Frank Suzuki interview
Item
Title
eng
Frank Suzuki interview
Description
eng
Talks about being born in San Francisco, growing up in Cressey working on his family's farm with his sisters. He discusses the evacuation and being sent to the Granada War Relocation Center before attending the University of Wyoming briefly before returning to farming as a sharecropper in Colorado. He talks about attending Japanese school and learning Kendo growing up, and how he was a less than model student and constantly getting in trouble. He talks about facing discrimination in school and getting in fights with other students. He also talks about he and his father's shared love of football and how his parents met in Japan and immigrated to the U.S. He relates how he heard about the Pearl Harbor attack while attending Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and how his family's bank accounts were frozen following the attack and his father was arrested. He talks about how he managed to keep their farm by hiring someone to take care of it while they were evacuated, and the experience of packing all of their belongings and reporting to the Merced Assembly Center. He discusses the loyalty questionnaire, farming during and after the war and his experience with racism once he returned home.
Creator
eng
Suzuki, Frank
eng
Kimoto, Grace
Relation
eng
JACL-CCDC Japanese American Oral History Collection
Coverage
eng
Cressey, California
Date
eng
8/11/2002
Format
eng
Microsoft Word 2003 document, 41 pages
Rights
eng
Copyright has been transferred to Fresno State
Identifier
eng
SCMS_jacl_00035
extracted text
NARRATOR:
FRANK SUZUKI
INTERVIEWER:
GRACE KIMOTO
DATE:
August 11, 2002
GK:
Can you hear me all right?
FS:
Yes, it’s fine.
GK:
You can huh?
FS:
It’s fine.
GK:
Okay, now this is an interview with Frank Suzuki, a Nisei man at the age of how old?
FS:
Eighty-one.
GK:
Eighty-one at his home in Cressey, California and today is August what sixteen?
Eleventh and my name is Grace Kimoto and I’m taping for the JACL. We’ll start first
with life before the World War Two. Okay, where were you born?
FS:
I was born in San Francisco in 1921.
GK:
And what was your family’s line of work?
FS:
Farmers.
GK:
Speak clearly please and louder. And your mother’s?
FS:
Housewife (inaudible).
GK:
How many siblings do you have?
FS:
Four.
GK:
Four? And what did they do?
FS:
Today?
GK:
Well, today or how do they fall in line with you in the family?
FS:
Oh, they are below me, all sisters.
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SUZUKI
GK:
Are you the oldest?
FS:
Yeah.
GK:
Okay, and what do you remember about your family life as you were growing up?
FS:
We were struggling. As I recall, we all had to work on the farm and little things you
know.
GK:
And what did you grow?
FS:
We had almonds, peaches, grapes. And my dad had watermelon, mustard, raised mustard
seed, sunflower seed, what else did he do about that time?
GK:
And you lived in Cressey?
FS:
Yeah and farmed there.
GK:
And what were some of the hardships as you were growing up.
FS:
Basically, the hardship that we faced wasn’t that bad. Got three square meals. We got
our clothing. We went to school so I don’t think that we suffered too much. The, I
guess we had to (inaudible) quite a bit, the clothing. We didn’t wear what the others
were wearing. I think my days starting high school instead of having nice oxfords we
wore our working boots. We kind of got teased about that but nothing bothered me too
much because that was part of every day.
GK:
How many boys and how many girls in your family?
FS:
Just three girls.
GK:
Three girls and you. You are the only male?
FS:
Yes.
GK:
Was your jobs different from your sisters? What was your role?
FS:
Well, as I was growing up, I had to go out in the field and help my parents out.
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SUZUKI
GK:
Did your sisters go out?
FS:
Oh yes they went out. They went out and did little odds and ends.
GK:
And mother?
FS:
Mother did the same. We put in our time, especially when we had our chicken and we
had our rabbit, (inaudible) rabbits, feeding them twice a day, cleaning and so forth.
GK:
What do you think were your family expectations as you were growing up?
FS:
(Laughs) I can remember my mother said, “Go to college and don’t come back to the
farm.” This is what I remember as I was growing up and she said farming is no place for
you to be and told that to my sisters, too. Go to college and get an education which was
the number one priority of my mother. My dad didn’t say too much about it but my
mother really pushed it. And when we were evacuated to Merced Assembly Center,
Mary, she’s the second one, she is thinking well, she will figure a way to get to college
and she worked on that and so did June.
GK:
Mary’s your oldest sister?
FS:
Yeah, my next to me and so she worked on it and she worked with some student
relocation committee that, who was at honey?
GK:
Is this after the war or during the war?
FS:
No, no, this was right after we got into the camp.
MS:
Kenny Yamashita. The Quakers.
FS:
The Quaker group. I think my sisters worked on them. I didn’t but June and Mary and
they got help from them to get out of camp as soon as we got to Amache, the relocation
center and they left for school I think in November of that year and I stayed behind
because I didn’t work on it. But later on, I got the gist of it and I think in December, I
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SUZUKI
went to the University of Wyoming. And when I found out that my classes that I had I
was taking wasn’t acceptable with Cal Poly’s curriculum and it made me a sophomore
when I should have been a junior, a full-fledged junior, I was kind of disappointed so I
went there half a year, the University of Wyoming and I quit and dropped out of school
and I had an opportunity to farm. My dad’s friend was a promoter and he got half a
dozen fellows to farm for him and I went as a share cropper to Kingsville, Colorado that
following spring of forty-three I believe it was. So I left the camp for good.
GK:
You’re getting ahead of me a little bit and I’m still delving into your growing up.
FS:
Oh okay, let’s back up then.
GK:
Your parents, how are some of the ways they disciplined you?
FS:
You know as far as discipline goes they didn’t tell us what to do or what not to do but to
be a good boy. That is about all I learned and respect the other people.
GK:
And what are some of the responsibilities that they expected from you?
FS:
Well, I guess mostly go to college, school, go to church and get in a fight at church
(laughing) and go to Japanese school at about that time and get in a fight. So one day as I
recall Japanese school, we went there on Saturdays and the teachers asked my folks not to
send me because all I did was get into a fight almost every week so I had to drop out. My
sisters kept going but I didn’t. I was happier than hell.
GK:
Okay.
FS:
Okay now let’s go.
GK:
Okay thank you. That kind of takes care of the growing up period as far as you, not
family but let’s move into your family and the community okay? Did you participate in
the church or scouts or YMCA like picnics or local bands?
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SUZUKI
FS:
I was in the Boy Scouts for a few years.
GK:
Tell us about it.
FS:
We didn’t, probably one of the most interesting part of it was going to camp, Boy Scout
Camp.
GK:
Where?
FS:
Went to Yosemite and we went to Santa Cruz area and we went into Folsom area where
they have that big jail and we went into the CYA Camp and a, where they kept all the
delinquents and we camped in that area. And let’s see, I don’t remember any other
interesting spots that we went to.
GK:
How about community picnics?
FS:
You know community picnics, I don’t remember too much about it. We used to have it
at Macano (??) Park, the community picnic.
GK:
I do need to just set up a little bit more ‘cause the lights reflecting on your glasses,
(inaudible) better, okay. So you don’t remember too much about it?
FS:
No, I don’t remember too much about the picnics.
GK:
Okay, tell me about the Japanese Language School you were talking about.
FS:
Oh, that. Mrs. Tachiya was the teacher and there was about twenty-five or thirty of us
that attended every Saturday. Well I didn’t last to long there. I must have gone maybe
about four classes until Mrs. Tachiya asked my parents not to send me because I was
getting into too much fight over there.
GK:
Did you take part in any Kendo or any?
FS:
I started Kendo. I took about three or four lessons and this professor, so-called professor,
big shot, challenged me and I hurt him with the bamboo stick and boy, he plowed into me
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SUZUKI
and told me off and he said for me to come early in the morning and wash the—wash the
floor and that was about five in the morning and I didn’t show up. And so one day who
in the heck was it? I think it was Mr. Takahashi told my dad that I didn’t show up to
wash the—wash the floor there. Oh so what happened he said, oh my son, he quit. I give
it up. I told him here is the kendo and my (inaudible) and to give it to anybody you want.
And my dad didn’t like that too well and I’m not going and to hell with the Kendo. And
my neighbors went, Kimotos, and Gilberts, and they all went, all through what do you
call it, classes they had about twenty days or thirty days I forget what and it was almost
every darn morning I had to go practice Kendo. I couldn’t go for that. So my dad said
well I guess you might as well quit then, if you don’t want to go.
GK:
You had a real understanding father.
FS:
I did. So after Kendo there was something else going on, I didn’t get too much involved
in it. So what else do you got?
GK:
Okay, let’s move into school. What school?
FS:
I went to—
GK:
Move forward a little bit so I don’t get that reflection on your glasses.
FS:
I went to Cressey Catholic School and I used to get the teacher so mad that she would
spank me once or maybe twice a week. And—
GK:
How did you feel about that?
FS:
Oh, I took it as a punishment. I got a little smarter and used to put a composition book in
my pants so when she took the ruler and hit my butt it, didn’t hurt as bad so I’m laughing
away about it and she said, “What are you laughing about?” I must have broken at least
half a dozen yardsticks, you know. And as I grew up I got to respect the teacher and I
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SUZUKI
didn’t talk back to them and I was a good boy. I was in sixth grade I think it was, I
finally grew up.
GK:
Who were your playmates?
FS:
My playmates were—
GK:
This is Cressey?
FS:
Cressey Grammar School we had Filipinos, Mexicans, Italians, Swedes, Portuguese and I
think until about the sixth grade, I used to fight with the Italian kid most. Got into a fist
fight with him because he called me a Jap and I used to call him a Wop, Dago and et
cetera but after that, the fellows got to be, they grew up bigger than I was, see and I
couldn’t challenge them no more but when we were growing up, I was a little bit bigger
than they were and I think the last two years of grade school, they all grew up and I
didn’t. So, I couldn’t fight them no more.
GK:
Were you ever invited to the (inaudible) homes?
FS:
You know the only one parent that invited was Portuguese, I mean, the Italian family, the
kid I used to fight with. The mother used to invite us on a Thursday because that was her
baking day. She used to make bread after bread for the whole week so we used to go
there and eat the fresh bread. I recall I ate the whole loaf one time.
GK:
You really liked it?
FS:
Nice and hot you know and no butter or no jam just ate the bread. And so she used to
invite me once a week, I used to go there and get my loaf of bread and bring it home.
GK:
So as you were growing up, did you consider yourself Japanese or Japanese-American or
American?
8
FS:
SUZUKI
Well, I really found out that I was a Japanese and it was much better to be a whitey and
as I grew up, I went to high school and I felt the same thing there. That you got to be a
whitey to get any place in this world. I think during high school I associated mostly with
Japanese buddies. I don’t think I (inaudible) really that much. So I didn’t much care to
intermingle but my sisters did. They intermingled with the whities and they got along
great with them but I had a tendency to hold a little grudge against them and if they said
anything, I used to bark back at them.
GK:
Did your parents have any contact with the school?
FS:
No, they sure didn’t. They knew the teacher and so forth but other than that they didn’t
have too much contact with the school. We were mostly on our own.
GK:
What did your parents expect of your school work?
FS:
No, they said study hard, that’s about all they asked us to do. And I just barely passed
you might say. The rest of them were on the scholarship for the year, you know and CIF,
yeah CIF, I think, yeah.
GK:
So think about growing up and having dinner together. Did your family sit around the
table?
FS:
Oh yeah we sat and talked about the days when everyone was going to school. Who we
cussed at and (inaudible) and I can still remember some of the talk things I said to the
girls especially when I was in the seventh-eight grade. I learned a lot of foul things from
the Portuguese and the Italians and the Mexicans. That was—
GK:
Pretty tough kid, so anything else you remember of your grade school days? Let’s move
into teenage then. That’s high school. What kinds of problems besides telling them off
and being a tough kid?
9
FS:
SUZUKI
I wasn’t a tough kid, I just held my ground, that is what I did. I just didn’t like to be
called a Jap. That is one thing that I really resented. White guys called me that.
GK:
So what were the fun things in high school?
FS:
Oh I guess mostly the fun thing was playing the basketball team and track that I enjoyed
the most and I looked forward to it. And what happened was about sophomore year, my
dad got very weak and he couldn’t work. So I used to shorten my school days then and
there were a lot of things that when he had work to do, I came home early and I think I
got my operator’s license, driver’s license when I was twelve so I used to drive the car to
school and as soon as I’d get off, I’d beat the bus home and go to work. I did that for
about three years and I can still recall, my dad had peaches that he had to bring into
Livingston Packaging Shed and I drove this truck full of peaches and after about a week
of that, I got caught.
GK:
What grade were you?
FS:
I was freshman.
GK:
Freshman.
FS:
And about thirteen years old, I think, or something like that. And we had to go see the
judge. I still remember the judge, a German fellow named Schultz. He balled my dad
out to no end and he says “I’m going to have to fine you twenty-five dollars and don’t let
your son drive.” Next day, dad asked me, “Do you want to take the load in?” “Yeah, I’ll
take it in.” I took the load in and we finished the season and there’s a couple fellows, old
farmers that were pretty helpful to me because I couldn’t handle them because I was too
small. And they used to help me unload the truck and I got by. Next year, when so it
wasn’t so bad since I knew what I was doing and the chief of police one day, he saw me
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SUZUKI
tying the boxes down and he said, “You aren’t bringing the fruit in, are you?” I said,
“I’m going to sneak around here.” And he saw me a couple of times but he didn’t do
nothing about it. Because he knew I was working and dad had to have it so we got by
that well. And one part of farming in.
GK:
So let’s go into dating. Did you do a lot of dating then?
