<Begin Segment 5>

RP: So when you were, you were born in 1934 --

YW: '35.

RP: '35, I'm sorry. Your father was farming in Niland?

YW: Right. That was the year they moved to Niland, from El Centro.

RP: And, can you tell us a little bit about your father's farm? Do you remember, I mean, I know you were very young, but did you get a sense for the size of the farm? Was it a really large farm, or...

YW: Well, I was little so it seemed like it was huge. He had a Caterpillar and he had horses and I used to go out in the field with him. And he used to have these A-shaped, whatever they call this, that worked in the farm? And there was a little bar, so he let me sit on this little bar. We'd go up and down, up and down the field all day long. And I remember sometime he'd have this other kind of equipment, farm equipment. So I'd just walk behind him and the horses, up and down. I just liked to be outside, I guess. And I remember the farm, he grew truck crops and he would have these little, these brown paper on, on just rolls of it. I guess there'd be sticks and then there'd be paper on it to protect the, his crops from the wind and, and the frost or whatever. Cause it'd be rows and rows of these brown paper. That's what I could remember about the farm.

RP: They had pretty extreme conditions out there [inaudible] occasional frost.

YW: They used to say it'd get so hot out there you can cook an egg on the sidewalk. [Laughs]

RP: I believe it. And how did your dad, how was your dad able to acquire land in Niland given the, the restrictions on Isseis owning land?

YW: Oh, that's right. He had, he was a very successful farmer. So he was making a lot of money, but being an Issei he couldn't buy land. So he found a Caucasian friend who said that he could use his name. My father would pay for the land but the land would be in this Caucasian's name and that was the only way that he could acquire this farm.

RP: Did you, did you ever know that man's name?

YW: I don't remember the name. I don't remember even what he looks like. 'Cause I was six years old when we left.

<End Segment 5> - Copyright © 2008 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.