<Begin Segment 3>

RP: So you got to know -- fortunately, you got to know your grandparents a little bit, too.

CH: Oh, yeah. They were strict people, I'll tell you. [Laughs] They didn't like people that gambled. They figured if you have many religions, that would be very beneficial to a person. You know, if you believed in different... that's what he did.

RP: Your grandfather?

CH: Yeah.

RP: What was his name?

CH: Heikichi.

RP: Can you spell that for us?

CH: H-E-I-K-I-C-H-I. "Hei" means peaceful, I don't know what the "kichi" means.

RP: And your grandmother?

CH: Her name was Kimi, K-I-M-I.

RP: So they, they began farming in the Florin area pretty early on?

CH: Yes, south Florin, they called it.

RP: South Florin?

CH: Yeah. I think, I think it's probably a place called Gorber Road, around there.

RP: Like everyone else, it was a strawberry and grape area?

CH: Yes. I think they... I don't know when it was, but they sharecropped. Because they couldn't own land. And my uncles were too young to be, what do you... classified as...

RP: Citizens?

CH: Citizens, yeah.

RP: And how many uncles did you have?

CH: Two.

RP: Two?

CH: Yes.

RP: What were their names?

CH: Pardon?

RP: What were their names?

CH: Oh, my uncles, let's see, George and Harry. Of course, they had Japanese name, too.

RP: What were those?

CH: George Teruo, and Uncle Harry was Harry Satoshi Hirabara. And Harry's the one that went to UC Berkeley at that time. Yeah, way back. Right from high school to Berkeley.

RP: What did he take there at Berkeley? What was his course of study?

CH: I don't really know. I know he took astronomy for one subject. I have no idea.

RP: He must have been one of the earliest Niseis to attend...

CH: Yeah. There was another fellow who became a dentist, a Dr. Tsuda. And they were the only two that went to college in those days. I don't know about the other students, but the Japanese Americans, yeah.

KP: Can I ask a question? When were your uncles born?

CH: Uncle George was born in 1904, and then I guess Uncle Harry was a couple years later.

RP: So they would have probably attended college in the early '20s and mid-'20s. Was your, you mentioned that your grandparents were very strict, very, very much Issei, especially your grandfather. Did your father acquire those traits as well, or was he a little more lenient?

CH: Well, yeah, he was lenient. But my grandfather and my father had so many disagreements, different generations, you know. It just... but we stuck, I mean, they stuck it out because the culture was that you have the firstborn male take care of the older ones, older generation, are the parents.

RP: And that's what your father had to do.

CH: Yeah.

RP: And did he eventually take over the farming operation over time?

CH: You know, my grandfather was so strong, and he was able to do as much work as anybody that's of his age. So he just, he was still the patriarch, I guess.

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