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TI: Let's talk a little bit about your father. You mentioned your father earlier. Tell me about your father. What did he do in Japan, or in Formosa, actually?

JI: I don't know what his work was. He was the oldest son of, you know, the samurai family, and he was not supposed to leave Japan, leave being head of the household. But he ceded his rights to, and duties to his younger brother, who was a naval officer. And then he came to this country at the, he was nearly forty when he first came here, thirty-nine or forty. And not knowing any English, and I thought that took a great deal of courage on his part, and especially with having a child, and having responsibility. And it wasn't for economic reasons because he left a job to, to come. And my theory is that he felt that a girl couldn't get a proper education in Japan, and for that reason, he thought he'd come to the land of opportunity. And my oldest sister did graduate from USC with a degree in pharmacy.

TI: So what year, or about what year did your father come --

JI: I think 1905, 1906, something like that. I could probably tell you if I, my, one of my sons is very interested in genealogy, and he's gathered as much information as he could from his family and from our family and my wife's family. And my wife's family has quite a bit more information, even though our family goes back farther in time.

TI: And your father's name was... what was your father's name?

JI: Rintaro, and he always said Rintaro with a shika hen. Shika is deer, you know, and that's on the left side of the character, it's very complicated. I couldn't do it anymore. I did at one time, not anymore. And in other words, I think Rintaro could also be, like Hayashi, it could be rin and taro, but this with the shika hen, whatever that means.

TI: And so your father, it sounds like he was, it was probably from his family background, well-educated.

JI: No, no. He had the minimum education, but he loved education. He read constantly. And it's interesting, he never learned English, spoken English very well, because he was very shy. But he learned to read and write, and he wrote copious notes and kept a scrapbook of articles from the newspaper that he was interested in. And I think, for that reason, he wanted all of his children to be educated. As I say, he loved learning, and when I got my first job with the university, he kind of held that up to my brothers and sisters, but since that was so, such a low-paying job, they were constantly sending me money to help me with. It kind of griped them that he put me up as an example when they thought I was a bad example.

TI: Oh, that's good. So, tell me a little bit about your mother. What was her name?

JI: Her name was Mura, and her maiden name was Shimatani.

TI: And do you know what her family did in Japan?

JI: Well, I think she was an orphan, and when they were married, she had no parents, she was raised by, by relatives. And in the, the Japanese, she was identified as a commoner, so I don't know whether the, the marriage of my father with a so-called "commoner" was, also might have played a part in his coming to this country. Although I think the other theory is more accurate. I know when my mother went back to Japan with my dad in the '30s, they were welcomed, and my mother was welcomed very graciously by, by all the relatives. So I don't think, if there had been any prejudice about it, at least it didn't exist at that point. And of course, now, it probably wouldn't exist at all. Now, they probably wouldn't be able to identify someone as, as a commoner.

TI: And roughly, what was the age difference between your father and mother?

JI: Thirteen years.

TI: So when she came to the United States, she was in her, in twenties, probably about twenty, twenty-six, twenty-seven years old, it sounds like.

JI: Yeah.

<End Segment 2> - Copyright © 2008 Densho. All Rights Reserved.