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

After being discharged and returning to the nursery business

After my time was up, I went back to, well I was discharged in New Jersey so I went home to New York.

And Henry, the oldest one and George and Willy were already in the flower growing business. So they were looking for me and I was at the bottom of the ladder. They were telling me what to do. My two younger brothers, because they already know what to do. Well, we’re doing this and doing that, and doing that, you have to give us a hand.

It was kind of interesting to do that, and what else could I say? But I was there for five years, we worked together for five years. And we all got back on our feet, doing real well. Later on, they were doing even better. They’ve expanded and they all three retired from the five acres of land there. Dad was the one that says, “Yes, you’re not going to go out and lease a land. You’re going to go out and buy that place and make an effort.”

agriculture business economics farming flowers management plants postwar World War II

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)