<Begin Segment 2>

KL: Where did he go in Hawaii?

HK: Well, I think it was in Oahu, but then he left by 1893. So 1891 he went to Hawaii, then 1893 he heard that California was the land of gold and opportunity, so he moved to the Placer County area -- Loomis, California -- and he (worked) to acquire forty-five acres of farmland because it was during the Homestead Act where if you could work the land then it would become yours. So he worked hard doing that, and then in 1903 he started a bible study group and began acquiring land to build the First (United) Methodist Church of Loomis, which (still has) a ten-acre property that he had acquired. It's a beautiful church, with gardens and everything. But then he worked so hard that he acquired tuberculosis and died by 1913. My father was born in 1908.

KL: What was your grandfather farming? Or what was his work in this area?

HK: He was growing fresh strawberries, and then I think he had planted fruit trees, like apples and pears and peaches. Well, [brings out photos] I don't know if you can see this picture or not, but...

KL: Yeah, Hope brought, I'll just say for the tape, Hope brought a bunch of pictures, and we'll keep these with the interview so people can look at them. It's probably better to maybe film them afterwards or just have them with the...

HK: I see.

KL: 'Cause I don't think they'll show up real well on the camera.

HK: But this shows the acre, the fruit trees blossoming, over forty-five acres of land.

KL: It says plum, peaches and pear trees.

HK: But you notice that there (are) patches of snow here, so that was a problem in that area (as) sometimes the frost and snow would come at the wrong time, then they wouldn't have any crop.

KL: Yeah.

HK: It was hard work, but he was very successful at it, apparently, so he had earned enough to call my grandmother, who had become widowed (them), she (...) remarried a Christian teacher in Japan and then had two daughters.

KL: Was she Christian already? Was that --

HK: No, she became (a) Christian. She was converted to Christianity by her husband, because he was a Christian schoolteacher. And then they were happily married and had two daughters, but then he became suddenly ill from an aneurysm or a stroke and just passed away suddenly. So she was left widowed, they were living in Tokyo. She was left widowed with the two children, so then she had to go back to her parents' home again. Because she was depending on his income for their life and she was doing some sewing and other type of things, but not enough to make a living for them, so she moved back to her parents' home.

KL: She had a lot of trials.

HK: Oh yes. She went through (...) a lot of difficulty, I think just in her early years. But she was very strong-minded, and she knew right from wrong.

KL: Wow. I think you might be more comfortable if you set the pictures aside. I just want us to talk for right now. I don't want you to have to feel like you have to keep up with them.

HK: I see, yes, okay.

KL: So you mentioned that your father then had other, another son. Would you tell us the story of how that happened?

HK: My grandfather, you mean.

KL: I'm sorry, yeah, your grandfather.

HK: Well, my grandfather (had) my father, who is my father, Peter Omachi, born in 1908, and then he had a younger brother, Joseph Omachi, born I think about two years later, (in) 1910.

KL: So there's Kenichi, and then do you know the daughters' names, your (grandmom's) daughters?

HK: The one that came with her, Nagaki, became, married to a Takegishi. But then, I think the other daughter was younger and stayed with the grandparents, so she didn't come to this country, that I know of. There's some things, some questions...

KL: There always are, yeah.

HK: [Laughs] Yes, what happened to so-and-so? But I'm still not quite sure what happened to Kenichi, if he returned to Japan, because I don't have much information about him.

KL: Yeah, so he wasn't a presence really in your dad's life.

HK: No, I don't think he came with her, that I (remember), I have to read, I haven't reread our history in this translation that, we did in 1979, I believe it was.

KL: That's okay. It's just, yeah, what you know, and some of it you will and some of it you won't. But your, you said your, and then it was Peter, your father, and then what was his brother's name, his younger brother?

HK: Joseph.

KL: Joseph.

HK: Omachi.

<End Segment 2> - Copyright © 2014 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.