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TI: Well, we're going to come back to this, because during this period he actually met someone at this missionary, your mother. But then before we go back there, let's go to the point where he decides to go to the United States, and so he immigrates to the, or immigrates to the United States. Where did he land, and about what year was that?

JY: He arrived in San Francisco in 1904, and he was about twenty years old. And we have the immigration records of that event, how much money he head.

TI: So how much money did he have?

JY: He had a considerable amount. The immigration office says he had two thousand dollars. That was a huge amount for a young man.

TI: Yeah, I've interviewed quite a few people, and generally they would come with about twenty dollars, and that was like the minimum, and most of them had about that.

JY: My numbers may be wrong, but as I recollect, it was in the thousands.

TI: Well, it makes a little bit of sense, because most people who came to the United States were coming to be a laborer of some type, to actually make money. It sounded like your father came for possibly different reasons, to actually get an education. So he probably came with more resources to help him get started. So I'm curious, when he got to San Francisco, what did he end up doing?

JY: Well, apparently there were friends that he made quite early, a group of friends with whom he was compatible. And they pooled their resources to get by, to meet their daily needs. So if one individual found work, the person would bring the, whatever money obtained, and they would share and make ends meet that way.

TI: But I don't understand. Your father came and he had two thousand dollars, so he had quite a bit of money. What happened to that money? I mean, it sounds like it disappeared somehow or he used it, because then he had to then work with these other fellows to make ends meet?

JY: Well, looking at some of the pictures, because he's in San Francisco only for a short period, some of the pictures that these young men took look like the others had a little more money than you would expect from immigrants from an impoverished home. They had very well-fitting, stylish suits, they certainly didn't have any appearance of being... well, they appeared quite nice young men.

TI: And what kind of work did he do during this period? He was about twenty in San Francisco.

JY: Well, they had the usual work that the immigrants obtained, working in homes, houseboys, restaurants, hotels, and I think he even went to Salinas to find work at one time.

TI: Okay, so he got there about 1904. 1906, the big San Francisco earthquake. Was your father in San Francisco during that period?

JY: He was in San Francisco.

TI: Do you know what happened either during or after the earthquake?

JY: All I know is that there was, we have a picture of him in the rubble, wearing a straw hat. [Laughs]

TI: And so what happened after that?

JY: Somewhere during that period, the anti-Oriental atmosphere was still quite pervasive. And it seemed that the, one of the avenues that the city fathers had in mind was to have the Asians move out of the cities, since there was limited housing and jobs. And so they were encouraged to go south to Los Angeles, and I recall being told that they were given vouchers to go to Los Angeles. And during that period there was a considerable exodus of Japanese to Southern California.

TI: That's interesting. So this is about 1906, 1907, and so during this period in San Francisco, there were people who wanted the Japanese out, as many as they could, so they actually paid them to go down to Los Angeles. And this was about the same time when I think in San Francisco, the school board started segregating Asians from the general population, and that led to the Gentlemen's Agreement with Japan. So that all makes sense, that they're trying to push. But I'm surprised that people in Southern California, Los Angeles, allowed that to happen. I'm curious, what did he find when he went to L.A.?

JY: Well, he, by then he was quite interested in helping the church in caring for the immigrants from Japan. And so he was connected to a missionary group on Flower Street in Los Angeles, and eventually the diocese of Los Angeles felt that they would like to support him to enter the ministry and obtain some funds for him to go to obtain his college education and then go to the divinity school.

TI: Do you know, when he was making this decision to make the ministry his career, if he was consulting or talked with his uncle back in Japan? Because here they thought he was going to possibly study medicine, and then all of a sudden he's going into the ministry for a Christian church when the family was Buddhist. Was that controversial for the family?

JY: It may have been, but I don't have any record of that.

TI: Okay. So he went to Trinity, then divinity school at Berkeley. About this time, your mother came to the United States.

JY: No, it was much later.

TI: So even after Berkeley?

JY: Oh, yes, about... I think he went to Trinity College around 1900 or so, somewhere thereabouts.

TI: But it must have been, if it was after the San Francisco earthquake.

JY: Oh, yes.

TI: So 1906 was the earthquake, probably more like 1910 or so?

JY: Something like that. I don't have the exact dates. But he had been engaged to my mother, and she came ten years later to United States. And that was around 1913.

<End Segment 3> - Copyright © 2005 Densho. All Rights Reserved.