Densho Digital Archive - Isao Kameshige Interview (denshovh-kisao

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AC: When did your father first come to the United States?

IK: Oh gosh, I don't know. I can give you his birthday, but I can't give you... but his dad's name was Kozaburo, and he was born in 1846, died in 1920. My grandmother's name was Tatsu, and she died in 1916. But he was married to Kameo, her name was Kameo, his first wife, the second wife's name was Ai. They both passed away now. No, I don't have his birthdate. Well, he was born June 8, 1908. No, that's Itsu. He was born in 1886, I think it was. Yeah, 1886, and he came over at the time, this is just my recollection, he didn't know when his birthday was, so we gave him a July 1st birthday. Says, "Well, that's the middle of the year, so we'll say July 1st is your birthday." And so that's what we went by. If I remember correctly, I think it was 1901 when he first came over here. I'm not sure. I haven't got that record.

AC: And he was a farmer?

IK: He farmed all the time he come here. Well, he first farmed in Stockton in what they called the Sacramento Delta, and he grew potatoes there. I was an infant then, so I wouldn't know what happened, but they moved. That's when he moved to Campbell. And we grew peas and broccoli and vegetables in Campbell. And I remember because back then, that was in the '30s, when we were in Coyote, and we had a pretty tough time. That was the Depression years. And we had teams of horses and equipment, and we had a car and a truck. I remember that was all taken away from us, and all we ended up with was a Model T Ford. And I remember going into San Jose, California, there, to the bank, because we had to sit in that Model T Ford while my dad was talking to the banker for the longest hour. And the longest time he talked to the doctor, not the doctor, the banker, and we wondered whatever became of it. But I was too young to understand what was going on. But anyway, we continued to farm.

And then when we moved to Hollister, it was on McCloskey Road, I remember, and we had a farm there, about an eighty acre farm. And then a gentleman by the name of Ladd, he had the Ladd Hardware in Hollister, and he was good enough to build us a home on his place. He had another place by the airport, and he wanted us to farm. And so we had this eighty acres on McCloskey Road, and then we had this Ladd farm. And he built us a home, and it was a nice home, but it never was painted. And that was one of the things that you noticed in California, you drive around the country, and if it was an unpainted house, it was a Japanese family in it. [Laughs] And that was, we used to go, from San Jose we used to visit my grandparents every summer, and I stayed in Stockton some summers. But traveling from one place to the other, there was a lot of Japanese farmers them days, you know, you take from Modesto to Fresno and all that country, it was all Japanese farmers, lot of Japanese farmers. And you could tell where Japanese lived, them days. Farmers, anyway.

AC: Why were the houses not painted?

IK: We don't know. Well, of course, there were some that were painted, but any house that you see that weren't painted, well, you know there was Japanese. But Mr. Ladd was real nice to us, and we got a turkey every Christmas. He treated us real good there.

AC: How would you describe your father?

IK: Well, he was a hardworking strong sun of a gun. I know he used to, guys used to come around and he used to carry harrows and throw it on the truck, and he used to carry these hundred-pound rice sacks. I remember how strong he used to be. And he worked hard, but I didn't know him that well. We never got down and talked to each other very much, just business is all we ever talked. So it's pretty hard to get to know a person if you don't converse with him. You know what I mean, sit down and talk. We never did that. Because I think Niseis and Isseis, there was quite a bit of difference in thoughts. And he didn't speak English, neither did my mother. He had the broken English, he got by. And then my sisters, when they came from Japan, they never talked English either, so I had to learn Nihongo. That's the reason I could speak Nihongo, but I didn't know the characters or couldn't write it or anything, but I could speak it. That's about it.

AC: So how would you describe your mother?

IK: She was born in Japan, too, and she was like the KibeiNiseis like my sisters, and they expected a lot when they come over here. Because over there, they had stories of money grows on trees, you know, or it was an easy life. Of course, America is the place to be, so that's how they felt about it. When they come over here, they were not very happy, I'll admit that. But they didn't want to go back to Japan, they had to stay here, so tried to make the best of it as they could.

AC: So what kind of hopes did your parents have for all their children?

IK: Well, like I said, I never conversed with them to that depth. But I know that he was planning on going back, he wanted to go back. But he told me that one time, that he told them that he did go back when his first wife died. He went back, and he thought he'd try it again in Japan. And he did farm there for a while, but he says, "What we make here in Japan in a year, I can make in a month in the United States," is what he told them. And so that's the reason he came back over here, to try again, and that's how he met my mother, I guess, at Stockton.