<Begin Segment 4>

RP: So your family, your parents started in the San Joaquin Valley and then moved down to Los Angeles.

JO: Yeah.

RP: And where did they settle in L.A.?

JO: They were on Turner Street, if you're there, by in, right outside of Little Tokyo, it's right close. And then, I don't know, he was doing fishermen too at that time. And then when we, he moved, we moved to the valley or we moved to the valley in San Fernando, they were doing hauling there, trucks. So my older brother and then they all started driving trucks. Because they'd pick up the farmers' vegetables and things and take 'em down to the market, down to Seventh Street in L.A. And I remember riding the truck one time. I was supposed to watch. People were stealing things out the back of the truck, so I was up there. Unfortunately I fell asleep. And somebody came up there and I guess they took some, but they left a bunch of fish. I was surprised, that's all. But I was only what, maybe about ten, ten or eleven at that time. I don't remember. We had three different trucks, that's why. And my mother used to load those trucks and it's unbelievable how strong some of these, the women get. 'Cause one place that I remember this one family named Tanaka, had two girls. And they were the oldest. And the boy was younger. They picked up those heavy crates like it was nothing. I couldn't believe it. I was lookin' and she picked up a load and hauled it up. But that's the way I guess the day in age and things at that time. The girls were right there workin' just as hard as the guys were. So, you know...

RP: Was your father also hauling?

JO: Yeah, he used to drive and all, yeah. He was one of 'em and my brother did one. And I think my mother was driving too.

RP: So, can you give us an idea of when would you pick up the produce? Would it be early in the morning?

JO: No, no. It'd be in the afternoon, late afternoon. Then they'd pick it up in late afternoon and then they would deliver it at night. At nine, ten or something is when you take it down to the market. Could you get it... what we had to do was go from farm to farm because you go and pick it up and then drive it down there and unload it.

RP: You went once?

JO: That's all I remember is once.

RP: Did you have to load any of the trucks too?

JO: No, I wasn't... I couldn't pick up all those things. Some of those things... you ever pick up a crate of cabbage? Boy, that thing's heavy. And you know, melons and stuff like that, they're all heavy. The lighter stuff is like green onions and like that. They're much lighter. Because they have to be all washed. They're tied up and bundled and then they're washed and then they're put in the crate. But those... a lot of that other stuff was so heavy, you know.

RP: Were there a large number of Japanese American farmers in that, in the San Fernando area?

JO: Oh yeah. I'd say there was probably thirty, forty families or maybe more.

RP: And what type of crops are we talking about?

JO: Well, like you get carrots, onions, tomatoes, and you know, melons, cabbages, lettuce. Not too much lettuce, but you know. Almost any kind of vegetables they had. So, and they were truck farmers. They're not like the big farms that they have nowadays. You're talking to people with twenty or thirty acres, that's about all. In those times everybody was doing everything by hand too so you didn't have all the machinery and all that. So, 'cause I remember they used to plow the, you had to plow and cultivate the vegetables rows and things. Because I had to ride the mule from the barn to the farmland and then from the farmland back. I didn't do any of the other stuff, but I was designated to do that when I was about eleven. But you know, there's no problem taking a mule home. Because they know they're going home. They know how to go. I don't have to do anything, just ride. It's a little different when you go out in the morning because... but it wasn't that bad.

RP: What are some of your other childhood memories about growing up in San Fernando?

JO: Oh, I don't know. I remember... I remember the earthquake in nineteen... there was a big earthquake in Long Beach and all that. And I could remember the truck was next to the platform while they're washing the carrots and stuff off. And it moving back five or six feet. And I couldn't figure out what was goin' on. I said, "How come? There's nobody in the car and it's goin' back and forth, back and forth." Because I was sitting outside probably playing or something. I remember I still can see that today. That's the first earthquake that I could really remember. And I've been through two or three of 'em. But that, you know... and I don't know. There's a lot of little things that happened. Like when I was farming out there with... everybody would have to get out there and work. And you did all the weeding and all that other stuff by hand. It wasn't where you have a machine come through and doin' all that other stuff. Even the cultivating, lot of it was done. And then the watering and things, you had to get out there and watch the water and stuff because if it starts to get away and it'll start damaging the roads and all that so you gotta watch it. I didn't have to do the real hard jobs.

RP: Where did you, where did the water for the farm come from?

JO: Well, it's the water that comes from up by Manzanar. It's, you know, they had a San Fernando reservoir before the dam broke and what it is now it used to be huge. And that's where a lot of the water come. I remember we used to farm next to it and it used to be full of rattlesnakes, right next to the water. That big reservoir. Not what it is now because it's freeway and all that there by it now. So... no, I don't know. There's what else... I don't recall too much... like we went to high school, I mean, junior high school. Because the high school, junior high was together at that time. And the town of San Fernando that we lived in, to walk to school all the time. And I can remember some of the thrifty drug stores and new stores and stuff like that comin' in.

<End Segment 4> - Copyright © 2010 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.