<Begin Segment 2>

TI: So let me go to your father, and why don't you tell me your father's name and where he was from.

SY: My father's name was Katsujiro Maruyama.

TI: And where in Japan was he from?

SY: Kourauchi-mura, Fukuoka.

TI: Fukuoka.

SY: Yes, Fukuoka.

TI: Do you know what his family did for, to make a living?

SY: Gee, I don't know, really.

TI: Do you ever, did you ever hear a story of why he decided to go from Japan to America?

SY: No. Maybe he talked to the older kids, but...

TI: How about, did he ever talk about how he met your mother?

SY: Well, first I heard, he came with his wife. He was married when he came over here, and he had two sons, we have two stepbrothers, and they're older than George. And she died and then... what do you call it? "Picture bride"? The second wife -- my mother, that is -- she was a "picture bride" and she came from Japan.

TI: Did you ever find out or know how your father's first wife, what happened, how she died?

SY: No, no, I really don't know.

TI: And how about the two stepbrothers? What happened to them? Did they grow up with your family or did they go someplace else?

SY: Gee, that, I'm not sure. I think they were in Japan, and the older one came, I think, with his father, I'm not sure. I'm not sure what that...

TI: That's interesting. It's amazing how many stories you come across where... because I think it was pretty common for like a wife or a husband to die young and then remarriage, but then people find out later on that they have half brothers.

SY: Yes, uh-huh.

TI: So it's amazing how common that is.

<End Segment 2> - Copyright © 2009 Densho. All Rights Reserved.