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SG: So you left, so you moved from Portland to Gresham, and then you and your brother left. How old were you when you left for California to help support your mom?

JO: Oh, that was in maybe, God, '36, '38, 1936 to '38. Then I worked in sawmill for a while, and that was, I remember work in sawmill in '39 or '41 because I kind of saved, I got a brand new Chevrolet for around, for a thousand dollar. And when I came back after the war the same year, the car was, you had to pay twice or three time more the same year car. That's how the price went up after the war. So, and that's when I went to service from there.

SG: What made you decide to leave your mom in Gresham to go to California?

JO: Well, it wasn't, just discussed with my brother, older brother, and he said he'll do the farming. And we worked down there, packing peas and stuff there, whatever they're growing down there. It was called Delano, California, you know.

SG: How was it? Was it difficult for you to leave?

JO: No. It wasn't difficult. We had some friend that we knew down there. So my brother and myself and there was another family we went with, was Kinoshita brothers, and we went down there, worked for a while. I don't know how many years, but we worked down there.

SG: And your mom stayed here in Gresham?

JO: Yeah. Mother and my oldest brother stayed and farmed on the farm, a lot of hard work. Horse, I had to harness up a horse, cultivator. I had to do all of that. I raised a lot of what they call broccoli cabbage, and then we had a little bit of berry farm. Then came the tractor, so I kind of remember running a tractor for a while, also, yeah, a farmer tractor.

<End Segment 4> - Copyright © 2003 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.