Densho Digital Archive - Hanako Hoshiyama Fukumoto Interview (denshovh-fhanako-01-0003)

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KL: When were you born, what year?

HF: I was born in 1923, so I turned ninety this year.

KL: Were you born in San Francisco, too?

HF: No, I was born in Montebello.

KL: Tell us about Montebello. Where is it, what's it like?

HF: Southern California, and it's like San Fernando. At that time it was lots of farmland. Well, California was mostly farmland anyway, at that time. Now it's nothing but homes.

KL: What were the big crops when you were growing up in Montebello?

HF: I remember we had friends that were growing carrots, and they would give us carrots in San Fernando. And that was the biggest crop in San Fernando.

KL: Carrots?

HF: Carrots.

KL: They were for commercial sale?

HF: Right. And they took it to the market in Los Angeles. My father was a foreman at this florist, we called it a ranch, it was 20 acres, and we just grew roses and carnations. And then I remember one year we had chrysanthemums.

KL: What were his duties as foreman?

HF: We had to take care of the carnations. He made cuttings, carnation cuttings, and then he would put it in sand and then take care of that. And then once it got big enough, then he would transplant it into bigger lots. And then he would have to... they put cheesecloth and made like a tent. It's really not a tent, but it was a big operation.

KL: How many people worked there?

HF: We had a lot of Mexicans working. There was quite a few.

KL: As many as, like, twenty?

HF: Maybe ten. And then my father had a horse, we had a horse to plow. Those days we had to plow, we didn't have a Caterpillar or a tractor or anything, so he would have to plow, and then plant the carnation cuttings and all the other flowers. And then they would take care of it and they would cut in the morning. Then Mr. Bessho owned the property, and he would take it to the market, he would take it home to Montebello, and they would fix it up, you know, fix up the plants, the flowers, and then he would take it to the market in Los Angeles.

KL: They were sold as cut flowers?

HF: Yes, the cut flowers. And so he did a lot, too, you know, that's a lot of work.

KL: Where did he live?

HF: Montebello. And that was a long ways from San Fernando.

KL: Yeah, so your family was living in Montebello also?

HF: No, we were living in San Fernando.

KL: I see.

HF: He lived in Montebello.

KL: When did you move to San Fernando?

HF: Let's see. It must have been about, I must have been about six or seven, I would say. Because according to the records of my parents, we moved around a lot.

KL: While you were growing up?

HF: When I was small, before I finally ended up in San Fernando. I remember going to Pacoima grammar school, and my sister was one year older, so she started before I did, of course. But I remember she walked all the way home, and it was quite a ways, because she didn't want to be there by herself, and she didn't know anybody.

KL: She just left the school and walked home?

HF: Right. So then I had to go to school, so I started school when she did.

KL: What was the nature of your and her relationship? Were you pretty close playmates, or were you, did that one year make a big difference?

HF: No, it didn't make that much difference. We grow up together, and then year she got mastoid, and that's an infection in the ear, back of the ear, so she had a big operation. And then she had to be out of school for one year, so that's why I caught up with her.

KL: Oh, I see.

HF: Uh-huh, she was out for about a year.

KL: And Pacoima is in the San Fernando Valley, right? You were always kind of in that orbit?

HF: It's on Van Nuys Boulevard and San Fernando Road. Those days, you just traveled a lot. That's the way it was, you know, everybody didn't live close together.

KL: Did your parents always work on Mr. Bessho's operation?

HF: Yes.

KL: Did they have a relationship before they went to work for him?

HF: I really don't know how they met. Probably during... because people close, Japanese people stuck together with Japanese people, they probably met them that way.

KL: And I haven't heard the name of the place where your folks were from in Japan very often.

HF: Oh, Niigata? Yeah, that's on the Japan Sea side, that's why you don't hear about it.

KL: Do you think Mr. Bessho was from there also?

HF: No, he wasn't. He was from a different prefecture.

KL: Were there other people that your parents were friends with who were from their area?

HF: No, they were all different from different areas. They all moved from Japan to the United States to make a better life.

KL: The laborers who worked on your farm, the Mexicans, were they mostly men, were they single, were they seasonal? What can you tell us about them?

HF: Well, the ones that I saw were just men, single men.

KL: Did you get to know any of them, did you guys socialize?

HF: We did. They had tortillas, so every once in a while they would give us tortillas and we would eat it. We got to know them pretty well.

KL: Were they pretty steady presences, or was it kind of, somebody would be there?

HF: They were steady workers. I think we needed, Mr. Bessho needed the workers, 'cause it's a big operation.

KL: Yeah, especially in that climate, I would think people could be kept busy all year round during...

HF: Oh, yes, uh-huh. Then a lot of times we had big rose plants, and then some of the plants would die, then my mother would plant vegetables in between so we would have vegetables. Then it would get watered when, the flowers got watered.

KL: Was that okay with everybody?

HF: Yeah, and then we shared.