FS:
No, that is something I never did. I never did until about second year of college, no, first
year in college, that is when I started dating.
GK:
Okay, and then you talked about being called a Jap and all. Were there other racist
comments or injustices that you experienced?
FS:
Well, that’s about all, slang you know and using four letter words and Jap you know.
That is what I used to get in trouble with but other than that kids in school, didn’t bother
you that much.
GK:
(inaudible) so then as you were growing up and teenage years, what was the relationship
between you and your parents?
FS:
Oh it wasn’t bad. They’d tell me what to do and I did it. I kept telling my dad that one of
these days, I am going to tell you to go to hell on the farm. The hell with the farm. I still
remember that. That was about when I was thirteen or fourteen years old. I said, “One of
these days I am going to tell you that.” But I came back to the farm and did his steps.
GK:
Well, so was there any talk of marriage or what kind of person you might marry?
FS:
You know when I got to be college age and he asked me if I was dating anybody, and no
I am just teasing them. And I told him what—that the gal I was looking for and what
stability I had to have before I get married and there wasn’t too much after that but as I
crowded thirty, my dad and my mom started pushing you know. Because my dad’s
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SUZUKI
friends or any place so once in a while, I’d get called, my folks would get a call and
invite me to have dinner so they are trying to fix me up. I told my dad forget it. I am
going to find my own. I don’t need your help. And –
GK:
And so who did you have if you had any personal problems who did you have to talk
with?
FS:
Mostly my dad, yeah. Any personal problems I had with my dad, we’d talk about it
and—
GK:
And so mostly you had a happy time with dad.
FS:
Well happy times, I guess we used to have go see the forty-niners play at Kezar. We had
the season tickets so he and I used to go during the season to see them. But when they
played on a Sunday, we used to go to Tanforan or Bay Meadows, whichever the horses
were running and we used to go and bet on the horses and my dad was good about it,
picking a horse and making a few bucks. And one day I thought I’d really be smart and
went and bet on a horse and bet on him for a hundred bucks to win and the horse came in
dead last. I lost my hundred bucks and when dad he picked the horse that was a winner
and I said, “How in the hell do you do that?” And I climbed all over him so I lost a
hundred bucks and I want to make that up so he gave me three horses to bet on. And I
made my hundred bucks loss up with those three horses and I still never knew how to bet
on the horses but my dad did. He can’t even read a racing form. And he still managed to
pick a winner and it amazed me. And we come home every time and he got a few bucks
extra in his pocket and we’d stay over night and watch the forty-niners play and then
come home and this was a ritual in the fall. And one day we were busier than heck and
Cal and Stanford was playing and we used to go and see those games in the Bay area.
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SUZUKI
And one day I had work to do and didn’t quite finish it, and he says, so he took off on his
own to see Cal and Stanford play. I asked my mom “Where is dad?” And she didn’t
know and he comes back and watched Cal win that day and he was happier than heck. I
said, “You stinker. You go yourself and don’t even take me.” I said, “Boy that is the last
time you are going to do that.” One day we went to see, he wanted to see Army play
Stanford. That day it was raining and I told dad, let’s stay home. No, we got to go see
them they are going to play in the rain and we’ll go watch them in the rain. We took our
rain gears and went to Stanford and I’ll be darn, everyone was going home. They had
tickets galore and said you want my ticket and I must have cost about half a dozen tickets
and we watched them play and my dad and I we sat up in the rain and the stadium was
three quarters of the game and we finally got wet enough so we came home but it was a
sloppy day that day. I’ll never forget that that my dad was hanging in there watching
them play football.
GK:
So your dad drove alone if he was?
FS:
Yeah, he drove alone and went all the way to Berkeley because when we used to go
there, we had a service station or gasoline station where we used to park the car. And
what he did, was the owner there of that station took us to the stadium but game time it
was okay. But the first time, we had to walk back to the car.
GK:
This is a family friend?
FS:
Well, not a family friend, we just got to know him.
GK:
Oh I see.
FS:
My dad used to bring nuts and fruit to him and he just got to be kind of a buddy like and
we did this for about four or five years and we did this at Kezar even. We had a service
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SUZUKI
station that was about five blocks away from the stadium and he’d jump into my car and
take us to the stadium and brings it back and parks it.
GK:
Do you know about how much they charge for you to—?
FS:
We paid I think five bucks parking.
GK:
Five bucks.
FS:
Parking.
GK:
For parking? And how about entering the game?
FS:
Oh the game. Season ticket was I think twelve bucks a game on the forty yard line right
in the middle of the stadium half way up, you know. They were nice seats. Today you
got to pay what, three or four hundred bucks for a seat like that.
GK:
So would you buy popcorn and stuff?
FS:
Oh we at half time would go down and have a hot dog and coffee and we never had
popcorn. We had peanuts, I think.
GK:
How old do you think your dad was at the time?
FS:
Well –
GK:
Fifty or so?
FS:
Fifty, fifty-five.
GK:
Yeah, because there are not too many questions about when your dad married and—
FS:
Let’s see 1919 I think.
GK:
And your mother was here?
FS:
She was in Japan. They got married in Japan.
GK:
Oh I see.
14
FS:
SUZUKI
And my dad, my grandfather had bought that place where (inaudible) and he sent for my
dad and (inaudible) I think.
GK:
Then your grandfather went back to Japan after?
FS:
He got hemorrhaged, brain hemorrhage so they sent him back.
GK:
Oh I see.
FS:
To Japan. He died in Japan a few years later.
GK:
What Ken is it?
FS:
Ichi-ken.
GK:
Ichi-ken.
FS:
Yeah and on the coast of Nagoya.
GK:
And what was his dad doing in Ichi-ken?
FS:
I don’t know what his father was doing but he was what you call, a newspaper man. My
grandfather and he worked for Nichibei Times, I think it was.
GK:
So there was a Nichibei in Japan?
FS:
I don’t think so.
GK:
So he was a connector for it.
FS:
So he just got the job there and they got so he was sucked into buying this subsidy
property, it was so cold.
GK:
So you did not attend college but you chose not to go to college?
FS:
Who is this?
GK:
You?
FS:
No I quit because of the war.
GK:
Oh that’s right.
15
FS:
SUZUKI
Yeah. And I went to the University of Wyoming half a year and my credits there, I was
going to have it transferred to Cal Poly. Cal Poly wrote me back and said these credits
are no good. I said what the heck am I going to school for because I only had one more
year to graduate. And here I went half a year and couldn’t get no credit for it so I said to
heck with it and I dropped out of school and I went farming for that. My dad’s friend in
Stockton knew of a German fellow that leased the ground so much you know and I went
to go there and farm and I told my dad that. And my dad said, take me out there and see
if I can farm out there.
GK:
And how old were you then?
FS:
Twenty-one I think. Yeah, I think twenty-one going on twenty-two probably. And I
farmed there and learned how to raise carrots and potatoes and corn and sugar beets. And
I didn’t have no other vegetables. Let’s see, Ben Kunimoto and Ben Noda they farmed
after joining me and they had (inaudible).
GK:
How did they—where did they take their produce?
FS:
They took it to Denver. They had what they called a milk truck and truck that goes to
Denver every morning, early in the morning so they—
GK:
So you were in Amache in Colorado?
FS:
Yeah.
GK:
How did you hear about Pearl Harbor?
FS:
You know I was working as a gardener in San Luis Obispo and there was four of us and
this one fellow, he finds a job, a gardening job and he said we will do it for so much,
contracts, and he was from Los Angeles. So he found a job for us on Saturdays and
Sundays. And this Sunday we were in a beautiful resident and we worked there and went
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SUZUKI
there about eight o’clock and by eleven o’clock that day, we found out from the lady that
we worked for, she said do you know Japan bombed Pearl Harbor? We kind of got shook
up then at that time. When we went back to the campus, they are all staring at us you
know and what the hell is going on anyway? So we found out from a lieutenant fellow
that Japan had bombed Pearl Harbor.
GK:
And how did you feel about that then?
FS:
We felt pretty sick by that. We went to our room and we talked about what the heck are
they going to do? You know and then right next to my room is a reserve. He got called
just like that. He had to pack up and leave school. He came in and said (inaudible), this
white kid. He talked to my roommate and he left. He had a few hours to get his clothes
together and report to San Diego and there was a bunch of other guys there too you know,
reserves. So they all left school that day.
GK:
This is school at?
FS:
Cal Poly.
GK:
Cal Poly, San Luis.
FS:
Yeah, that was that evening. They got the letter or word to report about noon time, lunch
time. Pearl Harbor was in the morning.
GK:
About noon?
FS:
Yeah, about noon anyway that evening they were gone. They had left. And I think the
interesting part of that was three days later my dad called me and he asked me if I had a
couple thousand bucks. And I said yeah I got it in the bank. I said why, don’t you have
it? He said they froze my account. And I have to pay my workers and so forth so he said
can you get your money? So I went to the bank and the manager talked to me and he said
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SUZUKI
do you know that your accounts are frozen? I said, “Why?” I said I want to draw out all
the money I have here. My dad needs it. So it took me about a week before they released
it. I knew the District Attorney because we used to fix his garden. We used to go there
and trim it and mow his lawn. So we knew him pretty well. He sympathized with us but
he couldn’t get the bank okay to transfer the money you know and draw it out. And my
roommate, I got a call about two days, three days later, no, it must have been about four
days later that one evening he said, “Tell Kobi to come home.” I said, “Why?” His dad
got picked up and we don’t know where he is going. Being the oldest son, the brothers
wanted him back to Santa Anna. What is this, nine o’clock at night and raining like heck,
ask him to leave right now, I said can’t it wait until morning because it is raining like
heck. No, we want him to.
GK:
So (inaudible)?
FS:
Yeah, and no car, only one my ex-roommate, he had a brand new Buick. So I asked him
if I could borrow it and he didn’t want to, but he let us have it. So that night about ten
o’clock, we packed up and took off for Santa Anna and drove all night and got to L.A.
and found out what was going on. So I told my roommate let’s go see in the county jail if
he is there. So I drove up there with him and the deputy said, “What the hell are you
doing here?” I said, “I want to see my father.” And my roommate talked to him and he
wouldn’t let me see him. And they are all locked up and my father got word to one of the
deputies that he wanted his night clothes and toothbrush and shaving kit and so forth so
we went home and picked it up and brought it to him that day. They got it to him,
somehow. But a, it was kind of what do you call it? My roommate was scared as heck
and I said hey what are they going to do, throw us in jail? We can stand that. I kept
18
SUZUKI
egging him on and egging him on. And we stayed there a few days and I said I have to
get this car back. It’s not mine so I left him there and I went back to Cal Poly campus
and I had another letter from dad and he said “Bring the money and come home.” And so
I went to see the registrar and checked out of school and put my books all together and I
had a friend of mine from Turlock and he was coming home for the weekend and he was
always shook up, too.
GK:
Who was that?
FS:
A fellow named Tate. He died already and I came home with him and I told dad I got a
cashier’s check here for eighteen hundred bucks. So he went ahead and asked me to cash
it and paid a bunch of deals off and so forth and he got by. And then they released my
dad’s account about a month later I think it was, so he could write on it.
GK:
And did they know at that time that they were going to be evacuated?
FS:
No.
GK:
Not yet.
FS:
No they didn’t. They gave us instructions to be home by five o’clock and here we got
(inaudible) you know and I’m working the tractor I got caught at six o’clock in the
evening and the sheriff said, “We’re going to throw you in the can.” I said, “Fine just
take me with you and at least I’ll be fed there and kidded around with him.” And he said,
“You get your ass home.” So he followed me all the way to here that night and two days
later I was over there working and here it is six o’clock and I’m still working and he
stopped me and said let’s get your butt home. I said are you going to give me a ride
home and turned the tractor off and came home with him. He balled me out and just
chewed me out and said, “Don’t you do this again.” And so “Okay deputy.” And about,
19
SUZUKI
it was almost a week later, and caught me again. And he got to know me pretty well and
he was calling me “Madaracha”. He was a deputy, cocky young son of a bitch. He used
to cuss at me. And—
GK:
So you were with the family at the evacuation happen.
FS:
Uh-huh I was here.
GK:
And tell me about the evacuation and how you prepared for it and what did you have to
do?
FS:
First as far as the property goes, that is what we worked on first. How to handle it and
my dad said “Well maybe we ought to sell.” Like the Ishizu’s and Tanaka’s and anyway
they sold their property, just before evacuation.
GK:
For nothing.
FS:
Yeah nothing. Actually nothing and I went to San Francisco with a group to handle this
Pacific Fruit Exchange. They used to handle our fruit, handle the whole Pacific Coast.
And I found out that the president of this thing was scared. He didn’t want to have
nothing to do with us Japs. So I got to see him right away but Min and Roy and Hitch
and Kenji Minabe didn’t think so, they said we want to please your father. I said, no use
guys. Those guys are scared and they wouldn’t even talk to us. So why don’t we go
across the bridge and we are not supposed to go across the San Francisco Bridge. So we
went across and came back and I told those guys why don’t we go to China-mieshi in
Oakland. Min and those guys were so scared that they wouldn’t let them, they came all
the way home and here it is eight o’clock and we haven’t had dinner yet. Oh ticked me
off. (laughs)
GK:
Who drove?
20
SUZUKI
FS:
Huh?
GK:
Who drove?
FS:
Min Kishi, oh, Roy Kishi.
GK:
Roy Kishi?
FS:
Yeah and his father was in the car.
GK:
And that was important that you did that.
