<Begin Segment 14>

LT: So you moved to Beaverton, and you and your brothers and sisters raised strawberries.

GT: Yeah, we did, because that's the last thing my oldest brother, he was just staring to raise some strawberries when the war came on and we were all, he was drafted. And he had to leave the berry field and practically just gave it away. But at least he said, "I know that's one thing we can do," that's what we did. But it was no fun, I'll tell you.

LT: So did you purchase property, did you lease property?

GT: Leased. We just rented. We didn't buy anything, we had no... when we started farming, I think our whole inventory of equipment was about four hoes, you know, H-O-E-S. That's about what we owned, that was our total equipment that we owned, that we could afford to buy. And at that time there was not much mechanical equipment either at that time. So by having those four hoes, we felt that we were pretty darn well-off.

LT: So were your employees and your customers Japanese, Caucasian?

GT: Customers...

LT: Your employees, your workers?

GT: This is what time of the year now?

LT: After the war.

GT: See, after the war, we were farming at that time, so we weren't retailing anything. Mostly farming.

LT: But did you pick the strawberries yourselves, or did you have employees?

GT: We had employees for that, yes.

LT: And were they Japanese?

GT: No, they were all Caucasians.

LT: So after the war, when you were raising strawberries and you needed workers, and the Caucasians workers came, was it difficult to find those who would come and pick your strawberries?

GT: Yeah, they weren't that plentiful, but we usually managed to always find enough to pick our berries. But yeah, they weren't out there flocking to try to get in there, I'm sure of that. The tension was starting to ease off, and there was kids want to work, and so we were always able to get 'em picked, anyway.

LT: Did you have to take any measures to get workers?

GT: Well, like again, that's how we started these buses, to go get 'em, and when we started using the buses, then they would come out. As long as they had a way of getting there. That's where we got the bus started on that.

LT: After the war, you went to Portland every once in a while, and you met your wife.

GT: Yeah, we got Sundays off, we took Sundays off, and that's where I met my wife. I think she was working in a Chinese restaurant, I got acquainted with her. And then her folks bought a hotel right down there on skid row. I call it "skid row" now, but it's not that anymore. But it was called the Pomona Hotel at that time. And Mabel's mother, they purchased this hotel and that was their business, and she also worked there. There was a fellow there that knew the owner, and I was a good friend of his, and I'd go with him once in a while to the hotel and that's where I met Mabel, that's where she was staying. And between that and the restaurant is where I got acquainted with her.

<End Segment 14> - Copyright © 2013 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.