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MA: So today is May 13, 2008. I'm here in Denver, Colorado, with Bessie Konishi. I'm Megan Asaka and the videographer today is Dana Hoshide. So Bessie, thank you so much for coming out to do this interview with us. I really appreciate it.

BK: Well, you're welcome.

MA: So, I wanted to start off with asking you when you were born.

BK: I was born September 17, 1932.

MA: And where were you born?

BK: I was born in La Jara, Colorado.

MA: And that is, can you explain where that is geographically?

BK: Yeah, it's in the San Luis Valley in Colorado, and it's, it borders New Mexico. It's about in the middle of the state, clear down south.

MA: And what was your name given at birth?

BK: Mieko Yoshida.

MA: When did you change to going by Bessie?

BK: When we started school. All of us had Japanese names and we were all born with midwives except for the youngest one. And we were all given Japanese names. And when we started school, it was difficult for the teachers to pronounce Japanese names and so we were all... I don't know how they picked 'em, you know. And I don't know why they named me Bessie either. [Laughs] 'Cause some of my other sisters got Shirley, for Shirley Temple, and Judy for Judy Garland. And here I end up with Bessie, but, but that's how we got our English names.

MA: So I wanted to talk a little bit about your family background. What was your father's name?

BK: Eiichi Yoshida.

MA: And where was he from in Japan?

BK: He was from Hiroshima-ken.

MA: What did his family do in Japan?

BK: I'm not real sure, but I, probably farmers. I would say farmers. But his father came in the early 1900s to California with one of the sons. There were five boys in the family. And, just like other immigrants, they came to make some money and sent it back to Japan.

MA: I see, so your father actually came as a young boy with his father.

BK: Yeah, he was nineteen when he came.

MA: And so, you said his motivations were to sort of make some money and then eventually return to Japan?

BK: I imagine so, I don't know if that was my father's motive. But that was his father's motive, so yeah.

MA: And what did your father do? What kind of jobs did he do when he first came to the U.S.?

BK: Yeah, I think they helped a lot with fishing and canning, and then went into the vegetable growing part.

MA: And where was this? Where did they first arrive?

BK: In Oakland. And then he worked around Lodi, California. And then he was a foreman for a company called Smith Farms in Stockton.

MA: He was a foreman of like, a labor camp?

BK: Yeah, uh-huh.

MA: Do you know, were the workers all Japanese? Like Isseis

BK: I think they were all, I think they were all Japanese. Yeah.

MA: So how did he eventually meet and marry your mother?

BK: Well, my mother was a picture bride. And she is also from Hiroshima. And she said that her mother and father asked her, "(Would you) go to America?" And she said, "Yes." And it was an arranged marriage. And her, my father's younger brother stood in as the proxy and they were married in Japan and then she got on a boat, sailed for America with other "picture brides." And all she had was a picture of my father, and his name written on the side of the suitcase. But they got along very well. And my father was very good to my mother, so, and that wasn't always the case. So...

MA: Did she talk to you about her experiences coming over? Like on the boat, or what her impressions were when she first --

BK: That's all she told me. She didn't, it must not have been a bad experience because she didn't say anything about the boat ride over. But it was a month long, I mean, it took them thirty days to get over here. And, no she didn't, I don't think she had any bad experiences. Yeah.

MA: So how, do you know how old she was when she came over?

BK: She was, let's see, I think she was eighteen. Yeah.

MA: And she joined your father in...

BK: California.

MA: In California.

<End Segment 1> - Copyright ©2008 Densho. All Rights Reserved.