Title:

Shigo Masunaga had just left his fish pond to check the size of his cucumbers when the camera man arrived. Nevertheless, this is a cucumber and not a fish story. They are big, said Shig--of the embryo pickles--not the fish--but not quite up to cannery specifications. Shig--no one except the minister ever calls him by any other name--is back on his 50-acre orchard and vegetable farm at Route 2, Box 383, San Jose, California, from Alda, Nebraska, where the family had relocated from Heart Mountain Center in April, 1944. One year of farming in Nebraska satisfied any appetite Shig may have developed in Camp for tilling the soil outside of California. So early in February of this year Shig loaded the family into his truck and headed for home. With him were his 77-year-old father, Takamatsu, his wife, Hiroko, Patricia, aged 5, and baby, Eric, who had not yet seen his second natal day. Shig has a brother, George, with the 78th division in Germany and a brother, Shiro, training at Camp Hood, Texas. Shig is still talking about the cucumbers, the tomatoes, squash and bell peppers--not the fish--when he says, There are a lot of whoppers coming along out there. -- Photographer: Iwasaki, Hikaru -- San Jose, California. 7/9/45

Contributing Institution:

The Bancroft Library. University of California, Berkeley.