FH: Well, yes, I got to know the Abikos because I lived with them for one year after I left Livingston in 1929. And so I learned that he was very much interested, that the Japanese immigrants have a chance in this country. And he was watching what happened, and he said, 'The only way that we're gonna survive is if we put roots into American soil." Up to this point, most of the immigrants were just seasonal workers, and they would earn lots of money or whatever they earned, they'll blow it all up in a few years, party or something like that, and then they have to start all over again following the crops. So this is why he said, "For our future," the Japanese future in America. And that's why many came here, some came here to make their riches and take it home. But many came for a new life, a better chance. And then they wanted to start families. The only way they could do that was to establish a colony, roots, in American soil. So he decided that he would get together a group of people to finance it, and he started a kind of a bank. I don't know the Japanese word for these corporations that he started, but he had an American lawyer that worked for the Bank of America that helped him. And through that connection, Abiko, that reason was to start a colony of farming.

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