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MR: Earlier we were talking about high school and plans after. So you graduated in 1940. What did you do then?

YK: I worked at... my sister had a stand, we had property out on Eighty-second, on Division, and he had that for years and years. And so he made a little stand there and she sold flowers there. And she's really good at it. She could buy the flowers, go to the wholesale, and then she had a big dog, Barney, there to sort of protect her. And she worked there a year, and then it was her turn to go to college, because my older sister had just graduated college. And so then they said it's my turn to go to the store. I was just, well, okay. So I go, but I'm not really, I don't have the green thumb that she did, and she'd go out, she'd make a garden on the side and people would look at it and how pretty it was. And when I took over, I'd sit in the back and read magazines and listen to the radio. And he'd come up to check on us all the time, he'd come up, and I'm in the back all the time, not doing anything other than just reading. And he didn't say anything, though. Then she went and started college, so I knew I had, that was my job. And then the war broke out, I think, right... well, there was talk of it. And then, let's see. Pearl Harbor was '41, though, wasn't it? I must have been there a year. [Laughs] I didn't realize I was a prisoner. But then after I was there, and then we had to close up because people, the war started, and that's when we closed it up and left. That was the beginning of the end.

MR: I want to talk about the war, but first you mentioned your father owned property in several places. How did that work since there were rules?

YH: Yes, these were all before 1924. He owned them, the greenhouse that we had that was attached to our house, he owned almost three quarters of the block. But that was before, I think the law came in 1924. And he had purchased all that, and then he and this other Japanese fellow purchased a piece out in Eighty-second, and another one around there someplace, but they sold that one. And then he kept the one on Eighty-Second because it's about three acres, and he'd grow flowers there, and he had a greenhouse there. So we'd go up there, and he'd cut his plants and do whatever had to be done. And he had a little house there, and he'd hire somebody to live there. So he had all different kinds of people. And interesting, he had this family from Oklahoma or someplace during the dust storm, they're Caucasian, this man and his wife, and two or three kids. They lived in this little house that had, the toilet was about fifty yards away at the greenhouse, and there was no bathtub. They'd use a tub and wash up. And there was running water in the kitchen. But they lived there, and he worked for my dad until he was able to, didn't hire 'em anymore and he went and found another job, but it's a nice family. He'd take people like that and let 'em live there, and they didn't pay rent, and if they worked, he'd pay them as much as he could, but it wasn't much, but they managed, I guess. And so we'd go up there a lot, and that's where I learned to drive, too, because it's open there. And you could take the car and go the back roads, not have license, learn to drive. And so we all learned up there. But it was because of that, he had the property earlier. Not a lot did. Most of them leased their property, I think.

MR: So after the law was passed, if you owned the property, you would still be...

YH: Yes, you had it, uh-huh.

<End Segment 8> - Copyright © 2003 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.