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AI: Okay, and today is February 18, 2002.

GY: Yes.

AI: We're in Seattle with George Yoshida. Thank you for being here. I'm Alice Ito, and John Pai with the Densho Project. Well, really would just like to start at the beginning of the beginning and ask you to tell us a little bit about your family --

GY: Sure.

AI: -- about, maybe start with your father, his name, where he came from.

GY: Yeah, father and mother is the beginning of George Yoshida. [Laughs] My dad was born and grew up in Saitama-ken in Japan. And not sure when his birthday was. In the latter part of the 1800s, of course. (September, 1876).

AI: And what was his name?

GY: His name was Koji, K-o-j-i, Koji Yoshida. Unfortunately, I know very little about his early background, his childhood in Saitama, his family life, if they were even farmers. I know that in the latter part of his education in Japan, he attended -- after probably high school in Japan, a school known as Aoyama Gakuin now. It's a university now, bona fide university in Tokyo. But at that time, when he was growing up in the latter part of the 1800s, it was more like a, a high school. And my understanding is that the school was originated by -- oh, probably a Canadian Methodist Church, or churches, and so it was, I guess, a mission school to spread the word, and also to provide some education in terms of, of English. And that's where my father was able to learn how to read and write and speak English quite well relative to other Japanese Amer -- Japanese in Japan, of course.

So when he came to the United States (in 1897), he was very fluent in English. Spoke well, and his writing was good, syntax, sentence structure was excellent. Even today his writing, if he were still alive, would have been -- handwriting was better than mine, certainly. So he felt very comfortable as far as language was concerned.

What I recall about my father very strongly is that he had a bent for music, and he loved to hum to himself when he was working or when we'd walk from A to B, he used to be humming. Walked very much, with a lot of energy. And his musical legacy is contained somewhat in a group of song sheets, piano sheets that has music and the lyrics, of course. And they were mostly European songs and American songs. And I'm remembering one called "In My Merry Oldsmobile," which is still sung at times. But here is the song sheets, larger than the standard song sheets we have now. It's rather large -- and this beautiful color photograph or drawing in the front, very ornate. And because in those days, back in the '20s, many homes had pianos in the living room, and it was a very important source of entertainment. No radio. No television, of course, obviously. There was a lot of gatherings where people listened to music or sat around or sit around the piano singing pop tunes, old tunes, hymns. And that was part of my father's life. As a matter of fact, he didn't tell me very much about it -- anything about it, but I found a photograph in his old family album of a group of men in their straw hats, and so it's -- singing away, about six of them. And part of their repertoire included American songs.

So that was neat. So -- and also going to Aoyama Gakuin at that time was a lot of Western culture part of -- which became a part of the school curriculum, probably not initially directly but through the music and the language. It was a infusion of American culture to the Japanese folks there. So he was familiar with -- I'm sure with Western harmony and Western music. So he didn't come over blank in terms of American songs. So he was participating in, in vocal groups, and I could still hear him just constantly humming or doing something like that in terms of music.

I think he had some hopes of doing some bookkeeping or, in those days I don't think it was called accounting, but in some of the books that were (found) in the closet, stored away, I saw some books that were made for ledgering, bookkeeping, with the long, the lines and vertical lines. Debits and credits possibly. Never talked about those books, but that's probably a hope he had in mind. I'm sure he didn't want to go into farming or whatever. Well, accounting did not become anything -- a part of his future. He did the best he could. Worked in hospitals, not Japanese, as a cook. Probably started as a dishwasher, picked up cooking American foods. And as a result, Christmas, Thanksgiving, holidays and dinners were very much that of turkey, cranberry sauce, gravy, mashed potatoes, pumpkin pies, fruit salad, and, of course, the traditional rice with a lot of gravy. And that was a favorite -- today is still my favorite, rice with turkey gravy. Oh, that's so much, so much, that's gourmet food for me, man. Good stuff.

And that's my legacy in terms of what I picked up from my father except for the -- if there is anything genetic about it, a love for music. He himself was not a very -- successful in earning a lot of money. Didn't make much money. He was very skillful at that: making not much money. But I think he enjoyed life to some extent; there were other rewards. For example, we lived at 1042 Jackson Street -- or rather Main Street, not far from Jackson, one block away in Seattle. And the Japanese Congregational Church was in the basement in our apartment house. Our dwelling was part of the upper unit. And he served as caretaker and the janitor of the church, volunteer service. And he'd carry the coal and light the fires for the Sunday morning services. And during Christmas time he loved to decorate the stage with greens and red -- I don't know if they had poinsettias in those days, but enjoyed the decoration, the Christmas tree decorations and take photographs.

And I still have photographs of his, that experience. And it's something that has sort of been passed on to me, again genetically or whatever, I -- times I've helped with my church taking pine greens and help with the decoration, and I -- photography is a secondary hobby of mine. And he took many, many photographs as I did now, especially with the family and other objects of my photography, landscape. Enjoyed, for example, going to the Grand Canyon. And after a tour with friends and the family, I'd go out on my own to search for what I wanted to photograph.

<End Segment 1> - Copyright © 2002 Densho. All Rights Reserved.