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MN: Now, in Fruitland, your father, so he quit farming and became a bookkeeper at the Central Market in downtown Los Angeles, is that correct?

HF: Well, he became a bookkeeper. See, he made quite a fortune growing potatoes during World War I. I don't know how much that fortune was, but with that fortune, he was going to take us all back to Japan. And then the time, preparing us to go back to Japan, he worked at the market as a bookkeeper. And we moved from the house we had lived in in Fruitland to another house just kitty corner away. And he bought a dog and a goat. And the goat was for the milk, but we didn't like the milk, so he got rid of the goat and the dog, because the dog was bothering the, the dog was bothering the goat.

MN: Okay. And this was in Mandeville Canyon?

HF: No, no, this was in Fruitland.

MN: Oh, this was still in Fruitland. Okay. But when your father was working as a bookkeeper...

HF: Somebody, somebody thought he needed to make some more money.

MN: So the family did not go back to Hiroshima, stayed...

HF: No. So to make more money... [coughs]

MN: Do you want some water?

HF: ...they suggested growing tomatoes. So he got a piece of land on what is now Riviera Country Club, and he got a piece of land there. He grew tomatoes there. But there was a bad, it was a bad year for tomatoes, so he didn't make any money.

MN: So the tomatoes, were they used for ketchup?

HF: Huh?

MN: Were they used for ketchup?

HF: Most of it was. So from there, while they were growing tomatoes, he asked the family from Japan to come and help him. And then had another family came from San Pedro, and that was Toi, T-O-I, and they helped him. And then after the tomato was finished, they, he sent one to Japan. Their name was Daido.

MN: Daido.

HF: And they had to work for San Pedro, his name was Toi, T-O-I. Well, he moved to, they, he and his wife moved to Tarzana to grow cantaloupe. So they grew cantaloupe in Tarzana. And when we made mochi for New Year's. Parents would ask us to take the mochi over to them in Tarzana. And then we would come back with cantaloupe.

MN: How old were you at this time, about seven or eight?

HF: I must have been about twelve years old, because I was able to drive a car. And we drove from, we drove from... Mandeville Canyon to Tarzana.

MN: How old were you when you started to learn to drive?

HF: Oh, I tell you, I don't remember.

MN: But by twelve years old, you were driving already.

HF: Yeah, twelve years old, you could drive.

<End Segment 3> - Copyright © 2009 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.