Densho Digital Archive - Alice Nishitani Interview (denshovh-nalice-01-0008)

<Begin Segment 8>

TR: So your father sold the farm in Nampa and bought another farm in Nyssa?

AN: We sold the farm in Nampa because he thought that there was better opportunities over here, so that's what he did. So then he rented all over. He had the home farm three miles south of Nyssa, and then he rented in Adrian in Oregon Slope, and he rented in Vale and Broten and out that way. So he, oh, he rented from, oh, say about 50 mile radius.

TR: All at the same time?

AN: Uh-huh.

TR: How did he work all of that land all at one time?

AN: Well, he just got up early and worked late. Yeah.

TR: And it sounds like by this time, the boys had already gone to college and were not on the farm; is that right?

AN: Well, they had finished college, and so then, yeah. He, yeah, the boys were helping on the farm at this time.

TR: I'm trying to imagine how you would work so many plots of land in so many places at the same time. How could he manage that?

AN: Well, he bought a pickup. He went to there. He says, gave a kick to the tires and says I'll take it. And then that pickup kept going and going and going.

TR: And was he raising the same kind of crops in each place or was each plot different?

AN: Just depended. Sometimes it was a lot of the seeds. They were grown on the home place. And then he raised potatoes and onions, and at that time had lettuce, and it just depended on the ground just what you raised. Some crops raised onions well, others whatever, whatever the ground warranted.

TR: Do you remember if he had to rotate crops?

AN: Oh, yes, I'm sure. I'm sure he did that. I didn't pay too much attention to that.

TR: And how did he, did he bring his equipment from Nampa to Nyssa or --

AN: Uh-huh.

TR: -- did he sell everything and start over here?

AN: No. He brought, he brought all of his equipment.

TR: Sounds like a big job.

AN: Uh-huh. He probably bought more equipment too.

TR: Of course, there was more land to work.

AN: Uh-huh.

TR: Well, what was Nyssa High School like?

AN: Well, it was just like any small school.

TR: Were there other Japanese American kids there?

AN: No. I was the only one there too. Well, in college too, I guess. There were just a few, maybe two or three, and mostly, mostly Caucasian.

TR: What about dating in high school?

AN: Well, mostly, we dated the Japanese boys. They built in the 1930, about 1938, they built the hall that, Japanese hall over in Ontario and was quite a big project for the Japanese that were in this area. They weren't too many, but the people from Idaho helped. And so then we had a lot of gatherings and dances and also baseball games and basketball games, and it was really a gathering place. In fact, they had, the parents had picnics there and dinners. And in fact, there was a funeral there, so it was a real gathering place for three years. And then the war struck, so we couldn't keep it because they could not rent... no, not rent. They couldn't, the insurance companies wouldn't ensure them for fire and so on like that, so they turned it over to the Ontario City.