FS:
And we talked to and Mr. Koda talked to and he would take care of us and he wanted us
to go back and communicate with them once more. I said, “Okay, who is going?” I’m
going. At that time just Roy Kishi and myself and I think it was Kenji Minabe, the four
of us went. And we pinned his ears back if they are interested or not? And they
happened to be horrified. And they were scared, they said hey you guys had better not go
back, he tells us, you know. Get your butt out of this office. And so we left and I said we
want to know if you get a, crazy enough to take care of our property? And we don’t want
to come back and bother you. And the president said, “We’ll let you know.” I want to
know now. I want to (inaudible) so Roy got madder than heck and said “Don’t push him
that hard.” I pushed him all right. I want to find out. My feeling is that they are scared.
They don’t want to do it. Well, but the others didn’t think so. I thought so. So a few days
later we got a call and a letter that said that they are not interested and they didn’t even
put the reason down but I knew what it was. They were chicken and then we talked to
Sam Kuwahara to see what they are doing and talked to Ken Masuda to see what they are
doing. And they were not doing nothing about the farm. I said, “Let’s get together and
maybe three of us can make it interesting for somebody to take care of the farms.” And
21
SUZUKI
Sam got the idea and he pushed it and Sam Kuwahara did, and he did a lot of the ground
work. He really worked hard.
GK:
So how did you find Momberg and—
FS:
Well during the conversation you know, we had an attorney and he mentioned it.
GK:
Who was the attorney?
FS:
My attorney was Griswald.
GK:
Griswald?
FS:
Griswald and he mentioned his name and I knew him before because he was California
Land, California Land bank manager of the subsidiary that took over the farm that went
broke and he took care of land and I happened to work for him when I was going to high
school. I used to disk some of his orchards and vineyards and my dad got the contract so
I used to work for him so we knew Gus then and so—
GK:
That was Momberg.
FS:
Yeah Momberg, and so that came into (inaudible) and Sam Kuwahara and Kaz, they
talked it over and said maybe we’ll get something out of this.
GK:
And so Winton had nothing to do with it?
FS:
Oh yeah, Winton was one of the trustees.
GK:
Okay.
FS:
He was trustee for the other association. We had Griswald for ours. Who did Sam have
anyway? He had somebody. And we knew of an attorney in Lodi, gee I forget his name.
Anyway he formulated the structure of how the organization should be and we read it and
it sounds pretty good. And with all those things done and we studied it; we went to
Nishihara’s place here and that is where we met because we couldn’t go over five miles.
22
SUZUKI
And so we left there and the last day I recall the signing of it and Gus Momberg’s
attorney said he wanted one percent net, no one percent gross and three percent net of the
company’s profit, you know. So I mentioned the fact that, hey wait a minute I said, “Last
minute deal you bring this up? Why didn’t you bring it up before?” And Sam Kuwahara
poked me and he said, “Hey (inaudible) keep quiet.” And we got this far and he didn’t
want to blow it, you know. And we talked a little bit and he said, “Yeah, let’s go for it.
They deserve it.”
GK:
Was this about January or February of forty-two?
FS:
Just about that time yeah. Early January I think it was and we finally got the structure
made and everybody was pretty happy about it and some of us like Andow’s,
Hashimoto’s, and who else was there? They said they will find somebody to lease to.
Hashimoto got Carpenter, and Andow’s got Drew, Jack Drew’s father. There is
somebody else and the rest of them all went together and (inaudible). And you know
when I found out the, I didn’t get the books you know, see. What the farmers owed the
bank and I was shocked because that contract says that all the blanket coverage, in other
words, if somebody else owed money and we didn’t and my property would be
mortgaged with their property you see, and I said, “Holy mackerel, I think we lost it, we
lost our farm.” And fortunately it turned out good but one reason I found out, that all the
farmers were carrying, Cortez, us, I was shocked. It scared the hell out of me.
GK:
But that was a good plan?
FS:
That was a good plan yeah.
GK:
At least we had a farm to—
FS:
Yeah, come back to.
23
SUZUKI
GK:
So many people lost theirs.
FS:
And the few that they lost theirs Ishizu’s, (inaudible), Moriuchi’s.
GK:
Moriuchi’s.
FS:
Ko Ishia’s, Tanaka’s.
GK:
Tanaka’s that’s five.
FS:
Gee, I don’t know.
GK:
But did you know that Wilma Arnold was Momberg’s number one secretary?
FS:
Yeah, yeah.
GK:
Because I interviewed her.
FS:
She must have been interesting because they took a lot of crap you know, being Japlovers and stuff like that. I found out through Gus after all this was over, his wife, his
kids, they took a lot of shaft, you know. I said Gus, all the name calling you got you
made me a big pot of money (laughs) and he laughed at me, you know.
GK:
Okay so evacuation happened and how did you go from your house, was it this area or
were you still had Kimoto’s?
FS:
We were here.
GK:
You were here?
FS:
Yeah, we lost that property, see my dad did.
GK:
I see, I see.
FS:
And he bought this place.
GK:
So how did you go from here to the Assembly Center?
FS:
You know my dad bought a brand new car just before the evacuation before the war. A
brand new Dodge, he paid seven hundred and eighty bucks for it and we packed
24
SUZUKI
everything in the trunk and packed it on top of the car and the guy we sold it to named
Pasadori, Italian fellow he bought it for, I think it was, two hundred bucks I think. He
paid us right there and we delivered it to American Legion Hall in Merced. That is where
we went.
GK:
And you left the key for him?
FS:
Yeah.
GK:
And he picked up the car. That’s what happened to my family.
FS:
He gave us the money. We gave him the key and the pink slip and that was it. The bad
part was like our refrigerator and stove and furniture, we delivered the piano to Francis
Chase, I think it was. We asked them to keep it for us. And that was just one piece.
GK:
What about the rest of the furniture?
FS:
The rest of the stuff I think it stayed and when we came back, it was all gone, no stove,
no refrigerator. The things were all ripped and we had a bunch of our my sister’s pictures
and our pictures and everything put in the tank house and we thought we had it sealed
pretty good but when we came back, there was nothing in there. It was all gone and but
the interesting part, our piano, and the camp in Amache didn’t have a piano so we asked
Chase if they will package it and ship it down to Amache and that is where the piano
went down to Amache Recreation Hall and I don’t know where it went from there. We
left it. We gave it to them but I know they used it quite a bit, pretty hard.
GK:
So do you remember how it felt with your sisters and little sisters having to pack and
what did you take?
FS:
Oh, Pat was—
GK:
She must have been three years old?
25
SUZUKI
FS:
Three years I don’t know. She couldn’t carry anything.
GK:
Yeah.
FS:
I had to carry her two suitcases and I had to carry two of mine and boy was that a load. I
carried it all the way from the, what do you call it, the gate of the fairground all the way
back to the horse barn you know.
GK:
Didn’t you have to go first to one of the halls in Merced.
FS:
Yeah we went to
GK:
American Legion Hall.
FS:
American Legion Hall and they checked us in and put all our packages in a truck, our
suitcases in a truck there.
GK:
So and then you drove to Merced?
FS:
Yeah, actually we drove to Merced.
GK:
And you left the car there yeah. Right there, then the bus took you.
FS:
I’ll never forget Dr. Higashi from San Francisco and he got on the bus and he’s telling us
what we can do and what we can’t do. And—
GK:
So he was kind of a liaison.
FS:
And I just remember him being an arrogant SOB. He was dentist from San Francisco.
GK:
So what did you do about those loyalty questions you know the—
FS:
I—how did I answer, yes, yes I think on the questions to serve the country, you have to
draft me before I go. And that is what I put on that questionnaire. In camp there—
GK:
In Amache?
FS:
In Amache we had some quite heated discussions about that a couple of us got together
and a few of them would serve and most of them would volunteer and we had different
26
SUZUKI
oh fighting amongst us and it was quite interesting and by that time, they were arguing
like hell and I just left. After about two hours—
GK:
How were your parents? How did they feel?
FS:
Well they said you do what you think is right and they didn’t encourage me one way or
another. And—
GK:
They didn’t direct you?
FS:
No, they didn’t direct me at all. And like Mary, she was willing to serve, to volunteer but
she never got that far because she went to school so. She wanted to change school.
GK:
So you said that student relocation.
FS:
Yeah the group.
GK:
Group house.
FS:
And she stayed in camp about two months and they were gone, June was gone and Mary
was gone and I followed them, right behind, about two months later. I went to the
University of Wyoming.
GK:
And little sister Patty was singing and—
FS:
Yeah, she was the only one at the camp.
GK:
She was a wonderful singer while she was growing up.
FS:
Yeah.
GK:
Do you remember this?
FS:
I heard her sing as a trio you know, Lucy, her and Mary Shoji, they were singing as a trio
and they were pretty much buddy, buddy. I didn’t hear her sing professionally. I heard
she used to have Sinatra’s record that she used to belt them out here. And imitate him.
27
GK:
SUZUKI
I remember one time at the school that we went together in Merced in the theater there
and that was the first time I heard Pat sing and sing something.
FS:
She went to San Jose State but she didn’t take music. She took music all right but she
didn’t get the opportunity to sing and one day she said she was going to Seattle with her
girlfriend and that was her senior year, I think. And she was horsing around at one of the
night clubs over there, they went to—
GK:
And didn’t somebody Bing Crosby, or somebody discover her?
FS:
Well yeah, the management let her sing there you know with the group there and Crosby
happened to be there and she said she got her start there, I’m not Crosby but Sinatra.
GK:
And she went off to do big things, great things.
FS:
Yeah. It just shocks you. And she said she is going to be on TV and all this jazz, you
know.
GK:
That is wonderful. So in camp, did she sing much?
FS:
Well no. Not as a trio they did, but not no, no what you call it there.
GK:
So what do you remember of camp? Was it bad feelings?
FS:
You know at first I could have cussed up anybody but I realized that it is not going to get
me any place. So I kind of tolerated the structure that we had. And the first month, I
went to camp in the farming division. And they put me on a desk right there in the office
and they wanted me to direct traffic and get the animals ready and all this jazz, you know.
GK:
So that was your work in camp?
FS:
In camp I started there. Gee, I forget that fellow that managed the livestock. But he
knew a lot more than I ever did (laughs).
GK:
Orchard farmer (laughing).
28
SUZUKI
FS:
He knew a good job over there I understand.
GK:
Was did you meet anybody outside of camp or with other camps?
FS:
Well the only one I had any camp “what-ya-ma-call-it” was Momberg. I used to talk to
him a lot and to ask him how the farm was going, you know. And he was kind of
shocked that I knew so much about the camp because I was writing to one of the
Albernez, Art Albernez. I said take a peek and see how they are doing on the farm so
he’d jot down little notes and sends me this and I asked Gus, I said, how come certain
things are not being done?
GK:
This is Joe Albernez?
FS:
Art Albernez
GK:
Art?
FS:
Yeah, his kid brother.
GK:
I see.
FS:
Art was young and he sent me little notes and kept in touch of the farm.
GK:
So you had a job in camp and what are some of the fun things you did in camp?
FS:
Mostly paperwork. I hated it. Requisitions for this, requisitions for that. Tons of
paperwork went through my fingers.
GK:
So you had an office job actually?
FS:
Yeah. And then I got ready to go to school so I said, “I’ve had it.” I left for Wyoming.
GK:
So this was about forty-three?
FS:
Yes forty-three.
GK:
Okay. So at that time did you have any feelings about after I get out of this camp, I’m
going to and did you have anything?
29
FS:
SUZUKI
I felt that when I got out of here for good, I’m not coming back to the camp. And that is
what I did. I stayed after I left for school, I got a friend of mine that my dad knew so I
went farming from there. I never did return to the camp. So what I did was farmed up
north and I saw this hail and take part of my property and I said, “Holy Mackerel.” Here
in ten days I am going to harvest, and wiped me out. I said, “I don’t want to farm like
this.” So I came back to the camp and found out that all of the camp property, they don’t
farm it no more because they were letting people go. You know and chasing them out of
the camp so I went to see the guy in charge of the property. He said, “Oh we are going to
put it out to bid to rent.” So I said can I bid on it? And he said oh yeah and he gave me a
bunch of papers. So each lot was so many acres and this and that. All the instructions on
it and minimum bid and so forth so I bid on about four different lots and I got two of
them and I think I paid five dollars an acre for six hundred acres and another one for, I
think it was three dollars an acre, pretty sure. That was three hundred acre place, I am
pretty sure, so anyhow, I had about nine hundred acres. So what I did was, John Kono
wanted to farm so I said “Why don’t you take care of that three hundred acres and you
pay me what I paid for it.” And John Kono farmed it and I farmed six hundred and I said
I’m going to farm like the Colorado farmers do, raise sugar beets and corn and wheat and
alfalfa and I think I’ll do all right and I did. John, he farmed twenty acres of onion and
onion was hot and he made a fortune on those twenty acres.
GK:
It’s written that California farmers taught the people of Colorado how to farm and how to
irrigate.
FS:
Yeah, irrigation especially. They didn’t know how to irrigate. They had the water there
but they didn’t know how to use the pump. Because I had to have a well right out there in
30
SUZUKI
the desert, you might say and you could scoop it up and about three feet deep. And I said
gee if I put a pump on that I can get all the water I want and that’s what I did. I irrigated
the whole six hundred acres.
GK:
Do you remember any of the other local people learning from you?
FS:
Well you know what? Irrigation takes work and you know you have to know how it
works and they see this big head of water coming out and you know they were scared and
if you know how to handle it it’s not so bad but they needed to know how to handle
water. This one fellow the superintendant he was a big shot in camp and he was
watching me. And as soon as the option came up to buy the ground, he bought the
ground that I was farming. And I was going to farm there one more year so.
GK:
Was this in forty-four?
FS:
Yeah. Forty-four or forty-five.
GK:
Forty-four?
