Densho Digital Archive - George Uchida - Leo Uchida Interview (denshovh-ugeorge

<Begin Segment 28>

KP: What year is that?

GU: This was like 1926, about two months after he was born. See, this picture has my father on the tractor here, and it has my mother in the porch holding Leo. He was about two months, he was about two months old then.

LU: I guess so, because these are grapes and these are real young.

RP: They kind of grew up with you.

LU: I guess so.

KP: Is that the water tank that blew over?

LU: Yeah, this is the one that blew over. He had to get it redone.

RP: Now, I see some more of the buildings in there. There's a building way over on this side.

GU: Over here, I think that's the barn. And between the barn and this main house, there's another smaller house, and that's where all the boys were, used to sleep. Yeah, all the brothers.

RP: That's another barn over where Leo is?

GU: That's another farm.

LU: Oh, this is a neighbor.

RP: Who is that neighbor?

LU: Do you know?

GU: No. It's been so long, I can't think of the name.

RP: Oh, wow, grapes everywhere. Are those all the fruit trees?

LU: Yeah.

RP: What does that area look like today?

LU: Okay, this is all homes now.

GU: All this is gone.

LU: The house is gone.

GU: Property has changed about three times, and the last owner built a new home and got rid of all these. So the new home is the only one on that property.

LU: This whole area is subdivided into homes.

GU: Yeah, once what was grape vineyards like this, the people who took over, because they weren't farmers, they just made it into an open field, pasture land. And part of that land behind here is, I don't know whether you've been to Sacramento or not, or even Florin. Have you been to Florin?

RP: Yeah, we were there --

GU: There's a park called Sunrise Park, that was part of this property. Who's the people that we visited last, the farm? Fletcher.

LU: Bob Fletcher, he was the foreman of, inspector of grapes.

GU: He was also a fireman, too. He retired as a fireman. (Narr. note: When we had to evacuate, Fletcher took over about three farms, Tsukamoto, Nitta and another farm.)

RP: He was the foreman of grapes? Inspector, you said.

LU: Inspector. You know when you picked the grape and then you ship? Before you put 'em on the train, he would open up, inspect it to see, I guess...

RP: Bugs and diseases?

LU: Huh?

RP: For bugs or diseases?

LU: Or maybe test for sugar content or whatever.

RP: You know, his name came up last time we were in Sacramento as one of the farmers who took over several Japanese American farms.

LU: Yeah, he was next to the last owner. He finally sold it, and he lives in Canal assisted living community. Not too far, right in back.

RP: He took over the Tsukamoto farm?

GU: Oh, is that right?

RP: So they had, they had a farm when they came back from camp.

LU: Oh, Tsukamoto.

RP: Tsukamotos and two other families. He managed the farms. Oh, so that's interesting. So he would have been around at this time, Fletcher?

LU: I guess so, yeah, because he's older than I am, I think.

GU: There's a street that runs north and south that comes into Florin Road, it's called Old Fletcher Farm Road. And every time I think about it, I think, "Oh, I'm gonna make a sign to put over it says, 'Old Uchida Farm Road.'" But I haven't done it yet.

RP: That school you're talking about, East Florin elementary school is still...

LU: Still there.

RP: Still there.

GU: I heard that they were gonna make a museum out of it, but they haven't done that.

KP: It was some type of rehabilitation... it's in the county...

RP: The county owns it and they're using it as some type of educational rehab center. It had, like, a fenced gate around the area, but there was no plaque or anything to acknowledge that it was one of the schools, segregated schools.

LU: The west is gone then?

RP: I'm sorry?

LU: The West grammar school is gone?

RP: I don't know. I don't know where it actually was.

GU: Yeah, I think it's gone. I think it's all homes now.

RP: There were a few other old buildings, I think one was a Japanese store in, sort of, Florin, the center of Florin, where the railroad tracks are. Two or three old-looking stores.