Interviewee: Steven Kikuchi

Relationship to Nikkei gardeners: His parents, Takashige and Kimiko Kikuchi, owned a retail nursery called TK Garden Supply. His father also was a full-time gardener.

Date: July 17, 2007

Location: Japanese American National Museum

Brief Description: Steven remembers the heat and hard work involved in gardening with his father.

Transcription
I have a brother and a sister and I’m the youngest. Probably like a lot of Sansei children, we hated gardening, especially in Los Angeles. It was very hot, a lot of hard work, long hours. And then, when we weren’t helping out gardening, we also had to help out in the nursery as well. So, it was a lot of hard work. And, I think it was only it only into my latter years of life that I appreciated the hard work that my father did that was able to support us as a family.

See part 1, part 3 and part 4 of this interview.
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This interview was conducted as part of the Opening Day activities for the exhibition Landscaping America: Beyond the Japanese Garden.