San Jose REgenerations Oral History Project

Akira "Jackson" Kato

General Topic of Interview

Akira Jackson Kato shares his experiences growing up in El Monte, California. He tells about his experiences as a teenager during World War II at Gila River and Tule Lake Relocation Centers. After the war, his family was able to purchase farmland, but they could not find a satisfactory loan to finance a water pump. They finally sold the land and moved to Santa Clara County where he made a career change from farming to gardening. Gardening for him was more of a choice and a logical transition from farming. When he started, the wages were better and more predictable than those in farming were, and he had many transferable skills. He considers himself as one of the Nisei gardeners who takes great pride in his work and is part of a "dying breed" of gardeners.

Mr. Kato held several offices in the Professional Gardeners Federation of Northern California, including public relations. He assisted in getting speakers for a gardening show that aired on KRON, a Bay Area television station. He also became involved in several other organizations: Mid-Peninsula Landscape Gardeners Association, Kashu Suiseki Kai, Kinyukai Shigin, and Peninsula Lucky Angling Club. In the last part of the interview, he shows photographs from a Gila River Relocation Center Reunion and from his hobbies of shigin, suiseki, and fishing.

Biography

Mr. Kato was born in El Monte, California. Soon after Executive Order 9066 went into effect, his family sold their equipment at below-market prices and voluntarily relocated to Fowler. They eventually were sent to Gila River and Tule Lake Relocation Centers during the war. After the war, he and his family returned first to El Monte, then to Orosi, and finally to Indio to work as truck farmers. He served in the Army during the Korean War from 1950 to 1952. He returned to Indio for a few years, then moved to Mountain View in 1955 and then to Palo Alto in 1958. Mr. Kato is married and has two sons.

Comments

At the end of the interview, Mr. Kato shows photographs from a Gila River Relocations Center Reunion and from his involvement in gardening, suiseki, shigin, and fishing.