walt Disney, and Chouinard had a connection with Walt Disney. A lot of Chouinard or Chouinard students joined the course of the study would work at Walt Disney.

RP: Did you do that, too?

MT: Yes.

RP: And what did you do at Disney? Did you actually do animation?

MT: No, never got to that point. Never got to it before I dropped out and went this different avenue. But at the time, we were, Walt Disney was running Fantasia, was working on Fantasia, so I had an opportunity to see that a little bit, but I never did get into the point where I actually began to be an animator and got that kind of training. Because I was called into ministry, and I went that direction.

<End Segment 2> - Copyright © 2008 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.