Interviews

1. His family's migration to Salinas, California

2. Father created a partnership to grow and ship vegetables

3. Father's business partner operated their farming business during WWII

4. Father was convinced the constitution would protect him

5. Japanese were not welcomed back to Salinas

6. Felt no hostility in Los Gatos, California after the war

7. Able to settle easily in Los Gatos with foresight and luck

8. Requested assignment in Europe to avoid combat in the Korean War

9. Taking over his father's business after father's accident

10. Mochitsuki tradition

11. Feelings about redress

12. Mr. Hirasaki brought World Fair Japanese pavilion to Gilroy

Yuki,Tom

(b. 1935) Sansei businessman.

Mochitsuki tradition

Right after the war, people didn’t have any place to live. And so therefore we had a little community there of our relatives who lived in the barn, in the basement, in the bedroom. We had about seven families living together on the ranch right where you saw…and of course we had our own mochitsuki we started back in 1945. One of my cousins was from Japan and as a result he knew how to do it. My father followed suit. We had every moochitsuki period. We would do our own moochitsuki.

We still do it now. The spirit isn’t there anymore because the next generation, they don’t relate to the Japanese-ness of mochitsuki, they just have an open house. That’s the unfortunate thing about it. We have lost the spirit of the pounding of the rice and the sacredness of the rice and the seiro and putting the mochi to the altar and things like that. A lot of that is being lost. We still go through the motion of having the mochitsuki right now. So that’s how that is. We are stubbornly still continuing that.

Date: March 22, 2018

Location: California, US

Interviewer: John Esaki

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

Interviewee Bio

Tom Yuki was born on June 29, 1935, in Salinas, California. His father belonged to a farming partnership before World War II and was able to continue the business while incarcerated at Poston, Arizona, with the help of his business partner via telephone and telegram. After returning from Poston, the family moved to Los Gatos, California, and continued with their business. Tom went to the University of Santa Clara and joined the military, assigned to France as a Quartermaster officer. He was working as a contract administrator in a corporation when his father died, leaving Tom to take over the business as managing partner of Yuki Farms. Tom has served as board member to many organizations including his current role for the Japanese American National Museum. (December 2018)