FS:
Forty-five I think it was. Anyway he bought that property and he bought it for nothing
and twelve bucks an acre of something like that the government sold it and he bought that
and another property and he farmed it and he got water on it. And he learned how to
farm that way and I understand after we left, he planted corn and wheat and sugar beet
and he made a fortune. Because the two years that he farmed it, he made so much money
that he bought property in Vail, Colorado and not, yeah I think it was Vail, Colorado and
there, and what was that town? You know he bought a block of ground over there and
built himself a home and retired and because he did work for the government for so many
years you know. So he was sitting pretty. And he got rich selling the property even.
GK:
Do you remember any contact with the local people that learned to farm?
31
SUZUKI
FS:
Oh yeah. I had two neighbors.
GK:
Two neighbors?
FS:
That farmed right adjoining me. (inaudible) and so they learned how to farm with
irrigation like alfalfa. I used to irrigate twice a month and they didn’t even irrigate and
mine grew like heck. So they all copied me after I farmed it one year. That is the one
year I couldn’t get back so I left them. But those guys wanted to buy my equipment.
They said what are you going to do with it? Oh I’m going to auction it off. Oh sell it to
me for credit you know and so I sold my equipment to my neighbors there.
GK:
So (inaudible)
FS:
They couldn’t get it anyway. It was hard to get tractors and equipment. Because I know
when I picked up a corn picker, I went all the way to a place called Hamburg, Nebraska.
And I found this and dealer didn’t want to sell it to me so I had to give them five hundred
bucks extra on the side. And they said okay so let’s load it up on the truck and we loaded
it up and I came home with it. I had to bribe him.
GK:
Where was that that you were farming?
FS:
I was farming in Lamar, Granada actually right next to the camp. And-
GK:
They say that Rocky Ford was the watermelon capitol of the world.
FS:
Yeah it was.
GK:
But that was from the California people.
FS:
Yeah, but there were quite a few Japanese farmers over there. They were small farmers
and if they had twenty acres, they were big time farmers there in Colorado. And we need
to irrigate right. We did, you know. We’d take the whole darn (inaudible) and irrigate
32
SUZUKI
but they didn’t irrigate that much. They depend on the rain and you can’t raise crop like
that.
GK:
So you never did serve in the military?
FS:
No, I went there for three weeks, two weeks and I got called and what happened was I
owed the bank about eighteen thousand bucks and the banker found out that I would
probably have to go to war. You know, to the Army so let me have the money and when
he found out.
GK:
Why?
FS:
I owed, I owed I loaned it—he loaned it to me and I told him I got drafted and what did
you do with the money? I said, Gee I don’t know. I could have paid him right there but I
didn’t. But he got excited and went to see the draft board and everything and he got me
out. He came to the camp, Camp Robinson in Denver, Colorado and one day where I
was teaching a bunch of Wyoming kids how to march. They didn’t know which foot was
right and which was left and so the sergeant said, “I want you to teach them how to
march.” And there was about a half a dozen of them and they said, “We didn’t come here
to march. We came here to kill people.” That is what they tell me you know. And one
day after marching and the rest was over, I took them to this rifle range and this was there
and so they got all of their five shells and the sergeant was watching them because he
knew they were dumber than heck, couldn’t read.
GK:
(inaudible)
FS:
In Colorado, I mean Camp Robinson.
GK:
Camp Robinson?
33
FS:
SUZUKI
Yeah, and Logan, Camp Logan and I took them out to the field and boy they loved it.
They shot their five shots right perfect you know and the sergeant was watching and said,
“Hell these guys don’t need no practice, just give them a gun.” And they could hit it and
I talked to these guys and they go out shooting for squirrels and they eat the squirrels.
GK:
So you did go through basic then?
FS:
I didn’t even go through basic.
GK:
Oh you didn’t go through basic?
FS:
They looked at my chart and it said “ROTC”. I had it in San Luis. I had two years of it
so they didn’t even put me through basic and they were talking about sending me to
officer’s school and I said hell I don’t need officer school, I just want to be a GI. I told
this, one of the guys and by that time I was, the banker got me out. And one day I was
out there marching these guys and they said to report to the office, you know, and I went
there and take your suit off, your boots and get your old civilian clothes on and get your
ass out of here. That is what I did. He was waiting for me when I came out of the gate.
Drove me all the way back to Granada.
GK:
So you married after the war?
FS:
Oh yeah.
GK:
Okay.
FS:
It was fifty-three, I think about fifty-three.
GK:
How did you meet your wife?
FS:
She came over to Livingston one day. She was with Mary Kurihara. I met her when she
was working and I asked her for a date and she accepted and I started running around
with her. And later, we got married.
34
SUZUKI
GK:
And you were farming at that time?
FS:
Yeah I was farming at that time.
GK:
How did your parents feel?
FS:
Well my parents were happy in some ways and shook up in other ways. And—
GK:
You started a family?
FS:
Yeah.
GK:
And how many children?
FS:
I had four of them, five of them, five girls. I was hoping I’d get one tractor driver but the
girls turned out to be just as good. They all drove the tractor and did a lot of work for
me.
GK:
And how did you balance your family and your work then? (inaudible).
FS:
They helped me out a lot. When they were growing up, I’ll never forget the youngest one
Terry, she was out there hoeing the sweet potato ground and hoeing and Lori went to
school and Wendy went to school and Ivy went to school. She says to me “Gee, do I
have to go out there and hoe those weeds?” And I said, “Yep. It is your turn to do it all.”
And she was quite disappointed and I came in and I told Terry, I said “No more sweet
potatoes. I am giving it up.” She let off a scream that didn’t quit. And she asked me
why and I said I think I’m comfortable enough that I don’t have to have a cash flow
anymore.
GK:
Was your father still alive?
FS:
Yeah, he was alive.
GK:
Alive and your mom?
35
FS:
SUZUKI
So when I quit my sweet potato, he was still around. He says it was a big mistake and he
was shaking his head. He said, “cash cow is terrific and you had better hang onto it.” I
said, “No more. It is too much work so I gave up.” I was fine when they—when my dad
said “What are you going to do? You have a hundred and sixty acres and you got
peaches you got grapes, you got almonds, and you got sweet potato.” I said another year
I am all out. No more grapes, no more peaches and no more sweet potatoes and my dad
said, big mistake. So he asked me, he says, “Do you have enough finance for three
years?” I said I have enough of that and more than that so he said, “Okay, go ahead,
grow all almonds, because almonds look like the easiest crop to raise.” So an easy man’s
crop. I went to all almonds.
GK:
Was he able to see you prosper with almonds?
FS:
No, he never did because I had to pull my peaches out, my grapes out. I had to replant all
that and he never did see it was all almonds.
GK:
Did he give you much direction from?
FS:
You know at first he did, but after that—
GK:
You decided.
FS:
I went on my own mostly but he was always telling me about the dollar, how to make the
buck.
GK:
Even from camp time, when you were?
FS:
Yeah, even in camp time. See when I started farming in Colorado I had to borrow five
thousand bucks from him.
GK:
Oh.
36
FS:
SUZUKI
And he was pretty shaken that I wouldn’t pay him back and the first year I think, I paid
him three thousand bucks. I said you got to wait for the two thousand. The next year I
paid him all back with interest. And the most interesting part of it was that he said, “You
are going to pay me for the property that I own.” That he owns you know. So it took me
a little while to pay him back but before I got married, I paid him back for it. I said,
“Man you robbed me four hundred bucks because you can get it for two hundred in town
you know. But that is the way he wanted it to be. I didn’t even put my cash down or
nothing so I had to pay for it a little more but I’m glad I did because he went ahead and
invested it all in stock and after he sold it to me and he made a fortune in stock. But he
left it for the daughters, my sisters. I got the land but he got the coupon, which was all
right.
GK:
It sounds like you had a really good father son relationship.
FS:
No I had it pretty good.
GK:
How about your mother?
FS:
Mother, maybe not as close but it was all right and—
GK:
So during this war period, what were some of the hardest or worse times you can think
of?
FS:
Gee, I think probably the worse experience I had was I went to a restaurant and getting
refused because I’m a Jap and raised holy heck about it. But apparently the guy who
owned the restaurant knew who a Japanese looked like.
GK:
Was this in Colorado?
FS:
In Colorado, and I wasn’t the only one that experienced this. There were other guys who
went to this restaurant and experienced it. Coming back here, leaving here rather, I had
37
SUZUKI
some pretty bad experience with the local distributors who I owned a tractor deal and so
forth. When I came back, I thought we had a good relationship but we didn’t. They still
hated the Japs. And I guess it was about, I went to buy a tractor tire and he wouldn’t sell
it to me. The old distributor, gas distributor and I went to see him and I asked him to
service me and he said, “Hell no, I’ll never serve another Jap.” I was in Livingston I
think. And I went to the barber shop to get my hair cut and the barber kicked me out of
there.
GK:
In Livingston?
FS:
In Livingston. I had several of those experiences. But the bad part was about maybe four
or five years later when everything started to change but they wanted my business so that
is when I got up and told them to get the hell off of my ranch. I got nothing to do with
you and some of the Nisei went back and to, as a client to them, and so I told them my
experience and son of a gun, they dropped them and I mentioned the fact that he’s a Jap
hater and racist. I’ll never forget this guy got to be mayor, Robin Corbett. He got to be
mayor and one day I was (inaudible) in JACL about that time and we had something to
do and the city mayor had to do that and he comes up to me and said, “Hey, Frank, let’s
forget about the old times and let’s be friends again.” I said “Robin to hell with you. You
can go your ass way and I’ll go mine.” I never did make up with him and I’ll never
forget I think it was Tes Muramoto said, hey what have you got against Robin Corbett? I
said “He and I got no use for each other.” And they were taking this product, using this
product and Tes found out what I went through you know and I guess he quit Corbett
service and got somebody else. You know Tes was blabbing and he said, “I heard a
bunch of other guys cuss about him being a racist so I changed.” Oh there are incidents
38
SUZUKI
like that that happened. I guess even today I haven’t experienced that much but there
must be some prejudice here that I don’t know about.
GK:
So let’s get you back to Cressey. How did you get back to Cressey after the war?
FS:
Well, we had this property here so we kind of naturally flowed back here and—
GK:
And no one was living here and they could come right into your home?
FS:
Well they vacated before we came to take it back.
GK:
Oh, because many people had to stay at church.
FS:
Well since I was farming in Colorado, I couldn’t come back.
GK:
Oh I see.
FS:
I had to finish farming. And Bob Muramoto stayed here at the tank house upstairs and
down stairs and that is when he got shot at. We got a nice bullet hole right through the
building.
GK:
There were other shots—Tom Nakajima’s house, Sherman’s house.
FS:
Sherman Kiishi’s, Andow’s, and myself. The bad part about Sherman, he was at war in
Iwo Jima some place when he got shot. Where was Fred at? Fred was some place in the
armed service.
GK:
In MIS, they were all in MIS.
FS:
Yeah, so they were serving some place. I don’t know where.
GK:
So tell, tell how you arranged to come home. You sold your farm and all the equipment
you left.
FS:
And—
GK:
And your dad was still alive.
FS:
Yeah, he came back first. He came back first.
39
SUZUKI
GK:
Okay.
FS:
And we had the contract to go to in the fall see and so I think it was that fall we came
home, my folks came back. I came back it was January I think. I sold my corn and stuff
and so, then we started farming here.
GK:
So you came in forty-five?
FS:
Forty-six.
GK:
Forty-six, oh gee.
FS:
We came back a year later than the rest of them did.
GK:
So who was farming here?
FS:
This fellow, this Mexican fellow he farmed and worked for my dad almost twenty years
before we evacuated and he kind of took over and he kept saying, gee I don’t want
peaches. I don’t want the grapes. Grapes are just enough and he kept complaining about
it and he made a fortune in the three years that he farmed here.
GK:
That worked out good then for your dad.
FS:
Yeah.
GK:
That he was here to help.
FS:
Then after I came back, he made so much money he told dad to hell with you. He took
off and went some place else.
GK:
And he bought a farm of his own?
FS:
Yeah, he bought a home and he bought a few acres.
GK:
So a couple of your sisters were in college and the others came home huh?
FS:
The only one that came home was I think, Judy.
GK:
Judy did.
40
SUZUKI
FS:
Yeah Judy. She was the only one that did.
GK:
So mom and dad.
FS:
So the rest of them graduated and they were on their own doing something.
GK:
Okay. That’s good. Okay, well we’ve talked about you know wartime and some of the
experiences and hardships and all the hard work you put into it and how do you feel—
how do you feel Nisei were valuable? And what are the traits that you feel Nisei saved or
contributed?
FS:
I think they give up a lot, you know.
GK:
What?
FS:
Well you take all the things that they did for the community like the junior college, high
school, grammar school and trustees, you know. They work at it. I think they give up a
lot for all those things. I’m trying to think.
GK:
How do you think the children too contributed a lot?
FS:
Well, I think locally it kind of benefited the kids anything we did, benefited our kids,
baseball, and so forth. We helped out in different things. And I think the Nisei did quite
a bit, probably helped a hell of a lot as far as public relations goes. They, how do you say
they respected us more because we did do things in our community.
GK:
And schools?
FS:
And schools and school mostly. And we had fellows that managed banks.
GK:
Trustees at schools.
FS:
And those things helped and they got to be big shots and they made all that money that
most of them do but I think they did a good job.
GK:
I think they all took part in PTA.
41
SUZUKI
FS:
Oh yeah.
GK:
And Boy Scouts.
FS:
Boy Scouts and everything.
GK:
And Lions.
FS:
Lions and church.
GK:
Church and Methodist Church.
FS:
It’s amazing the Nisei I know that participate and spend money on it and which I have
given up myself. You know like church, you can’t please everybody and somebody gets
to you and you say “The hell with it.” Let them do it. And even with the ministers I’ve
had my share of them. But (inaudible) to them and.
