Prisoners of War in New Mexico Agriculture
Abstract of Interview
CONSULTANT:
Toshi Nakayama
TAPE NUMBER: RG97-152
DATE
OF BIRTH: February 6, 1920
SEX:
Female
DATE(S)
OF INTERVIEW: March 14, 1997 and March 27, 1997
LOCATION
OF INTERVIEW: Nakayama home, rural Las Cruces
INTERVIEWER:
Jane O’Cain
SOURCE
OF INTERVIEW: NMF&RHM___x __OTHER__________
TRANSCRIBED:
YES__x_ ____
NO_______
NUMBER
OF TAPES: Five
ABSTRACTOR:
Jane O’Cain
DATE
ABSTRACTED: March 9, 1999
QUALITY
OF RECORDING (SPECIFY): Tapes one and two are less easily understood
SCOPE
AND CONTENT NOTE: Consultant’s parents, the Yabumotos, were immigrants to
the Mesilla Valley (they first lived in California before immigrating east).
They purchased a small twenty-five acre farm near Chamberino in 1915.
It was essentially a subsistence farm, although cotton was grown as a
cash crop. Mr. Yabumoto died in
1929, leaving Koharu Yabumoto to farm and raise the children.
Discussion of the farming community of Chamberino,
and family traditions. Toshi
Yabumoto married Carl Nakayama, from a farming family near Doña Ana.
The Nakayamas farmed on a large scale.
She discusses some of the impact of WWII on their families.
DATE
RANGE: 1905-1997
ABSTRACT (IMPORTANT TOPICS IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE):
Interview
Session 1, March 14, 1997
TAPE
ONE, SIDE A:
Her
parent’s upbringing in Japan, and their immigration to the United States.
Parents lived in California until 1915, when they immigrated to the
Mesilla Valley. Names, places of
birth, and birth dates of the Yabumoto children.
Bought a twenty-five acre farm in Chamberino before the Japanese
Exclusion Act. Conditions of the
housing, her mother’s efforts to adjust.
Her father’s death in 1929, and her sister’s travel to El Paso every
day on the milk truck in order that she could attend business college.
TAPE
ONE, SIDE B:
Her sister had typhoid fever and their milk cows were quarantined. Neighbors helped by milking their cows and selling the milk for them. Her father’s illness was misdiagnosed as cancer of the throat, but it was tuberculosis. He was hospitalized in a sanitarium in El Paso. Toshi Nakayama’s education, she was “skipped ahead” a grade, which she feels was a mistake.
Discusses farming cotton, her mother’s work with the workers from Old Chamberino. Her oldest sister continued to help the family after her graduation from business college. During the Depression years of the 1930s, Ms. Yabumoto had to let some of the workers go. They were being paid $0.75 per day.
TAPE
TWO, SIDE A:
Discusses
cotton harvest. They used bracero
labor, she believes the bracero contracts were handled by the Farm Bureau. During WWII they also used both Italian and German prisoners
of war (this was on the Nakayama farm). Discusses
some of the ways they interacted with the POWs.
Returns to the chronological discussion of the
Yabumoto farm. Family finances, her
mother refused to buy on credit. Her
mother raised some vegetables and fruit. Would
make clothing for the children, but her oldest sister also purchased clothing
for the younger children.
Discusses her parents-in-law, the Nakayamas, entering
the Mesilla Valley in 1918. They
were unable to purchase land because of the restrictive policies against
Japanese Americans at that time. Toshi’s
brother-in-law, who served in the U.S. Army in WWI, was actively involved in
trying to overturn some of the restrictions placed on Japanese and other
immigrants from Asia. He along with
his wife (Toshi’s sister, Ayako) were interned at the beginning of WWII in
Manzanar (they were living in California when war was declared).
The US government soon called upon him to serve with the Office of
Strategic Services. Ayako and the
children were released from the camp and lived the remainder of the war in
Anthony, New Mexico. Her sister was
embittered by this experience.
TAPE
TWO, SIDE B:
The Yabumoto farm, which was enlarged by her brothers, is still in the family, although it is being leased to another farmer.
Discusses
in more detail the adobe farm house that was on the Yabumoto farm when they
purchased it. They got electricity
on the farm in 1936. They did not
have indoor plumbing.
Discusses whether the family was any better or worse
off financially than other families in the area.
