outhouse instead of an indoor bathroom as she had at the comfortable
Tokyo inn. Like Shinji, Tomomi worked hard and soon earned the
respect of the other workers. Shinji had a brother in California. A few
months later, Shinji and Tomomi followed that brother to Sacramento.
At the time, US law forbade Issei (first-generation Japanese in the
United States) from owning land. But they could legally rent land
or purchase it in an American citizen’s name. So Shinji and Tomomi
rented 5 acres (2 ha) of land along with a run-down house, a barn, and
a water pump. It wasn’t much, but it was enough for a young couple in
love. They decided to grow strawberries on their farm. The fruit was
new to the region, but local farmers said it grew well in the region’s clay
soil. It was a good decision.
When Life Seemed Nearly Perfect
The Satos’ first strawberry crop—and their first baby—both arrived in
the spring of 1923. On the day the baby girl came, Tomomi worked in
the strawberry fields until the midwife reached the house to help with
the birthing. In Japan, families wanted their first child to be a boy and
felt shame if it was a girl. But in the United States, there was no shame
if the first child was a girl. The Satos named their newborn daughter
Kiyo. Against the midwife’s advice, four days after giving birth,
Tomomi carried tiny Kiyo into the fields with her, nestled on a pillow
inside an empty strawberry crate. Tomomi couldn’t rest when berries
needed picking.
As Kiyo grew, she played in the fields while her parents worked.
She especially loved her Kewpie doll, a little baby doll based on popular
cartoon characters of the time. Kiyo made dollhouses out of strawberry
crates. Shinji proudly took his daughter everywhere with him. Kiyo’s
favorite place was a small grocery store whose owner, Mr. Gomez,
always stooped down to talk to her. “Then he reached into the big
jar on top of the tall glassed-in counter and handed me a lollipop,”
she remembers.
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