GK:
But you participated with JACL a lot and went to Lions at one time.
FS:
Twenty-five years of it but there’s a point where too much is too much and you get bored
with it.
GK:
Okay so let’s go to recent times. What is the most important thing that has happened to
you recently?
FS:
Well recently, my family. Young grandkids are growing up and the first one I want to
see him graduate high school and I haven’t seen him yet. I got a few more years to go.
And now I want to see him graduate college. I don’t know. I didn’t think I would be
here at this time when my daughters first got married.
GK:
So where do all your family live your grandchildren?
FS:
They all live in East Bay.
END OF INTERVIEW
FRANK SUZUKI
INTERVIEWER:
GRACE KIMOTO
DATE:
August 11, 2002
GK:
Can you hear me all right?
FS:
Yes, it’s fine.
GK:
You can huh?
FS:
It’s fine.
GK:
Okay, now this is an interview with Frank Suzuki, a Nisei man at the age of how old?
FS:
Eighty-one.
GK:
Eighty-one at his home in Cressey, California and today is August what sixteen?
Eleventh and my name is Grace Kimoto and I’m taping for the JACL. We’ll start first
with life before the World War Two. Okay, where were you born?
FS:
I was born in San Francisco in 1921.
GK:
And what was your family’s line of work?
FS:
Farmers.
GK:
Speak clearly please and louder. And your mother’s?
FS:
Housewife (inaudible).
GK:
How many siblings do you have?
FS:
Four.
GK:
Four? And what did they do?
FS:
Today?
GK:
Well, today or how do they fall in line with you in the family?
FS:
Oh, they are below me, all sisters.
2
SUZUKI
GK:
Are you the oldest?
FS:
Yeah.
GK:
Okay, and what do you remember about your family life as you were growing up?
FS:
We were struggling. As I recall, we all had to work on the farm and little things you
know.
GK:
And what did you grow?
FS:
We had almonds, peaches, grapes. And my dad had watermelon, mustard, raised mustard
seed, sunflower seed, what else did he do about that time?
GK:
And you lived in Cressey?
FS:
Yeah and farmed there.
GK:
And what were some of the hardships as you were growing up.
FS:
Basically, the hardship that we faced wasn’t that bad. Got three square meals. We got
our clothing. We went to school so I don’t think that we suffered too much. The, I
guess we had to (inaudible) quite a bit, the clothing. We didn’t wear what the others
were wearing. I think my days starting high school instead of having nice oxfords we
wore our working boots. We kind of got teased about that but nothing bothered me too
much because that was part of every day.
GK:
How many boys and how many girls in your family?
FS:
Just three girls.
GK:
Three girls and you. You are the only male?
FS:
Yes.
GK:
Was your jobs different from your sisters? What was your role?
FS:
Well, as I was growing up, I had to go out in the field and help my parents out.
3
SUZUKI
GK:
Did your sisters go out?
FS:
Oh yes they went out. They went out and did little odds and ends.
GK:
And mother?
FS:
Mother did the same. We put in our time, especially when we had our chicken and we
had our rabbit, (inaudible) rabbits, feeding them twice a day, cleaning and so forth.
GK:
What do you think were your family expectations as you were growing up?
FS:
(Laughs) I can remember my mother said, “Go to college and don’t come back to the
farm.” This is what I remember as I was growing up and she said farming is no place for
you to be and told that to my sisters, too. Go to college and get an education which was
the number one priority of my mother. My dad didn’t say too much about it but my
mother really pushed it. And when we were evacuated to Merced Assembly Center,
Mary, she’s the second one, she is thinking well, she will figure a way to get to college
and she worked on that and so did June.
GK:
Mary’s your oldest sister?
FS:
Yeah, my next to me and so she worked on it and she worked with some student
relocation committee that, who was at honey?
GK:
Is this after the war or during the war?
FS:
No, no, this was right after we got into the camp.
MS:
Kenny Yamashita. The Quakers.
FS:
The Quaker group. I think my sisters worked on them. I didn’t but June and Mary and
they got help from them to get out of camp as soon as we got to Amache, the relocation
center and they left for school I think in November of that year and I stayed behind
because I didn’t work on it. But later on, I got the gist of it and I think in December, I
4
SUZUKI
went to the University of Wyoming. And when I found out that my classes that I had I
was taking wasn’t acceptable with Cal Poly’s curriculum and it made me a sophomore
when I should have been a junior, a full-fledged junior, I was kind of disappointed so I
went there half a year, the University of Wyoming and I quit and dropped out of school
and I had an opportunity to farm. My dad’s friend was a promoter and he got half a
dozen fellows to farm for him and I went as a share cropper to Kingsville, Colorado that
following spring of forty-three I believe it was. So I left the camp for good.
GK:
You’re getting ahead of me a little bit and I’m still delving into your growing up.
FS:
Oh okay, let’s back up then.
GK:
Your parents, how are some of the ways they disciplined you?
FS:
You know as far as discipline goes they didn’t tell us what to do or what not to do but to
be a good boy. That is about all I learned and respect the other people.
GK:
And what are some of the responsibilities that they expected from you?
FS:
Well, I guess mostly go to college, school, go to church and get in a fight at church
(laughing) and go to Japanese school at about that time and get in a fight. So one day as I
recall Japanese school, we went there on Saturdays and the teachers asked my folks not to
send me because all I did was get into a fight almost every week so I had to drop out. My
sisters kept going but I didn’t. I was happier than hell.
GK:
Okay.
FS:
Okay now let’s go.
GK:
Okay thank you. That kind of takes care of the growing up period as far as you, not
family but let’s move into your family and the community okay? Did you participate in
the church or scouts or YMCA like picnics or local bands?
5
SUZUKI
FS:
I was in the Boy Scouts for a few years.
GK:
Tell us about it.
FS:
We didn’t, probably one of the most interesting part of it was going to camp, Boy Scout
Camp.
GK:
Where?
FS:
Went to Yosemite and we went to Santa Cruz area and we went into Folsom area where
they have that big jail and we went into the CYA Camp and a, where they kept all the
delinquents and we camped in that area. And let’s see, I don’t remember any other
interesting spots that we went to.
GK:
How about community picnics?
FS:
You know community picnics, I don’t remember too much about it. We used to have it
at Macano (??) Park, the community picnic.
GK:
I do need to just set up a little bit more ‘cause the lights reflecting on your glasses,
(inaudible) better, okay. So you don’t remember too much about it?
FS:
No, I don’t remember too much about the picnics.
GK:
Okay, tell me about the Japanese Language School you were talking about.
FS:
Oh, that. Mrs. Tachiya was the teacher and there was about twenty-five or thirty of us
that attended every Saturday. Well I didn’t last to long there. I must have gone maybe
about four classes until Mrs. Tachiya asked my parents not to send me because I was
getting into too much fight over there.
GK:
Did you take part in any Kendo or any?
FS:
I started Kendo. I took about three or four lessons and this professor, so-called professor,
big shot, challenged me and I hurt him with the bamboo stick and boy, he plowed into me
6
SUZUKI
and told me off and he said for me to come early in the morning and wash the—wash the
floor and that was about five in the morning and I didn’t show up. And so one day who
in the heck was it? I think it was Mr. Takahashi told my dad that I didn’t show up to
wash the—wash the floor there. Oh so what happened he said, oh my son, he quit. I give
it up. I told him here is the kendo and my (inaudible) and to give it to anybody you want.
And my dad didn’t like that too well and I’m not going and to hell with the Kendo. And
my neighbors went, Kimotos, and Gilberts, and they all went, all through what do you
call it, classes they had about twenty days or thirty days I forget what and it was almost
every darn morning I had to go practice Kendo. I couldn’t go for that. So my dad said
well I guess you might as well quit then, if you don’t want to go.
GK:
You had a real understanding father.
FS:
I did. So after Kendo there was something else going on, I didn’t get too much involved
in it. So what else do you got?
GK:
Okay, let’s move into school. What school?
FS:
I went to—
GK:
Move forward a little bit so I don’t get that reflection on your glasses.
FS:
I went to Cressey Catholic School and I used to get the teacher so mad that she would
spank me once or maybe twice a week. And—
GK:
How did you feel about that?
FS:
Oh, I took it as a punishment. I got a little smarter and used to put a composition book in
my pants so when she took the ruler and hit my butt it, didn’t hurt as bad so I’m laughing
away about it and she said, “What are you laughing about?” I must have broken at least
half a dozen yardsticks, you know. And as I grew up I got to respect the teacher and I
7
SUZUKI
didn’t talk back to them and I was a good boy. I was in sixth grade I think it was, I
finally grew up.
GK:
Who were your playmates?
FS:
My playmates were—
GK:
This is Cressey?
FS:
Cressey Grammar School we had Filipinos, Mexicans, Italians, Swedes, Portuguese and I
think until about the sixth grade, I used to fight with the Italian kid most. Got into a fist
fight with him because he called me a Jap and I used to call him a Wop, Dago and et
cetera but after that, the fellows got to be, they grew up bigger than I was, see and I
couldn’t challenge them no more but when we were growing up, I was a little bit bigger
than they were and I think the last two years of grade school, they all grew up and I
didn’t. So, I couldn’t fight them no more.
GK:
Were you ever invited to the (inaudible) homes?
FS:
You know the only one parent that invited was Portuguese, I mean, the Italian family, the
kid I used to fight with. The mother used to invite us on a Thursday because that was her
baking day. She used to make bread after bread for the whole week so we used to go
there and eat the fresh bread. I recall I ate the whole loaf one time.
GK:
You really liked it?
FS:
Nice and hot you know and no butter or no jam just ate the bread. And so she used to
invite me once a week, I used to go there and get my loaf of bread and bring it home.
GK:
So as you were growing up, did you consider yourself Japanese or Japanese-American or
American?
8
FS:
SUZUKI
Well, I really found out that I was a Japanese and it was much better to be a whitey and
as I grew up, I went to high school and I felt the same thing there. That you got to be a
whitey to get any place in this world. I think during high school I associated mostly with
Japanese buddies. I don’t think I (inaudible) really that much. So I didn’t much care to
intermingle but my sisters did. They intermingled with the whities and they got along
great with them but I had a tendency to hold a little grudge against them and if they said
anything, I used to bark back at them.
GK:
Did your parents have any contact with the school?
FS:
No, they sure didn’t. They knew the teacher and so forth but other than that they didn’t
have too much contact with the school. We were mostly on our own.
GK:
What did your parents expect of your school work?
FS:
No, they said study hard, that’s about all they asked us to do. And I just barely passed
you might say. The rest of them were on the scholarship for the year, you know and CIF,
yeah CIF, I think, yeah.
GK:
So think about growing up and having dinner together. Did your family sit around the
table?
FS:
Oh yeah we sat and talked about the days when everyone was going to school. Who we
cussed at and (inaudible) and I can still remember some of the talk things I said to the
girls especially when I was in the seventh-eight grade. I learned a lot of foul things from
the Portuguese and the Italians and the Mexicans. That was—
GK:
Pretty tough kid, so anything else you remember of your grade school days? Let’s move
into teenage then. That’s high school. What kinds of problems besides telling them off
and being a tough kid?
9
FS:
SUZUKI
I wasn’t a tough kid, I just held my ground, that is what I did. I just didn’t like to be
called a Jap. That is one thing that I really resented. White guys called me that.
GK:
So what were the fun things in high school?
FS:
Oh I guess mostly the fun thing was playing the basketball team and track that I enjoyed
the most and I looked forward to it. And what happened was about sophomore year, my
dad got very weak and he couldn’t work. So I used to shorten my school days then and
there were a lot of things that when he had work to do, I came home early and I think I
got my operator’s license, driver’s license when I was twelve so I used to drive the car to
school and as soon as I’d get off, I’d beat the bus home and go to work. I did that for
about three years and I can still recall, my dad had peaches that he had to bring into
Livingston Packaging Shed and I drove this truck full of peaches and after about a week
of that, I got caught.
GK:
What grade were you?
FS:
I was freshman.
GK:
Freshman.
FS:
And about thirteen years old, I think, or something like that. And we had to go see the
judge. I still remember the judge, a German fellow named Schultz. He balled my dad
out to no end and he says “I’m going to have to fine you twenty-five dollars and don’t let
your son drive.” Next day, dad asked me, “Do you want to take the load in?” “Yeah, I’ll
take it in.” I took the load in and we finished the season and there’s a couple fellows, old
farmers that were pretty helpful to me because I couldn’t handle them because I was too
small. And they used to help me unload the truck and I got by. Next year, when so it
wasn’t so bad since I knew what I was doing and the chief of police one day, he saw me
10
SUZUKI
tying the boxes down and he said, “You aren’t bringing the fruit in, are you?” I said,
“I’m going to sneak around here.” And he saw me a couple of times but he didn’t do
nothing about it. Because he knew I was working and dad had to have it so we got by
that well. And one part of farming in.
GK:
So let’s go into dating. Did you do a lot of dating then?
FS:
No, that is something I never did. I never did until about second year of college, no, first
year in college, that is when I started dating.
GK:
Okay, and then you talked about being called a Jap and all. Were there other racist
comments or injustices that you experienced?
FS:
Well, that’s about all, slang you know and using four letter words and Jap you know.
That is what I used to get in trouble with but other than that kids in school, didn’t bother
you that much.
GK:
(inaudible) so then as you were growing up and teenage years, what was the relationship
between you and your parents?
FS:
Oh it wasn’t bad. They’d tell me what to do and I did it. I kept telling my dad that one of
these days, I am going to tell you to go to hell on the farm. The hell with the farm. I still
remember that. That was about when I was thirteen or fourteen years old. I said, “One of
these days I am going to tell you that.” But I came back to the farm and did his steps.
