<Begin Segment 7>

RP: Now, when your father got into this flower growing business, did he have help financially just to get started with that? Or was he a very thrifty man who saved his money?

TH: My father was a pretty thrifty man. He was a good businessman, so I think he was able to start. And, of course, one of the reason he wanted to start a business was he saw his family growing up, and we were his labor source. And the flower-growing was, at that time we were in chrysanthemums, and most of the work was, labor was done during the summer months so we were able to help. [Laughs]

RP: And what did you do to help out?

TH: Well, there's such a thing called disbudding of the flowers. When you wanted just one large chrysanthemum to bloom at the top, you had to disbud the local shoots, the suckers, and that was our job. And we tied them to the stakes, and there was a lot of jobs for us.

RP: How many acres was your father farming? How many acres of flowers did you have?

TH: Oh, the flowers, when we came to Redwood City the first time, he bought the property. This was 5 acres in Redwood City.

RP: Now, there were these alien land laws, but people got around that?

TH: His brother had just turned twenty-one, he bought it in his brother's name.

RP: And what was his brother's name?

TH: George.

RP: And your father had never grown flowers before, had he?

TH: He had never grown flowers, but he had a very good friend who lived in Belmont, (Mr. Nagatoishi), who was in the chrysanthemum business, and this man was so kind to him to show him how. And so it's been pretty, it was pretty successful at that time.

RP: And so he specialized just in chrysanthemums?

TH: Yes, chrysanthemums. At that time it was only chrysanthemums.

RP: Where would he market his flowers?

TH: Well, it was sold in the San Francisco flower market, or we had flower shippers come directly to us 'cause we were in the wholesale business to buy the flowers, and they were shipped throughout the country.

<End Segment 7> - Copyright © 2010 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.