Spanish speaking peoples in Utah, oral histories: book 1, numbers 1 through 10

Page 186

INTERVIEW: Senor Santos Cabrerra Page 17 ~1: Where did Hashimoto come from, Mr. Cabrerra? SC: From Japan, I guess. I don't think he was born here, but I don ' t know if he was from Japan or not. I guess so. There are other Japanese here. I knew when the war began with Japan, all of them working here on the railroad were taken off, and taken to detention camps. The man we had here as foreman and under who Vicente and I began to train as foreman, under who Vicente began to train as foreman, was--was a Japanese. Just a minute, I may have his obituary here. Let me see if I have. The day he died, I kept the notice. Yes, here it is . For many years he was foreman---Vicente's foreman. He was a very good man to us. His name was George Matomi Sonora. I remember because one day we buried a neighbor, and the next day he died and it occurred to me to keep this out of the newspaper, because I thought, our foreman has died. He was a good man with us. He first gave Vicente training to become a foreman, and later Vicente went to work with an old German-­old - -an old man like me. He was not a citizen either, and when the war began, they removed him and Vicente became foreman for that section. He gave Vicente his foreman's book, and Vicente had good luck and began to advance. I didn't. When I came here, I had already been one, but I didn't continue because I couldn't handle the figures needed when it is necessary to order rail and lumber. You need this ability to do anything. MC: Santos was a foreman in Nevadas for two years and he didn't have any