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AC: This is an interview with Kay Teramura, Nisei, ninety-year-old man, and this interview is taking place in Ontario, Oregon, December the 5th, 2004. The interviewer is Alton Chung of the Oregon Nikkei Legacy Center's Oral History Project 2004. Thank you so very much for meeting with us, Kay. It's just a real privilege just to be here and to chat with you. Just want to start off really easily. Where were you born and when were you born?

KT: Well, my parents were in Portland, Oregon, and they came here in 1905 or '06, and then my dad went back and got married and then came back, and then he started to farming in Portland, Oregon, at a farm... not a farm, it was more or less a wealthy man that had a little acreage, and that's how the gardening, truck gardening, he started the farm. And then, from there, we were in Portland, Oregon, out at Clackamas, that's where we farmed until the war. Well, it wasn't the war, it was after I graduated from high school back in Milwaukie, then we moved over to the location in Clackamas River, and that's where we evacuated in 1942, the outbreak of the war. And from there we went to camp, and then from there, at Minidoka is where we started to, in the camp, and worked around during harvest season through the sugar beet farms, we were able to -- but yet, in the winter, we had to go back. And so that's how I got started to farming where I am today.

And at that time, we were able to relocate, so we didn't know when we will be able to go back to our pleasant place, so I started farming with some partners, and that was my brother-in-law and another family, Ed Nagata, and he's from California. So the three of us started, and after we had started the farming, we were able to go back. So my sister and brother-in-law, they took over the farm from where we evacuated. And so they're over there, and I stayed here because I had a lease. And my partner, Nagata, who had the farm in Kingsburg, and they were grape growers, so they also went back. So I stayed here with the lease and took over, and I enjoyed this climate, and it kind of... done real well, I kind of like the area as I came out from camp to work. So we were in camp there four or five years at Minidoka. And so that's the beginning of my farming career here. And, of course, I got married at that time, in camp, and then my son, Kenneth, and then my daughter, Dinah Teramura, and Gail, they were all born here. So this is my family side, I just had the three children. So from there, my family grew. And so if there's any... and from there on, why, the children grew up, so the girls, they all grew up, they're married. One's in Seattle, and the other one is in Portland, and they are working in... they're microbiologists, so they're working in the medical field. And my son is here, and his family, three of 'em are married. In fact, they're, all four are married now, and so they're all here. Three of 'em are here, one's in California. Now, is there anything that you want to ask about the family?

[Interruption]

KT: And when I was in camp, of course, that was my whole beginning. I kind of fell for this area, the climate, it's altogether different location, but we had to get used to it. But in agriculture, this is, rainfall here, only five or six, seven inches. Where I come from was several feet, rained every day. So I had to get used to it, but I worked with the university a lot, which I was kind of attached to before I came here. So I had great help from them because this is a completely different environment in farming, and the crops were different. Now... yes?

AC: How many brothers and sisters did you have?

KT: Pardon?

AC: How many brothers and sisters did you have?

KT: Oh, I have two sisters, they're both in Portland, then I have one brother in New York, married, and then I have another brother that's here in the farm. And I'm going to get to him. He was in the army, 442, and his name is Yas Teramura. So when he came back, I put him to farming. I acquired part of the land, so we more or less kind of worked together, 'cause I had all the equipment and everything, and most of the equipment at that time was hard to get. So I had shipped over from Portland where I was farming before. So that was a great help. 'Cause you couldn't buy equipment to even farm.

AC: Tell me about your father.

KT: My father was also in camp, and my mother. And so they were both out of the camp, and they went back to their home place in Portland, and they both, my mother passed away first, and then my father passed away. My mother was on the young side. Well, it is now, but she was seventy-five, my dad was around eighty-four. So they've both been gone for a good many years. And they all went back to Portland because of the fact that their friends were all over there, and then we had a place over there before, so went back to the vegetable farming, the ground that they had before the war. So they're all gone now, they're all gone.

<End Segment 1> - Copyright © 2004 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.