GK:
Well, so was there any talk of marriage or what kind of person you might marry?
FS:
You know when I got to be college age and he asked me if I was dating anybody, and no
I am just teasing them. And I told him what—that the gal I was looking for and what
stability I had to have before I get married and there wasn’t too much after that but as I
crowded thirty, my dad and my mom started pushing you know. Because my dad’s
11
SUZUKI
friends or any place so once in a while, I’d get called, my folks would get a call and
invite me to have dinner so they are trying to fix me up. I told my dad forget it. I am
going to find my own. I don’t need your help. And –
GK:
And so who did you have if you had any personal problems who did you have to talk
with?
FS:
Mostly my dad, yeah. Any personal problems I had with my dad, we’d talk about it
and—
GK:
And so mostly you had a happy time with dad.
FS:
Well happy times, I guess we used to have go see the forty-niners play at Kezar. We had
the season tickets so he and I used to go during the season to see them. But when they
played on a Sunday, we used to go to Tanforan or Bay Meadows, whichever the horses
were running and we used to go and bet on the horses and my dad was good about it,
picking a horse and making a few bucks. And one day I thought I’d really be smart and
went and bet on a horse and bet on him for a hundred bucks to win and the horse came in
dead last. I lost my hundred bucks and when dad he picked the horse that was a winner
and I said, “How in the hell do you do that?” And I climbed all over him so I lost a
hundred bucks and I want to make that up so he gave me three horses to bet on. And I
made my hundred bucks loss up with those three horses and I still never knew how to bet
on the horses but my dad did. He can’t even read a racing form. And he still managed to
pick a winner and it amazed me. And we come home every time and he got a few bucks
extra in his pocket and we’d stay over night and watch the forty-niners play and then
come home and this was a ritual in the fall. And one day we were busier than heck and
Cal and Stanford was playing and we used to go and see those games in the Bay area.
12
SUZUKI
And one day I had work to do and didn’t quite finish it, and he says, so he took off on his
own to see Cal and Stanford play. I asked my mom “Where is dad?” And she didn’t
know and he comes back and watched Cal win that day and he was happier than heck. I
said, “You stinker. You go yourself and don’t even take me.” I said, “Boy that is the last
time you are going to do that.” One day we went to see, he wanted to see Army play
Stanford. That day it was raining and I told dad, let’s stay home. No, we got to go see
them they are going to play in the rain and we’ll go watch them in the rain. We took our
rain gears and went to Stanford and I’ll be darn, everyone was going home. They had
tickets galore and said you want my ticket and I must have cost about half a dozen tickets
and we watched them play and my dad and I we sat up in the rain and the stadium was
three quarters of the game and we finally got wet enough so we came home but it was a
sloppy day that day. I’ll never forget that that my dad was hanging in there watching
them play football.
GK:
So your dad drove alone if he was?
FS:
Yeah, he drove alone and went all the way to Berkeley because when we used to go
there, we had a service station or gasoline station where we used to park the car. And
what he did, was the owner there of that station took us to the stadium but game time it
was okay. But the first time, we had to walk back to the car.
GK:
This is a family friend?
FS:
Well, not a family friend, we just got to know him.
GK:
Oh I see.
FS:
My dad used to bring nuts and fruit to him and he just got to be kind of a buddy like and
we did this for about four or five years and we did this at Kezar even. We had a service
13
SUZUKI
station that was about five blocks away from the stadium and he’d jump into my car and
take us to the stadium and brings it back and parks it.
GK:
Do you know about how much they charge for you to—?
FS:
We paid I think five bucks parking.
GK:
Five bucks.
FS:
Parking.
GK:
For parking? And how about entering the game?
FS:
Oh the game. Season ticket was I think twelve bucks a game on the forty yard line right
in the middle of the stadium half way up, you know. They were nice seats. Today you
got to pay what, three or four hundred bucks for a seat like that.
GK:
So would you buy popcorn and stuff?
FS:
Oh we at half time would go down and have a hot dog and coffee and we never had
popcorn. We had peanuts, I think.
GK:
How old do you think your dad was at the time?
FS:
Well –
GK:
Fifty or so?
FS:
Fifty, fifty-five.
GK:
Yeah, because there are not too many questions about when your dad married and—
FS:
Let’s see 1919 I think.
GK:
And your mother was here?
FS:
She was in Japan. They got married in Japan.
GK:
Oh I see.
14
FS:
SUZUKI
And my dad, my grandfather had bought that place where (inaudible) and he sent for my
dad and (inaudible) I think.
GK:
Then your grandfather went back to Japan after?
FS:
He got hemorrhaged, brain hemorrhage so they sent him back.
GK:
Oh I see.
FS:
To Japan. He died in Japan a few years later.
GK:
What Ken is it?
FS:
Ichi-ken.
GK:
Ichi-ken.
FS:
Yeah and on the coast of Nagoya.
GK:
And what was his dad doing in Ichi-ken?
FS:
I don’t know what his father was doing but he was what you call, a newspaper man. My
grandfather and he worked for Nichibei Times, I think it was.
GK:
So there was a Nichibei in Japan?
FS:
I don’t think so.
GK:
So he was a connector for it.
FS:
So he just got the job there and they got so he was sucked into buying this subsidy
property, it was so cold.
GK:
So you did not attend college but you chose not to go to college?
FS:
Who is this?
GK:
You?
FS:
No I quit because of the war.
GK:
Oh that’s right.
15
FS:
SUZUKI
Yeah. And I went to the University of Wyoming half a year and my credits there, I was
going to have it transferred to Cal Poly. Cal Poly wrote me back and said these credits
are no good. I said what the heck am I going to school for because I only had one more
year to graduate. And here I went half a year and couldn’t get no credit for it so I said to
heck with it and I dropped out of school and I went farming for that. My dad’s friend in
Stockton knew of a German fellow that leased the ground so much you know and I went
to go there and farm and I told my dad that. And my dad said, take me out there and see
if I can farm out there.
GK:
And how old were you then?
FS:
Twenty-one I think. Yeah, I think twenty-one going on twenty-two probably. And I
farmed there and learned how to raise carrots and potatoes and corn and sugar beets. And
I didn’t have no other vegetables. Let’s see, Ben Kunimoto and Ben Noda they farmed
after joining me and they had (inaudible).
GK:
How did they—where did they take their produce?
FS:
They took it to Denver. They had what they called a milk truck and truck that goes to
Denver every morning, early in the morning so they—
GK:
So you were in Amache in Colorado?
FS:
Yeah.
GK:
How did you hear about Pearl Harbor?
FS:
You know I was working as a gardener in San Luis Obispo and there was four of us and
this one fellow, he finds a job, a gardening job and he said we will do it for so much,
contracts, and he was from Los Angeles. So he found a job for us on Saturdays and
Sundays. And this Sunday we were in a beautiful resident and we worked there and went
16
SUZUKI
there about eight o’clock and by eleven o’clock that day, we found out from the lady that
we worked for, she said do you know Japan bombed Pearl Harbor? We kind of got shook
up then at that time. When we went back to the campus, they are all staring at us you
know and what the hell is going on anyway? So we found out from a lieutenant fellow
that Japan had bombed Pearl Harbor.
GK:
And how did you feel about that then?
FS:
We felt pretty sick by that. We went to our room and we talked about what the heck are
they going to do? You know and then right next to my room is a reserve. He got called
just like that. He had to pack up and leave school. He came in and said (inaudible), this
white kid. He talked to my roommate and he left. He had a few hours to get his clothes
together and report to San Diego and there was a bunch of other guys there too you know,
reserves. So they all left school that day.
GK:
This is school at?
FS:
Cal Poly.
GK:
Cal Poly, San Luis.
FS:
Yeah, that was that evening. They got the letter or word to report about noon time, lunch
time. Pearl Harbor was in the morning.
GK:
About noon?
FS:
Yeah, about noon anyway that evening they were gone. They had left. And I think the
interesting part of that was three days later my dad called me and he asked me if I had a
couple thousand bucks. And I said yeah I got it in the bank. I said why, don’t you have
it? He said they froze my account. And I have to pay my workers and so forth so he said
can you get your money? So I went to the bank and the manager talked to me and he said
17
SUZUKI
do you know that your accounts are frozen? I said, “Why?” I said I want to draw out all
the money I have here. My dad needs it. So it took me about a week before they released
it. I knew the District Attorney because we used to fix his garden. We used to go there
and trim it and mow his lawn. So we knew him pretty well. He sympathized with us but
he couldn’t get the bank okay to transfer the money you know and draw it out. And my
roommate, I got a call about two days, three days later, no, it must have been about four
days later that one evening he said, “Tell Kobi to come home.” I said, “Why?” His dad
got picked up and we don’t know where he is going. Being the oldest son, the brothers
wanted him back to Santa Anna. What is this, nine o’clock at night and raining like heck,
ask him to leave right now, I said can’t it wait until morning because it is raining like
heck. No, we want him to.
GK:
So (inaudible)?
FS:
Yeah, and no car, only one my ex-roommate, he had a brand new Buick. So I asked him
if I could borrow it and he didn’t want to, but he let us have it. So that night about ten
o’clock, we packed up and took off for Santa Anna and drove all night and got to L.A.
and found out what was going on. So I told my roommate let’s go see in the county jail if
he is there. So I drove up there with him and the deputy said, “What the hell are you
doing here?” I said, “I want to see my father.” And my roommate talked to him and he
wouldn’t let me see him. And they are all locked up and my father got word to one of the
deputies that he wanted his night clothes and toothbrush and shaving kit and so forth so
we went home and picked it up and brought it to him that day. They got it to him,
somehow. But a, it was kind of what do you call it? My roommate was scared as heck
and I said hey what are they going to do, throw us in jail? We can stand that. I kept
18
SUZUKI
egging him on and egging him on. And we stayed there a few days and I said I have to
get this car back. It’s not mine so I left him there and I went back to Cal Poly campus
and I had another letter from dad and he said “Bring the money and come home.” And so
I went to see the registrar and checked out of school and put my books all together and I
had a friend of mine from Turlock and he was coming home for the weekend and he was
always shook up, too.
GK:
Who was that?
FS:
A fellow named Tate. He died already and I came home with him and I told dad I got a
cashier’s check here for eighteen hundred bucks. So he went ahead and asked me to cash
it and paid a bunch of deals off and so forth and he got by. And then they released my
dad’s account about a month later I think it was, so he could write on it.
GK:
And did they know at that time that they were going to be evacuated?
FS:
No.
GK:
Not yet.
FS:
No they didn’t. They gave us instructions to be home by five o’clock and here we got
(inaudible) you know and I’m working the tractor I got caught at six o’clock in the
evening and the sheriff said, “We’re going to throw you in the can.” I said, “Fine just
take me with you and at least I’ll be fed there and kidded around with him.” And he said,
“You get your ass home.” So he followed me all the way to here that night and two days
later I was over there working and here it is six o’clock and I’m still working and he
stopped me and said let’s get your butt home. I said are you going to give me a ride
home and turned the tractor off and came home with him. He balled me out and just
chewed me out and said, “Don’t you do this again.” And so “Okay deputy.” And about,
19
SUZUKI
it was almost a week later, and caught me again. And he got to know me pretty well and
he was calling me “Madaracha”. He was a deputy, cocky young son of a bitch. He used
to cuss at me. And—
GK:
So you were with the family at the evacuation happen.
FS:
Uh-huh I was here.
GK:
And tell me about the evacuation and how you prepared for it and what did you have to
do?
FS:
First as far as the property goes, that is what we worked on first. How to handle it and
my dad said “Well maybe we ought to sell.” Like the Ishizu’s and Tanaka’s and anyway
they sold their property, just before evacuation.
GK:
For nothing.
FS:
Yeah nothing. Actually nothing and I went to San Francisco with a group to handle this
Pacific Fruit Exchange. They used to handle our fruit, handle the whole Pacific Coast.
And I found out that the president of this thing was scared. He didn’t want to have
nothing to do with us Japs. So I got to see him right away but Min and Roy and Hitch
and Kenji Minabe didn’t think so, they said we want to please your father. I said, no use
guys. Those guys are scared and they wouldn’t even talk to us. So why don’t we go
across the bridge and we are not supposed to go across the San Francisco Bridge. So we
went across and came back and I told those guys why don’t we go to China-mieshi in
Oakland. Min and those guys were so scared that they wouldn’t let them, they came all
the way home and here it is eight o’clock and we haven’t had dinner yet. Oh ticked me
off. (laughs)
GK:
Who drove?
20
SUZUKI
FS:
Huh?
GK:
Who drove?
FS:
Min Kishi, oh, Roy Kishi.
GK:
Roy Kishi?
FS:
Yeah and his father was in the car.
GK:
And that was important that you did that.
FS:
And we talked to and Mr. Koda talked to and he would take care of us and he wanted us
to go back and communicate with them once more. I said, “Okay, who is going?” I’m
going. At that time just Roy Kishi and myself and I think it was Kenji Minabe, the four
of us went. And we pinned his ears back if they are interested or not? And they
happened to be horrified. And they were scared, they said hey you guys had better not go
back, he tells us, you know. Get your butt out of this office. And so we left and I said we
want to know if you get a, crazy enough to take care of our property? And we don’t want
to come back and bother you. And the president said, “We’ll let you know.” I want to
know now. I want to (inaudible) so Roy got madder than heck and said “Don’t push him
that hard.” I pushed him all right. I want to find out. My feeling is that they are scared.
