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HH: Today is October 23rd, and we're recording this interview today from Medford Lees, New Jersey. May I have your full name?

TM: Takashi Moriuchi.

HH: And your wife's full name?

TM: Yuriko Moriuchi.

HH: Okay. And how many siblings do you have, brothers and sisters do you have?

TM: None.

HH: None, you're an only child?

TM: Yes.

HH: As we say in Japan, "hitoriko."

TM: Uh-huh. [Laughs]

HH: And where were you born?

TM: Livingston, California.

HH: And when were you born?

TM: 1919. August 31, 1919.

HH: And today that would make you how old?

TM: Seventy-five.

HH: Seventy-five years old?

TM: Uh-huh.

HH: In Livingston, New Jersey. Excuse me, Livingston, California. Was there something unique about Livingston in the area in which you grew up?

TM: Yeah. Livingston was created, a Japanese colony, created by the vernacular publisher Nichi Bei, man by the name of Abiko, and it was a Christian colony. Is that what you wanted?

HH: Yes. And what kind of farm was that in Livingston?

TM: Well, most of the people were involved with tree fruits or vines. But our particular family, we were in vegetables.

HH: Vegetables?

TM: Uh-huh.

HH: How many acres did you have there?

TM: Well, I guess we owned thirty-seven acres, but we farmed additional rented ground.

HH: I see. And with the family that you had, where you were the only child, that was a lot of... I mean, I suspect that you were put to work rather early in life.

TM: Oh, yeah, very early. I had to make ofuro, that's number one, and I had to make the rice, but also they gave me a little pail so I could go out and pick with them.

HH: Do you remember going to school in that...

TM: Yeah.

HH: In Livingston?

TM: Livingston, yes.

HH: What was that like?

TM: What do you mean?

HH: Want was going to school like in that community? Were you with a lot of Japanese Americans there, were you the only one?

TM: Oh, yes. Our high school graduating class out of, I guess, a hundred and twenty or thereabouts, twenty-eight of them were Nisei.

HH: Nisei. And most of these Niseis were also from farming families, is that correct?

TM: Yes, all of them.

HH: All of them.

<End Segment 1> - Copyright © 1994 JACL Philadelphia. All Rights Reserved.