<Begin Segment 8>

RP: You talked a little bit about the Santa Clara community, how about the Redwood City community? You said it was very friendly, very receptive to Japanese Americans?

TH: Yes. Redwood City, we did not feel any animosity, at least I didn't. And so we were very comfortable going to Sequoia High School. We were very, very open with the teachers, we had our own club, and it was really very, very friendly.

RP: What kind of club did you have?

TH: The club was a Japanese American students club. And we had, let's see, the year I was there, about maybe forty students as members of the Japanese American students club, and we had our socials. But we were recognized as a legitimate club in school.

RP: It sounds like the Japanese Americans had kind an ethnic niche on the flower-growing business in the Redwood City area. There were predominately Japanese Americans growing flowers?

TH: Yes, predominately Japanese Americans. So we lived in a community called Horgan Ranch, and each, there were about eight families living there, and each one owned his own plot of land, say anywhere from five to ten acres. So it was a community that was very close-knit. And we were very comfortable.

RP: Did the flower growers form a cooperative or any type of...

TH: Yes, we had a cooperative.

RP: And that's how they used to cooperative to market their...

TH: Well, we did individually. However, we were able to buy supplies as a cooperative.

RP: Your father had tractors and all types of...

TH: Well, in this particular farm, we didn't need the large tractors, so everybody had rotor tillers, but whenever we had to have a large piece of, plot of land plowed, we hired a commercial plower, (Frank Osorio).

RP: How about water? Was that purchased from the city, Redwood City?

TH: Yes. Water was purchased from the city, and it's good water. Hetch Hetchy water.

RP: Can you describe the house that you lived in on this flower farm?

TH: Okay. Before the war, we lived in a very small house on the property. We had some, a flush toilet, but we had a Japanese-style bath, a furo. And so we were used to it, it was comfortable. But to my mother and father, they wanted more, so after we came back from camp we all worked hard to build the house.

RP: And in high school, did you, were you involved in sports or scholastic clubs? You said you were a very good student.

TH: Oh, I was a good student, as I said before. But my courses were not difficult because I was in a general course as I said before. My father thought that we would be better off just planning to be good housewives. But we did... I did not participate in any after school sports, 'cause we had to come home and work or go to Japanese school.

RP: Can you tell us why your father had the attitude that he did about the girls becoming just housewives?

TH: Yes. There was no future for Japanese girls in the workplace. I might have mentioned before to you about the four daughters this friend of his had, and we were college graduates, could not find a job anywhere. This was before the war, of course. After the war, it was a little bit easier, but still there were some drawbacks. For example, my sister and I, when we came from camps, and we weren't fully engaged in our business yet, we applied for several service jobs with the U.S. Navy, that had offices in San Francisco. But they said we may find jobs there.

<End Segment 8> - Copyright © 2010 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.