Follow the laughter to the garden. Under the shade of a maple tree, the Sons of Gardeners are engaged in teasing camaraderie: George did all the work today. He can have lunch.
Robert “Bobby” Fukumoto, 72, of Pasadena, and Alan Hatakeyama, 77, also of Pasadena, hold up fingers darkened by oil. They’ve been switching out locks on the temple doors. Fine. They can eat lunch too.
“The important part of the name is ‘Sons,’” Fukumoto said. “We pay homage to the hard work our fathers did. We’re not gardeners, we’re not as good as our fathers.”
The Pasadena Buddhist Temple Sons of Gardeners, or SOGs, as they call themselves, did pick up enough gardening skills to tend to the temple grounds, working from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays, with most of them staying after for a Tai Chi class run by the Rev. Gregory Gibbs.
“We’re here because of our parents doing what they did for us, once we realized, ‘Wow, our parents really sacrificed for us,’” Fukumoto said.
Most of the SOGs are longtime temple members, back when they were still “boy-sans.” Their fathers were part of a generation of Japanese American gardeners who transformed Southern California’s green spaces, in the face of discriminatory laws and everyday racism, and even after the loss of their homes and freedom during World War II.
Scott Shinmoto, 74, born and raised in Pasadena, is considered to possess the group’s greenest thumb. The retired financial analyst for Rockwell International/Boeing said apart from inheriting his father’s tools, he didn’t glean much knowledge from his father, instead teaching himself during retirement.
“I wish I knew more from him,” Shinmoto said.
His father, Bill, was an Alhambra High School graduate who entered the military in 1940. He eventually served in the famous “Go for broke!” 442nd Regimental Combat Team during World War II. The regiment is the most decorated unit in U.S. Army history for its size and length of service.
When the war ended, Bill Shinmoto returned home, married Sechiko in 1947 and settled in Pasadena. They would have three children and be able to send all through college.
“He started as a gardener in the Pasadena and San Marino locations since this is the type of job that was available to Japanese Americans,” Shinmoto said. “He worked as a gardener until his late ‘70s when he retired.”
He remembers his father always being around after work, tinkering around the house, working on his 1932 Ford truck, raising birds and orchids, and, of course, tending his garden.
Bill Shinmoto, who also was past president of the East Pasadena American Legion, Post 280, died on May 31, 2005. He was 87.
Shelley Yamane Shinmoto said her husband can still point out San Marino homes with expansive lawns and manicured gardens where he helped his dad work on weekends. That’s when the younger Shinmoto learned firsthand how hard the work was, a point his father made so his son would look elsewhere for a profession.
Yamane Shinmoto said the Nissei, or second-generation, gardeners probably didn’t think of establishing a legacy for a job historically considered unskilled labor.
But the SOGs are using gardening as a way to show pride in their father’s work. At the temple, they not only tend to the garden and grounds, but they do most repairs, set up and monitor the security system, and are responsible for compliances directed by the Pasadena Fire Department.
“They do the heavy lifting for our events, including setting up booths and tables for our annual Obon Festival and manage parking,” Yamane Shinmoto said. “When a temple member needs their yard cleared, trees trimmed, moving things, packing boxes. the SOGs will volunteer to help. Honestly, the temple could not operate without this group of retirees.”
At home, Shinmoto grows succulents, plumeria, fruit trees, and miniature bonsai plants in pots.
The sons’ work at the temple gives them fellowship and a shared sense of accomplishment when a project is complete or problem solved. And if it helps them feel closer to their fathers, even better.
“The joke was anything I planted, dies,” Fukumoto said. “I’m terrible at it. I don’t know any of the plant names. My parents knew what to do. I have no idea.”
Both of his parents were avid gardeners. His father Joe and mother Ritsu met and married while imprisoned at Tule Lake internment camp from1942-1946. He was 28. She was 18.
Japanese American families were given a train ticket and $25 per family when they were released from internment camps starting December 1944 through March 1946. The Fukumotos returned to the Pasadena area. They bought a house in Altadena in 1955, raising their five children there.
The temple, as well as other cultural community groups, became a central pillar in the families’ lives.
All of the Sons of Gardeners followed other callings: Alan Goto, 66, of Pasadena, worked at the gas company. Bobby Fukumoto retired from the U.S. Post Office. Ron Toshima, 73, taught at East L.A. schools.
“I am actually the grandson of a gardener, so when I showed up, they told me I get to clean the bathrooms,” Toshima joked. “We just kind of show up and get together.”
The SOGs are quick to note there is also a chapter of Daughters of Gardeners.
“My mom went gardening with my dad,” Fukumoto said. “She was out there doing whatever needed to be done.”
Other women took over the work when their husband died or could no longer garden.
“They’re really something,” Fukumoto said.
While the well-loved temple grounds, with its cherry tree donated by the Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens, and impressive bonsais, beg to differ, the SOGs joke they should have paid better attention to how to grow a garden.
“We didn’t watch our fathers very well, obviously, or we’d be better at this,” Hatakeyama said.
But taking pride in the story of their fathers’ work, and all they sacrificed to keep their families safe and together, that will always remain true.