<Begin Segment 3>

RP: Where did your dad originally settle, Sus, when he came to the United States?

SY: Dad... I don't know how he landed into Vancouver B.C. And from there he immigrated down to, I think, Chico. I'm not, I'm not too awful sure. But I think Chico. From there he worked on the railroad in the Feather River canyon. And, and for many years, he was alone before my mother came to the country. And he used to fish in the Feather River canyon a whole lot.

RP: So he probably worked on a section gang over there.

SY: Right.

RP: And there was labor contractors that would bring men over from Japan or people who were here and --

SY: Exactly. Right, right.

RP: -- put them to work on the railroads. And, that was pretty hard work but that was, you know...

SY: Well, I think employment was pretty, not too many in variances at that time.

RP: Right, there weren't many opportunities for Isseis.

SY: Yeah.

RP: Who didn't have a skill of the language and...

SY: No. It's amazing, my dad never learned the English language. But he could, he could carry... he understood what the people were saying.

RP: Uh-huh.

SY: And the hardest part was the fact that when he was in Walnut Grove -- before we went, moved to Cortez which is south of Turlock -- they, they had promised him... when they made the contract to, to grow the onions in about a 30 acre field, well, the idea was also that the landlord was to furnish the wagon that they could take the product out to the landing and the landing was for transportation. Tugs would come out and then pick it up off the landing and take it to the Bay Area to the market. But when the time came to harvest, the man reneged on his promise and not gave him any means of transportation to transport the goods from the field to the landing. So I think three guys, him and his partner and couple of his friends, took it on his back, their back, and then took it to the landing. Could you believe that? The, the hardship that they had to go through in order to, to become successful.

RP: Uh-huh. Yeah, working on the railroad, too. Uh-huh. So you said your father, yeah, was, was alone for many years when he was here.

SY: Right.

RP: And then how did he find your mom? Did he...

SY: Well, I... there is some incident before Mom that I'd like to mention.

RP: Okay.

SY: Is the fact when he was in, in Chico and working for the railroad, they... it was real cold up in the Feather River canyon and there was somewhere close to twenty-three people that was sittin' on dynamite boxes. And when the... because of the fact that they were, they had a bonfire going to heat themselves, it also was heating that dynamite. And when, when the dynamite becomes liquid it'll leak out of the, the what you call it? The nitroglycerin or what... it would emit itself out of these boxes and it exploded. And he was also, he always told me that when, when he had to go see and he had a call from the railroad to come and help, he went up there to pick up the bodies and all them pieces. He said it was just a horrendous thing that he had ever seen.

RP: How many...

SY: Actual fact.

RP: Really. Huh.

SY: Yeah.

<End Segment 3> - Copyright © 2008 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.