Interviews

1. Family nursery business

2. Living through the Great Depression

3. Hearing about Pearl Harbor

4. Traveling to Manzanar

5. Jobs in Manzanar

6. The riot in Manzanar

7. Sugar beet and potato farming in Idaho

8. Sugar beet farming process

9. Being inducted into the army

10. Being called out of Reserves

11. Fort Snelling

12. Traveling from Manila to Tokyo

13. Serving in Tokyo

14. Visiting Hiroshima

15. After being discharged and returning to the nursery business

16. Meeting his wife, Eileen

Fukuhara,Jimmy Ko

(b. 1921) Nisei veteran who served in the occupation of Japan

Sugar beet farming process

The beet is about that big. Some of them are larger, and they could be that long. They taper. And you hook them, it’s got a little hook on a long, like a good sized butcher knife. And so you hook that and pull it up. But the farm equipment goes first and loosens the soil and it uplifts the beet a little. So, you hook that, pull it, cut the top off and throw it into the back of the tractor where it has a big hauler, and you throw it in there.

I*: So how long did you do that?

Sugar beets? Well after the seeds are sown and the beets get up to that, then the weeds come up too. So we had to go out and hoe the weeds, and we just waited until the beets got large enough and harvesting starts, usually September, October. It only lasted about a couple months, harvesting. And at the same time, they had potatoes, too. Idaho potatoes.

*“I” indicates an interviewer (John Esaki)

agriculture farming sugar beets

Date: February 6, 2015

Location: California, US

Interviewer: John Esaki

Contributed by: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum

Interviewee Bio

Jimmy Ko Fukuhara was born on September 21, 1921 in Los Angeles, California to Japanese immigrants, Ume and Ichisuke Fukuhara. In 1927, his father moved the family to Santa Monica, California, and got started in the nursery business. After graduating from Santa Monica High School, Jimmy worked at the nursery, until 1942, when he and his family were sent to the Manzanar concentration camp.

Jimmy was able to leave camp early, and moved to Pennsylvania with his younger brother, George. Within sixty days, Jimmy was drafted into the army, and volunteered to serve in the Military Intelligence school. After going through basic training, Jimmy was sent to Tokyo, Japan. There he worked for the labor department in General MacArthur’s headquarters. Before leaving Japan, he visited Hiroshima in hopes of connecting with his parents’ relatives. After being discharged, Jimmy returned to Santa Monica and the family nursery business. Jimmy continued to work in the nursery with his four brothers, until he retired in 1986. (May 2016)