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TI: And then your father, what was his name?

FS: Kisaburo.

TI: And where in Japan was he born?

FS: They were from, my father and mother were both from Shizuoka-ken. They were both, both from little villages that I don't know whether they still exist. They, I guess their mailing addresses are like that, but they both, they were two, two villages that were within walking distance of each other.

TI: And do you know when he was born?

FS: Oh, I think 1885 or something like that.

TI: Okay. And do you know why your father came to the United States?

FS: Well, my father, as you can say, "Kisaburo" means "third son." He was the third son in the family, and of course my father, my father's father was a tenant farmer on that land, and of course, he didn't stand a chance to even inherit the possibility of getting to work the land. And the railroad, the Canadian-Pacific Railroad or other, I think, railroads in the United States also, came by to recruit young men. You had to have strong backs and weak minds, I suspect, but they came around and recruited, and of course, he signed up. And I think, and the way I -- and the story gets pretty vague at this point -- but it's my understanding that they paid for his passage to Canada. To make sure that they were, they were covered, they put an insurance policy on him, so in case he got killed or injured, they would recoup their money. So he worked as a laborer, I understand, for the Canadian-Pacific Railroad, when they were pushing, putting rail lines through the Rockies. Somewhere along the line -- and this is even vaguer -- somehow he and a bunch of his friends wetbacked it into the United States, and he worked for the Great Northern Railroad, I understand, again, on the United States side of Glacier Park, and gradually moved West into, into Spokane area, and I understand that he, he worked in various kinds of laborer jobs or handyman jobs. Ended up being a busboy at the Davenport Hotel, and we have a letter from the manager of the Davenport hotel when he went, he went back to Japan to pick up my mother to, you know, to get married, saying that, "This is a nice young man, please treat him fairly," and so on.

TI: Tell me a little bit about the Davenport, because when I drove through Spokane, it's still an elegant, old hotel.

FS: In those days it was practically brand-new. I think it was built in 1912, 1913, and he worked there, he left there about 1915 or 1916 to go back to Japan to look, get a bride. And so he was a busboy there, and I don't know exactly... I'm sure that's all he did, was the busboy, cleanup and stuff, but he worked there for a few years, anyway, as far as I can, as far as we know.

TI: But the Davenport was, at that time, probably the most prominent hotel...

FS: Oh, in the Northwest, I think. Probably the best hotel between Minneapolis and Seattle, but of course there wasn't anything between Minneapolis and Seattle anyway. [Laughs] No, it was a very elegant place, and it went downhill for a while, but now it really is a lovely place again.

TI: And so the manager wrote a...

FS: There's a letter.

TI: ...a letter, almost a recommendation letter.

FS: Yeah, a recommendation letter. And one of the family has it, and I think it's my brother Floyd and his wife have that, have that letter.

TI: And did, did they take a picture of him in front of the hotel also, that they sent or anything?

FS: No, no, it was just a letter by the manager asking that, that he be treated nicely. It was just a letter of recommendation, nothing specific about it, except that it was a, this was a nice young man, and they would like whoever reads this letter to extend courtesies to him.

TI: And so with this letter, he went back to Japan.

FS: He went back to Japan.

TI: To find a wife.

FS: Yes, he went back to his family and said, "I'm ready to marry and find a bride." This is, this is the usual, norm in those days in Japan. And so obviously his family talked to their friends, said, "Do you know anybody who, in the neighborhood, who has a daughter who's ready to be married?" And as I said earlier, my mother came from a village next to, to my dad's family's village, and of course, word went out, of course, that they were looking for a young lady who was of marrying age. And my mother was available, so that was the arrangement.

TI: So I'm curious, when they -- and I'm not sure if you know this -- but when they kind of described your father, so here he was in the United States for about eleven, ten, eleven years?

FS: Yeah, something like that, yeah.

TI: And so he's coming back, and is he viewed as, as what? How would they describe your, your father when they were looking for a bride?

FS: I don't know. That'd be an interesting thought. I've never heard, except, except that there are pictures of my father, and he, of course he's, I don't know whether it's a Sears & Roebuck suit or something, but they were, he looked pretty good in that suit. There's also a picture of him with an umbrella, and it's a really elegant-looking silk umbrella. And that, and I think, gosh, that's really neat. I bet he looked pretty dandy as a young man. [Laughs]

TI: Well, that's why, you had pictures of him and I've seen it, he's a very prominent-looking...

FS: Yeah, well, anyway, but he, as with any immigrant, he worked at pretty grubby jobs, but he did look well. He looked, he looked like he was well-off.

TI: So during that time in Japan, would, would he be viewed as a success? I mean, is he someone that was like a catch for the...

FS: Well, I, I would think so. He had, he had enough money to, to come back to Japan and get a bride. Ordinarily, many of the guys, many of the Issei men would get a, get a mail-order bride, and they'd write back to their village and say, "Well, hey, find me a wife," and so the family would pack up their daughter and ship her to the States, and I knew families like that. But my father actually went back to Japan to get a bride. So I guess there is some difference in what he did.

<End Segment 2> - Copyright © 2006 Densho. All Rights Reserved.