She states that the Hispanic children brought tortillas to school for
lunch, but ate away from the other children, and seemed to be embarrassed by
their lunches.
Interview
Session 2, March 27, 1997
TAPE
THREE, SIDE A:
Describes
typical meals, and that neighbor women helped her mother learn to prepare
tortillas and cook with the staples available in the valley.
Describes
some of the special foods her parents would order from California.
New Year’s Day was a special celebration for the family, her mother
would prepare “oshusi,” discusses ingredients.
She
remembers the Emperor’s Birthday being celebrated by Japanese American
families in the valley once or twice.
At
the start of WWII the FBI searched her mother’s and her parents-in-law’s
homes. They were searched for weapons, Japanese language textbooks,
and pictures of the Emperor.
TAPE
THREE, SIDE B:
There
was an attempt to have a Japanese language school, however, it was too difficult
to sustain with the small population of Japanese Americans and the great
distances.
Her
mother told her that during WWI there was talk that German American families in
the area would blow up Elephant Butte Dam; the families were picked up and moved
to Fort Bliss for their safety.
Toshi
did not attend college when she completed high school in 1936, but stayed home
to help her mother who was ill at the time.
Her
mother advised her to marry someone of her own “race.”
She and her husband advised their daughters to do the same; however, it
as not successful because the Japanese Americans they met in California were
much different culturally than her own daughters (who had not been raised in a
Japanese American community).
Toshi
became a Methodist because she attended church with neighbors in Chamberino who
were of that denomination. Her
brothers became Baptist because they attended church with other neighbors who
were Baptist. Her parents did not
try to sway the children one way or another.
A neighbor family also introduced her husband to Christianity.
Her
mother, who never learned to speak English, subscribed to a Japanese language
newspaper. Her mother stated that
what was reported in this paper was different than what the children read in the
local newspapers.
TAPE
FOUR, SIDE A:
Sam
Donaldson and his mother were neighbors of the Yabumotos in Chamberino.
Discusses several families in Chamberino (Ansley, Marston) who were very
kind to her mother, for example, they sat with her mother when Ayako had typhoid
fever. Her mother would lend small
amounts of money to neighbors in need, and they would repay when they sold
cotton or another crop.
Her
mother’s sister immigrated to Canada. The
Japanese Canadians were badly treated at the time WWII was declared.
Her mother visited Japan after WWII, became quite ill while there and
died shortly after returning home. There
were many shortages in Japan during her visit.
The family celebrated the American holiday, 4th of July, and
Christmas.
TAPE
FOUR, SIDE B:
She
states that her mother never had to discipline the children, or raise her voice
to them. She can not explain this,
but stated that she did not have to discipline her two older daughters, but her
youngest daughter was different.
She
met her future husband, Carl Nakayama, at a part for the Japanese Ambassador in
El Paso. They married in 1940.
They moved into the adobe house that Carl built, and Mrs. Nakayama is
still living in.
She
describes the work on the Nakayama farm. They
were primarily vegetable farmers, and marketed their products in at least three
states. They didn’t start growing
a great deal of cotton until the “’50s or ’60s.”
She
was busy doing the bookkeeping for the farm and taking care of the couples’
three daughters.
They
started planting chile in the 1970s, and would need fifty to seventy-five
laborers to harvest chile. Describes
the work attendant to growing vegetables, using cabbage as an example.
TAPE
FIVE, SIDE A:
Discusses
her husband’s siblings, one of whom was Roy Nakayama.
He did a great deal of research on chile at New Mexico State University.
Before
WWII was declared (summer of 1941) the Nakayama’s business assets were frozen. It didn’t seem like very long until they were able to have
access to their accounts again.
During
the war some people wanted to boycott the Nakayamas and rumors were circulated
about them. The Nakayamas supplied
vegetables to the US Army.
She
discusses some of the farm help that the Nakayamas have had since the 1960s.
However, since 1994 the farmland has been leased to other farmers (Carl
Nakayama is deceased).
She
discusses changes she has witnessed in agriculture.
Return to list of oral history consultants
Please
send questions or comments to: archives@lib.nmsu.edu
Rio Grande Historical Collections * New Mexico State University Library MSC 3475
* P.O. Box 30006 * Las Cruces, New Mexico 88003-3006 ** Telephone: 505-646-3839
FAX: 505-646-7477