Densho Digital Archive - George Maeda Interview (denshovh-mgeorge

<Begin Segment 18>

KL: So you didn't want to go into farming, what were your ideas about what you wanted to do with your adult life?

GM: [Laughs] At that time I just didn't want to go into farming because of waking up so early. When I graduated from high school, my parents wanted me to go to college, and I didn't think they could afford sending me through a four-year college. So I went to Trade Tech as an electrical, electrician's field. And as a class we all went, and passed the journeyman's test, it was a very good school. And then I worked part time as an electrical draftsman. The Rheem Manufacturing called the school and asked if there was someone who could make drawings. They said, "We can teach him how to draw, but he has to know the electrical part." So I was picked. And I got this part time job at Rheem Manufacturing Company until I was drafted in the service. And when I got out, my first job was as a draftsman, and I never got into the electrical field except I wired my own house when we built it and stuff. But I went to school for seventeen, eighteen years, finally got my degree. And I wouldn't do this again, I mean, I would go straight from high school.

KL: Where did you graduate from high school?

GM: Citrus Union High School in Glendora, Azusa-Glendora.

KL: And so what did your folks do to support themselves?

GM: My father, when he came out, worked for this one family who grew flowers. He did that for a few years, he never went into business. And then after he retired he was a part-time gardener for a while. My mother got her first job, I imagine, since she came to this country, she was a very good seamstress. So she worked for the Catalina Company as a sample seamstress, they were supposed to be one of the best because they make samples. And that's how they lived for their last years until they retired. The losses that they took from their farming equipment and so forth, I remember my father applying for a small claims, and he got twenty-five, he just listed some items and he got $2,500 through small claims and he shared that with his partner, which was probably one-hundredth of what he lost.

KL: This was his prewar partner? I'm looking for his name.

GM: Kaku, K-A-K-U.

KL: Were they in Manzanar also?

GM: Yes.

KL: What did they do? Did they go back into farming?

GM: No. Oh, I take it back. He did, but not that scale. I mean, it was smaller.

KL: So they had a huge loss.

GM: Yes, they both did. In fact, we weren't the only family, every family had a huge loss. But I think it was the state of California, allowed the returning families to sue the state. And you could sue for a larger amount, but then you had to go to court. So I remember my father telling me he didn't want to go through the trouble of going to court, so he just listed some items. And I remember he got back twenty-five hundred dollars.