<Begin Segment 10>

RP: So the family went in to Manzanar, would you say that your father was in a pretty good financial condition before the war started?

MN: I have no idea. All I know is that when, during... you know, during the Depression he said business was very good. And that surprised me because I thought business would be bad during a depression but that's when he... he used to go, every time he had a baby he, he'd take 'em back to Japan to visit the grandparents. And so, so I was taken back when I was two, so I don't remember. That's my only trip to Japan. And...

RP: In Block 6, where you lived, do you recall your father working to construct or design gardens in the block or in the camp?

MN: I think he, he didn't work in the block. He worked, I don't know, he worked out, I don't know if it was, was there a park out the camp?

RP: There was a park inside the camp.

MN: Inside the camp. On, on the far end.

RP: Merritt Park or Pleasure Park?

MN: Maybe one of those. I think he was...

RP: But his... can you recall that his job was working with plants and gardening?

MN: Yeah, you know, I really don't know. All I know is that he was a professional so he got the $19 rate. He got the $19 salary instead of the $16 that, you know, the regular people got. But, yeah.

RP: How about around your barrack? Can you recall, was there any flowering plants or...

MN: You know, I don't think he did, I don't think he did anything around our place. I know there was grass between the barracks eventually, but I don't know if that was because of the other families or all together or what. I guess I just didn't think about those things at that time.

RP: Yeah. There is a, there was a part of camp, near the orphanage, that was established as Cherry Park.

MN: Oh, yeah. Maybe.

RP: And supposedly a large number of these cherry trees that your father brought up were planted there. We, we really have no evidence of what happened to 'em afterwards.

MN: Uh-huh. But there is evidence that they were there?

RP: Well, there are, there are no trees left there...

MN: Yeah.

RP: ...but we just have, you know, historical documentation that there was some plantings there.

MN: Oh.

RP: We don't know what happened to them.

MN: Yeah.

RP: But...

MN: 'Cause I have no actual knowledge of those trees.

RP: Later on, in the '50s, your father donated, again, donated some of his nursery stock to a project in Griffith Park?

MN: Oh, some cherry trees to Griffith Park and Bronson Canyon. And, yeah.

RP: They were cherry trees?

MN: Yeah. Uh-huh.

RP: And was that a, was a part of the park dedicated to him or...

MN: I really don't know.

<End Segment 10> - Copyright © 2008 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.