They don’t want to do it. Well, but the others didn’t think so. I thought so. So a few days
later we got a call and a letter that said that they are not interested and they didn’t even
put the reason down but I knew what it was. They were chicken and then we talked to
Sam Kuwahara to see what they are doing and talked to Ken Masuda to see what they are
doing. And they were not doing nothing about the farm. I said, “Let’s get together and
maybe three of us can make it interesting for somebody to take care of the farms.” And
21
SUZUKI
Sam got the idea and he pushed it and Sam Kuwahara did, and he did a lot of the ground
work. He really worked hard.
GK:
So how did you find Momberg and—
FS:
Well during the conversation you know, we had an attorney and he mentioned it.
GK:
Who was the attorney?
FS:
My attorney was Griswald.
GK:
Griswald?
FS:
Griswald and he mentioned his name and I knew him before because he was California
Land, California Land bank manager of the subsidiary that took over the farm that went
broke and he took care of land and I happened to work for him when I was going to high
school. I used to disk some of his orchards and vineyards and my dad got the contract so
I used to work for him so we knew Gus then and so—
GK:
That was Momberg.
FS:
Yeah Momberg, and so that came into (inaudible) and Sam Kuwahara and Kaz, they
talked it over and said maybe we’ll get something out of this.
GK:
And so Winton had nothing to do with it?
FS:
Oh yeah, Winton was one of the trustees.
GK:
Okay.
FS:
He was trustee for the other association. We had Griswald for ours. Who did Sam have
anyway? He had somebody. And we knew of an attorney in Lodi, gee I forget his name.
Anyway he formulated the structure of how the organization should be and we read it and
it sounds pretty good. And with all those things done and we studied it; we went to
Nishihara’s place here and that is where we met because we couldn’t go over five miles.
22
SUZUKI
And so we left there and the last day I recall the signing of it and Gus Momberg’s
attorney said he wanted one percent net, no one percent gross and three percent net of the
company’s profit, you know. So I mentioned the fact that, hey wait a minute I said, “Last
minute deal you bring this up? Why didn’t you bring it up before?” And Sam Kuwahara
poked me and he said, “Hey (inaudible) keep quiet.” And we got this far and he didn’t
want to blow it, you know. And we talked a little bit and he said, “Yeah, let’s go for it.
They deserve it.”
GK:
Was this about January or February of forty-two?
FS:
Just about that time yeah. Early January I think it was and we finally got the structure
made and everybody was pretty happy about it and some of us like Andow’s,
Hashimoto’s, and who else was there? They said they will find somebody to lease to.
Hashimoto got Carpenter, and Andow’s got Drew, Jack Drew’s father. There is
somebody else and the rest of them all went together and (inaudible). And you know
when I found out the, I didn’t get the books you know, see. What the farmers owed the
bank and I was shocked because that contract says that all the blanket coverage, in other
words, if somebody else owed money and we didn’t and my property would be
mortgaged with their property you see, and I said, “Holy mackerel, I think we lost it, we
lost our farm.” And fortunately it turned out good but one reason I found out, that all the
farmers were carrying, Cortez, us, I was shocked. It scared the hell out of me.
GK:
But that was a good plan?
FS:
That was a good plan yeah.
GK:
At least we had a farm to—
FS:
Yeah, come back to.
23
SUZUKI
GK:
So many people lost theirs.
FS:
And the few that they lost theirs Ishizu’s, (inaudible), Moriuchi’s.
GK:
Moriuchi’s.
FS:
Ko Ishia’s, Tanaka’s.
GK:
Tanaka’s that’s five.
FS:
Gee, I don’t know.
GK:
But did you know that Wilma Arnold was Momberg’s number one secretary?
FS:
Yeah, yeah.
GK:
Because I interviewed her.
FS:
She must have been interesting because they took a lot of crap you know, being Japlovers and stuff like that. I found out through Gus after all this was over, his wife, his
kids, they took a lot of shaft, you know. I said Gus, all the name calling you got you
made me a big pot of money (laughs) and he laughed at me, you know.
GK:
Okay so evacuation happened and how did you go from your house, was it this area or
were you still had Kimoto’s?
FS:
We were here.
GK:
You were here?
FS:
Yeah, we lost that property, see my dad did.
GK:
I see, I see.
FS:
And he bought this place.
GK:
So how did you go from here to the Assembly Center?
FS:
You know my dad bought a brand new car just before the evacuation before the war. A
brand new Dodge, he paid seven hundred and eighty bucks for it and we packed
24
SUZUKI
everything in the trunk and packed it on top of the car and the guy we sold it to named
Pasadori, Italian fellow he bought it for, I think it was, two hundred bucks I think. He
paid us right there and we delivered it to American Legion Hall in Merced. That is where
we went.
GK:
And you left the key for him?
FS:
Yeah.
GK:
And he picked up the car. That’s what happened to my family.
FS:
He gave us the money. We gave him the key and the pink slip and that was it. The bad
part was like our refrigerator and stove and furniture, we delivered the piano to Francis
Chase, I think it was. We asked them to keep it for us. And that was just one piece.
GK:
What about the rest of the furniture?
FS:
The rest of the stuff I think it stayed and when we came back, it was all gone, no stove,
no refrigerator. The things were all ripped and we had a bunch of our my sister’s pictures
and our pictures and everything put in the tank house and we thought we had it sealed
pretty good but when we came back, there was nothing in there. It was all gone and but
the interesting part, our piano, and the camp in Amache didn’t have a piano so we asked
Chase if they will package it and ship it down to Amache and that is where the piano
went down to Amache Recreation Hall and I don’t know where it went from there. We
left it. We gave it to them but I know they used it quite a bit, pretty hard.
GK:
So do you remember how it felt with your sisters and little sisters having to pack and
what did you take?
FS:
Oh, Pat was—
GK:
She must have been three years old?
25
SUZUKI
FS:
Three years I don’t know. She couldn’t carry anything.
GK:
Yeah.
FS:
I had to carry her two suitcases and I had to carry two of mine and boy was that a load. I
carried it all the way from the, what do you call it, the gate of the fairground all the way
back to the horse barn you know.
GK:
Didn’t you have to go first to one of the halls in Merced.
FS:
Yeah we went to
GK:
American Legion Hall.
FS:
American Legion Hall and they checked us in and put all our packages in a truck, our
suitcases in a truck there.
GK:
So and then you drove to Merced?
FS:
Yeah, actually we drove to Merced.
GK:
And you left the car there yeah. Right there, then the bus took you.
FS:
I’ll never forget Dr. Higashi from San Francisco and he got on the bus and he’s telling us
what we can do and what we can’t do. And—
GK:
So he was kind of a liaison.
FS:
And I just remember him being an arrogant SOB. He was dentist from San Francisco.
GK:
So what did you do about those loyalty questions you know the—
FS:
I—how did I answer, yes, yes I think on the questions to serve the country, you have to
draft me before I go. And that is what I put on that questionnaire. In camp there—
GK:
In Amache?
FS:
In Amache we had some quite heated discussions about that a couple of us got together
and a few of them would serve and most of them would volunteer and we had different
26
SUZUKI
oh fighting amongst us and it was quite interesting and by that time, they were arguing
like hell and I just left. After about two hours—
GK:
How were your parents? How did they feel?
FS:
Well they said you do what you think is right and they didn’t encourage me one way or
another. And—
GK:
They didn’t direct you?
FS:
No, they didn’t direct me at all. And like Mary, she was willing to serve, to volunteer but
she never got that far because she went to school so. She wanted to change school.
GK:
So you said that student relocation.
FS:
Yeah the group.
GK:
Group house.
FS:
And she stayed in camp about two months and they were gone, June was gone and Mary
was gone and I followed them, right behind, about two months later. I went to the
University of Wyoming.
GK:
And little sister Patty was singing and—
FS:
Yeah, she was the only one at the camp.
GK:
She was a wonderful singer while she was growing up.
FS:
Yeah.
GK:
Do you remember this?
FS:
I heard her sing as a trio you know, Lucy, her and Mary Shoji, they were singing as a trio
and they were pretty much buddy, buddy. I didn’t hear her sing professionally. I heard
she used to have Sinatra’s record that she used to belt them out here. And imitate him.
27
GK:
SUZUKI
I remember one time at the school that we went together in Merced in the theater there
and that was the first time I heard Pat sing and sing something.
FS:
She went to San Jose State but she didn’t take music. She took music all right but she
didn’t get the opportunity to sing and one day she said she was going to Seattle with her
girlfriend and that was her senior year, I think. And she was horsing around at one of the
night clubs over there, they went to—
GK:
And didn’t somebody Bing Crosby, or somebody discover her?
FS:
Well yeah, the management let her sing there you know with the group there and Crosby
happened to be there and she said she got her start there, I’m not Crosby but Sinatra.
GK:
And she went off to do big things, great things.
FS:
Yeah. It just shocks you. And she said she is going to be on TV and all this jazz, you
know.
GK:
That is wonderful. So in camp, did she sing much?
FS:
Well no. Not as a trio they did, but not no, no what you call it there.
GK:
So what do you remember of camp? Was it bad feelings?
FS:
You know at first I could have cussed up anybody but I realized that it is not going to get
me any place. So I kind of tolerated the structure that we had. And the first month, I
went to camp in the farming division. And they put me on a desk right there in the office
and they wanted me to direct traffic and get the animals ready and all this jazz, you know.
GK:
So that was your work in camp?
FS:
In camp I started there. Gee, I forget that fellow that managed the livestock. But he
knew a lot more than I ever did (laughs).
GK:
Orchard farmer (laughing).
28
SUZUKI
FS:
He knew a good job over there I understand.
GK:
Was did you meet anybody outside of camp or with other camps?
FS:
Well the only one I had any camp “what-ya-ma-call-it” was Momberg. I used to talk to
him a lot and to ask him how the farm was going, you know. And he was kind of
shocked that I knew so much about the camp because I was writing to one of the
Albernez, Art Albernez. I said take a peek and see how they are doing on the farm so
he’d jot down little notes and sends me this and I asked Gus, I said, how come certain
things are not being done?
GK:
This is Joe Albernez?
FS:
Art Albernez
GK:
Art?
FS:
Yeah, his kid brother.
GK:
I see.
FS:
Art was young and he sent me little notes and kept in touch of the farm.
GK:
So you had a job in camp and what are some of the fun things you did in camp?
FS:
Mostly paperwork. I hated it. Requisitions for this, requisitions for that. Tons of
paperwork went through my fingers.
GK:
So you had an office job actually?
FS:
Yeah. And then I got ready to go to school so I said, “I’ve had it.” I left for Wyoming.
GK:
So this was about forty-three?
FS:
Yes forty-three.
GK:
Okay. So at that time did you have any feelings about after I get out of this camp, I’m
going to and did you have anything?
29
FS:
SUZUKI
I felt that when I got out of here for good, I’m not coming back to the camp. And that is
what I did. I stayed after I left for school, I got a friend of mine that my dad knew so I
went farming from there. I never did return to the camp. So what I did was farmed up
north and I saw this hail and take part of my property and I said, “Holy Mackerel.” Here
in ten days I am going to harvest, and wiped me out. I said, “I don’t want to farm like
this.” So I came back to the camp and found out that all of the camp property, they don’t
farm it no more because they were letting people go. You know and chasing them out of
the camp so I went to see the guy in charge of the property. He said, “Oh we are going to
put it out to bid to rent.” So I said can I bid on it? And he said oh yeah and he gave me a
bunch of papers. So each lot was so many acres and this and that. All the instructions on
it and minimum bid and so forth so I bid on about four different lots and I got two of
them and I think I paid five dollars an acre for six hundred acres and another one for, I
think it was three dollars an acre, pretty sure. That was three hundred acre place, I am
pretty sure, so anyhow, I had about nine hundred acres. So what I did was, John Kono
wanted to farm so I said “Why don’t you take care of that three hundred acres and you
pay me what I paid for it.” And John Kono farmed it and I farmed six hundred and I said
I’m going to farm like the Colorado farmers do, raise sugar beets and corn and wheat and
alfalfa and I think I’ll do all right and I did. John, he farmed twenty acres of onion and
onion was hot and he made a fortune on those twenty acres.
GK:
It’s written that California farmers taught the people of Colorado how to farm and how to
irrigate.
FS:
Yeah, irrigation especially. They didn’t know how to irrigate. They had the water there
but they didn’t know how to use the pump. Because I had to have a well right out there in
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SUZUKI
the desert, you might say and you could scoop it up and about three feet deep. And I said
gee if I put a pump on that I can get all the water I want and that’s what I did. I irrigated
the whole six hundred acres.
GK:
Do you remember any of the other local people learning from you?
FS:
Well you know what? Irrigation takes work and you know you have to know how it
works and they see this big head of water coming out and you know they were scared and
if you know how to handle it it’s not so bad but they needed to know how to handle
water. This one fellow the superintendant he was a big shot in camp and he was
watching me. And as soon as the option came up to buy the ground, he bought the
ground that I was farming. And I was going to farm there one more year so.
GK:
Was this in forty-four?
FS:
Yeah. Forty-four or forty-five.
GK:
Forty-four?
FS:
Forty-five I think it was. Anyway he bought that property and he bought it for nothing
and twelve bucks an acre of something like that the government sold it and he bought that
and another property and he farmed it and he got water on it. And he learned how to
farm that way and I understand after we left, he planted corn and wheat and sugar beet
and he made a fortune. Because the two years that he farmed it, he made so much money
that he bought property in Vail, Colorado and not, yeah I think it was Vail, Colorado and
there, and what was that town? You know he bought a block of ground over there and
built himself a home and retired and because he did work for the government for so many
years you know. So he was sitting pretty. And he got rich selling the property even.
GK:
Do you remember any contact with the local people that learned to farm?
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SUZUKI
FS:
Oh yeah. I had two neighbors.
GK:
Two neighbors?
