ln 1947-42 when my family moved to the Milan Ranch there was no school bus service for grade school, my brother and I walked to the highway and the High School bus picked us up. The bus was full, and we stood in the aisle looking at all these huge older students when a beautiful Japanese girl grabbed me by the hand and sat me on her lap, I gasped because I had seen newsreels of Japanese Americans being interned in camps. We had just moved from Gallup and the only Japanese person that we ever saw was Hershey Miyamura. Hershey was a very popular among his peers and was the center of attraction of teenagers laughing at the drugstore. Hershey joined the U.S. Service and became a hero during World War II, A memorial, a street, and a school are dedicated to Hershey in Gallup.
The Japanese girl that I just met was Marie Togami. Marie and her family lived on a farm in the Bluewater Valley. I also found out that the Yonomoto family and Mr. and Mrs. S. Lee lived in the Valley.
The story was that Captain W.C. Reid was responsible for bringing these families to Bluewater to help establish the vegetable farms. Captain Reid had large land holdings and George Rowley from Bluewater had proven that high quality vegetables could be farmed. Captain Reid was well connected and convinced the government to allow these families to move here to avoid internment as they could be easily watched, I met one of the Yonomoto’s in San Rafael driving around picking up workers for the farm: he rejected us eightyear old’s. ln 1943 the High School yearbook had Tazue Yonomoto, as a senior, and Marie Togami and another female student named Yonomoto as juniors. After the war, the Yonomotos moved to Albuquerque and established Yonomoto's Nursery and Appliance Store. Every year my family would buy plants from them and they treated us like relatives, The Togami sisters were Marie and Rose. The brothers were Henry, Arthur, Jim, Paul, and Joe. They graduated from Grants High School. Henry earned the Purple Heart and the Silver Star for his valor and earned a BS in Mechanical Engineering working at Sandia Laboratories for 28 years. Arthur: was very visible to everyone that was farming. My father converted the sheep ranch to a farm and Arthur was always available for advice. I remember him coming over on a Tennessee walking horse. The horse was
so big I never could figure out how he got on the horse or how he saddled it. Arthur moved to Los Lunas and established the famous Togami Farms.
Jim and Paul Togami were my classmates in High School and college; they were all around athletes, held student offices, and were outstanding scholars. Joe was the youngest and was an outstanding student.
Jim served in the Armed Forces in Korea and graduated in Electrical Engineering. Paul graduated with a BS and a MS in Mechanical Engineering. Joe was a freshman studying Agricultural Engineering when I was a senior at college.
Mr. Lee told me that he came to the U.S. to get a master’s degree in Mining. He had a gold mine in Mexico and during the expropriation of all mining interests he moved to California and became a race car mechanic' Captain Reid brought him to the valley to take care of farm machinery, Mr. Lee bought farm equipment and did custom work for others. After the war Mr. Lee approached my father who began farming with a Japanese contractor from California and other partners from Arizona, Mr. Lee told my father that since my father owned the land, water and he owned the equipment and the farming knowhow, he would farm and my father would handle the finance and marketing and Milan and Lee Farms originated, Milan and Lee sold carrots to the buyers from Atlanta, Georgia and were told that it was pleasure to deal with growers with good old Southern names like "Milam & Lee,,. I was supposed to work for Mr. Lee and after a week of being escorted around the farm he finally said that under his custom he could not tell his partner's son what to do, therefore; arrangements were made for me to work for Stanley and Card Farms. They had no trouble giving me work with the ditch crew or every other dirty job.
Mr. and Mrs. Lee became part of our family, lived next door to us and when my parents were gone, they fed me Japanese food fit for a king. Mr. Lee died in 1953 and my father and I followed his notes and with the foreman that Mr. Lee trained, and we were able to farm until 1956. Mrs. Lee moved in with us, for a year, as she wanted to return to Japan only after she received American citizenship because she was going back only because she had a son in Japan, and she might want to return. She wrote letters to us thru her niece in San Francisco who would translate them into English. The lesson that I learned from these relationships is that you cannot judge an American by their looks or where their ancestors came from' ln the realm of coincident, when I was living in Mexico City a young Japanese American girl from Chicago stayed at the same boarding house as mine. she asked me where I was from and since I was used to people not knowing where Grants was, I answered, " from New Mexico near Albuquerque, and she queried me more and I answered Grants she said, "l know where that is, we used to visit Mr. and Mrs. S, Lee at a farm near Grants.