FS:
That farmed right adjoining me. (inaudible) and so they learned how to farm with
irrigation like alfalfa. I used to irrigate twice a month and they didn’t even irrigate and
mine grew like heck. So they all copied me after I farmed it one year. That is the one
year I couldn’t get back so I left them. But those guys wanted to buy my equipment.
They said what are you going to do with it? Oh I’m going to auction it off. Oh sell it to
me for credit you know and so I sold my equipment to my neighbors there.
GK:
So (inaudible)
FS:
They couldn’t get it anyway. It was hard to get tractors and equipment. Because I know
when I picked up a corn picker, I went all the way to a place called Hamburg, Nebraska.
And I found this and dealer didn’t want to sell it to me so I had to give them five hundred
bucks extra on the side. And they said okay so let’s load it up on the truck and we loaded
it up and I came home with it. I had to bribe him.
GK:
Where was that that you were farming?
FS:
I was farming in Lamar, Granada actually right next to the camp. And-
GK:
They say that Rocky Ford was the watermelon capitol of the world.
FS:
Yeah it was.
GK:
But that was from the California people.
FS:
Yeah, but there were quite a few Japanese farmers over there. They were small farmers
and if they had twenty acres, they were big time farmers there in Colorado. And we need
to irrigate right. We did, you know. We’d take the whole darn (inaudible) and irrigate
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SUZUKI
but they didn’t irrigate that much. They depend on the rain and you can’t raise crop like
that.
GK:
So you never did serve in the military?
FS:
No, I went there for three weeks, two weeks and I got called and what happened was I
owed the bank about eighteen thousand bucks and the banker found out that I would
probably have to go to war. You know, to the Army so let me have the money and when
he found out.
GK:
Why?
FS:
I owed, I owed I loaned it—he loaned it to me and I told him I got drafted and what did
you do with the money? I said, Gee I don’t know. I could have paid him right there but I
didn’t. But he got excited and went to see the draft board and everything and he got me
out. He came to the camp, Camp Robinson in Denver, Colorado and one day where I
was teaching a bunch of Wyoming kids how to march. They didn’t know which foot was
right and which was left and so the sergeant said, “I want you to teach them how to
march.” And there was about a half a dozen of them and they said, “We didn’t come here
to march. We came here to kill people.” That is what they tell me you know. And one
day after marching and the rest was over, I took them to this rifle range and this was there
and so they got all of their five shells and the sergeant was watching them because he
knew they were dumber than heck, couldn’t read.
GK:
(inaudible)
FS:
In Colorado, I mean Camp Robinson.
GK:
Camp Robinson?
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FS:
SUZUKI
Yeah, and Logan, Camp Logan and I took them out to the field and boy they loved it.
They shot their five shots right perfect you know and the sergeant was watching and said,
“Hell these guys don’t need no practice, just give them a gun.” And they could hit it and
I talked to these guys and they go out shooting for squirrels and they eat the squirrels.
GK:
So you did go through basic then?
FS:
I didn’t even go through basic.
GK:
Oh you didn’t go through basic?
FS:
They looked at my chart and it said “ROTC”. I had it in San Luis. I had two years of it
so they didn’t even put me through basic and they were talking about sending me to
officer’s school and I said hell I don’t need officer school, I just want to be a GI. I told
this, one of the guys and by that time I was, the banker got me out. And one day I was
out there marching these guys and they said to report to the office, you know, and I went
there and take your suit off, your boots and get your old civilian clothes on and get your
ass out of here. That is what I did. He was waiting for me when I came out of the gate.
Drove me all the way back to Granada.
GK:
So you married after the war?
FS:
Oh yeah.
GK:
Okay.
FS:
It was fifty-three, I think about fifty-three.
GK:
How did you meet your wife?
FS:
She came over to Livingston one day. She was with Mary Kurihara. I met her when she
was working and I asked her for a date and she accepted and I started running around
with her. And later, we got married.
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SUZUKI
GK:
And you were farming at that time?
FS:
Yeah I was farming at that time.
GK:
How did your parents feel?
FS:
Well my parents were happy in some ways and shook up in other ways. And—
GK:
You started a family?
FS:
Yeah.
GK:
And how many children?
FS:
I had four of them, five of them, five girls. I was hoping I’d get one tractor driver but the
girls turned out to be just as good. They all drove the tractor and did a lot of work for
me.
GK:
And how did you balance your family and your work then? (inaudible).
FS:
They helped me out a lot. When they were growing up, I’ll never forget the youngest one
Terry, she was out there hoeing the sweet potato ground and hoeing and Lori went to
school and Wendy went to school and Ivy went to school. She says to me “Gee, do I
have to go out there and hoe those weeds?” And I said, “Yep. It is your turn to do it all.”
And she was quite disappointed and I came in and I told Terry, I said “No more sweet
potatoes. I am giving it up.” She let off a scream that didn’t quit. And she asked me
why and I said I think I’m comfortable enough that I don’t have to have a cash flow
anymore.
GK:
Was your father still alive?
FS:
Yeah, he was alive.
GK:
Alive and your mom?
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FS:
SUZUKI
So when I quit my sweet potato, he was still around. He says it was a big mistake and he
was shaking his head. He said, “cash cow is terrific and you had better hang onto it.” I
said, “No more. It is too much work so I gave up.” I was fine when they—when my dad
said “What are you going to do? You have a hundred and sixty acres and you got
peaches you got grapes, you got almonds, and you got sweet potato.” I said another year
I am all out. No more grapes, no more peaches and no more sweet potatoes and my dad
said, big mistake. So he asked me, he says, “Do you have enough finance for three
years?” I said I have enough of that and more than that so he said, “Okay, go ahead,
grow all almonds, because almonds look like the easiest crop to raise.” So an easy man’s
crop. I went to all almonds.
GK:
Was he able to see you prosper with almonds?
FS:
No, he never did because I had to pull my peaches out, my grapes out. I had to replant all
that and he never did see it was all almonds.
GK:
Did he give you much direction from?
FS:
You know at first he did, but after that—
GK:
You decided.
FS:
I went on my own mostly but he was always telling me about the dollar, how to make the
buck.
GK:
Even from camp time, when you were?
FS:
Yeah, even in camp time. See when I started farming in Colorado I had to borrow five
thousand bucks from him.
GK:
Oh.
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FS:
SUZUKI
And he was pretty shaken that I wouldn’t pay him back and the first year I think, I paid
him three thousand bucks. I said you got to wait for the two thousand. The next year I
paid him all back with interest. And the most interesting part of it was that he said, “You
are going to pay me for the property that I own.” That he owns you know. So it took me
a little while to pay him back but before I got married, I paid him back for it. I said,
“Man you robbed me four hundred bucks because you can get it for two hundred in town
you know. But that is the way he wanted it to be. I didn’t even put my cash down or
nothing so I had to pay for it a little more but I’m glad I did because he went ahead and
invested it all in stock and after he sold it to me and he made a fortune in stock. But he
left it for the daughters, my sisters. I got the land but he got the coupon, which was all
right.
GK:
It sounds like you had a really good father son relationship.
FS:
No I had it pretty good.
GK:
How about your mother?
FS:
Mother, maybe not as close but it was all right and—
GK:
So during this war period, what were some of the hardest or worse times you can think
of?
FS:
Gee, I think probably the worse experience I had was I went to a restaurant and getting
refused because I’m a Jap and raised holy heck about it. But apparently the guy who
owned the restaurant knew who a Japanese looked like.
GK:
Was this in Colorado?
FS:
In Colorado, and I wasn’t the only one that experienced this. There were other guys who
went to this restaurant and experienced it. Coming back here, leaving here rather, I had
37
SUZUKI
some pretty bad experience with the local distributors who I owned a tractor deal and so
forth. When I came back, I thought we had a good relationship but we didn’t. They still
hated the Japs. And I guess it was about, I went to buy a tractor tire and he wouldn’t sell
it to me. The old distributor, gas distributor and I went to see him and I asked him to
service me and he said, “Hell no, I’ll never serve another Jap.” I was in Livingston I
think. And I went to the barber shop to get my hair cut and the barber kicked me out of
there.
GK:
In Livingston?
FS:
In Livingston. I had several of those experiences. But the bad part was about maybe four
or five years later when everything started to change but they wanted my business so that
is when I got up and told them to get the hell off of my ranch. I got nothing to do with
you and some of the Nisei went back and to, as a client to them, and so I told them my
experience and son of a gun, they dropped them and I mentioned the fact that he’s a Jap
hater and racist. I’ll never forget this guy got to be mayor, Robin Corbett. He got to be
mayor and one day I was (inaudible) in JACL about that time and we had something to
do and the city mayor had to do that and he comes up to me and said, “Hey, Frank, let’s
forget about the old times and let’s be friends again.” I said “Robin to hell with you. You
can go your ass way and I’ll go mine.” I never did make up with him and I’ll never
forget I think it was Tes Muramoto said, hey what have you got against Robin Corbett? I
said “He and I got no use for each other.” And they were taking this product, using this
product and Tes found out what I went through you know and I guess he quit Corbett
service and got somebody else. You know Tes was blabbing and he said, “I heard a
bunch of other guys cuss about him being a racist so I changed.” Oh there are incidents
38
SUZUKI
like that that happened. I guess even today I haven’t experienced that much but there
must be some prejudice here that I don’t know about.
GK:
So let’s get you back to Cressey. How did you get back to Cressey after the war?
FS:
Well, we had this property here so we kind of naturally flowed back here and—
GK:
And no one was living here and they could come right into your home?
FS:
Well they vacated before we came to take it back.
GK:
Oh, because many people had to stay at church.
FS:
Well since I was farming in Colorado, I couldn’t come back.
GK:
Oh I see.
FS:
I had to finish farming. And Bob Muramoto stayed here at the tank house upstairs and
down stairs and that is when he got shot at. We got a nice bullet hole right through the
building.
GK:
There were other shots—Tom Nakajima’s house, Sherman’s house.
FS:
Sherman Kiishi’s, Andow’s, and myself. The bad part about Sherman, he was at war in
Iwo Jima some place when he got shot. Where was Fred at? Fred was some place in the
armed service.
GK:
In MIS, they were all in MIS.
FS:
Yeah, so they were serving some place. I don’t know where.
GK:
So tell, tell how you arranged to come home. You sold your farm and all the equipment
you left.
FS:
And—
GK:
And your dad was still alive.
FS:
Yeah, he came back first. He came back first.
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SUZUKI
GK:
Okay.
FS:
And we had the contract to go to in the fall see and so I think it was that fall we came
home, my folks came back. I came back it was January I think. I sold my corn and stuff
and so, then we started farming here.
GK:
So you came in forty-five?
FS:
Forty-six.
GK:
Forty-six, oh gee.
FS:
We came back a year later than the rest of them did.
GK:
So who was farming here?
FS:
This fellow, this Mexican fellow he farmed and worked for my dad almost twenty years
before we evacuated and he kind of took over and he kept saying, gee I don’t want
peaches. I don’t want the grapes. Grapes are just enough and he kept complaining about
it and he made a fortune in the three years that he farmed here.
GK:
That worked out good then for your dad.
FS:
Yeah.
GK:
That he was here to help.
FS:
Then after I came back, he made so much money he told dad to hell with you. He took
off and went some place else.
GK:
And he bought a farm of his own?
FS:
Yeah, he bought a home and he bought a few acres.
GK:
So a couple of your sisters were in college and the others came home huh?
FS:
The only one that came home was I think, Judy.
GK:
Judy did.
40
SUZUKI
FS:
Yeah Judy. She was the only one that did.
GK:
So mom and dad.
FS:
So the rest of them graduated and they were on their own doing something.
GK:
Okay. That’s good. Okay, well we’ve talked about you know wartime and some of the
experiences and hardships and all the hard work you put into it and how do you feel—
how do you feel Nisei were valuable? And what are the traits that you feel Nisei saved or
contributed?
FS:
I think they give up a lot, you know.
GK:
What?
FS:
Well you take all the things that they did for the community like the junior college, high
school, grammar school and trustees, you know. They work at it. I think they give up a
lot for all those things. I’m trying to think.
GK:
How do you think the children too contributed a lot?
FS:
Well, I think locally it kind of benefited the kids anything we did, benefited our kids,
baseball, and so forth. We helped out in different things. And I think the Nisei did quite
a bit, probably helped a hell of a lot as far as public relations goes. They, how do you say
they respected us more because we did do things in our community.
GK:
And schools?
FS:
And schools and school mostly. And we had fellows that managed banks.
GK:
Trustees at schools.
FS:
And those things helped and they got to be big shots and they made all that money that
most of them do but I think they did a good job.
GK:
I think they all took part in PTA.
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SUZUKI
FS:
Oh yeah.
GK:
And Boy Scouts.
FS:
Boy Scouts and everything.
GK:
And Lions.
FS:
Lions and church.
GK:
Church and Methodist Church.
FS:
It’s amazing the Nisei I know that participate and spend money on it and which I have
given up myself. You know like church, you can’t please everybody and somebody gets
to you and you say “The hell with it.” Let them do it. And even with the ministers I’ve
had my share of them. But (inaudible) to them and.
GK:
But you participated with JACL a lot and went to Lions at one time.
FS:
Twenty-five years of it but there’s a point where too much is too much and you get bored
with it.
GK:
Okay so let’s go to recent times. What is the most important thing that has happened to
you recently?
FS:
Well recently, my family. Young grandkids are growing up and the first one I want to
see him graduate high school and I haven’t seen him yet. I got a few more years to go.
And now I want to see him graduate college. I don’t know. I didn’t think I would be
here at this time when my daughters first got married.
GK:
So where do all your family live your grandchildren?
FS:
They all live in East Bay.
END OF INTERVIEW