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TI: Okay, let me start by saying today is Tuesday, February 23, 2010. We're in Los Angeles, or Culver City, and on camera is Dana Hoshide. And I'm interviewing Shig Yabu and I'm the interviewer Tom Ikeda. So that's just the formality, so why don't we just start, Shig?

SY: Okay.

TI: So tell me when you were born and where you were born.

SY: I was born in San Francisco, California, and the reason for that is the fact that my mother was a student at University of Washington, and she was (attracted to Frank Teruo Yabu, also a student. Frank was from Japan, and Hana and Frank got married.)

TI: Okay, so we're gonna get all that, just focus on just where and when and then I'll ask you about your grandparents and all that.

SY: Oh, okay, I gotcha. I was born in Stanford Clinic Hospital and (we lived in Nihonmachi and I was born on) June 13, 1932.

TI: Okay. And so let me, let me... yeah, because I know you want to talk about your mother and your grandfather, so let's first talk a little bit about your mother's father, or your grandfather on your --

SY: Okay, Setsunosuke Horishige came from Japan at the age of fifteen, and he started out in Seattle, Washington. Immediately started a business... (Narr. note: Setsunosuke invested in purchasing horses and a wagon and delivered wood, coal and furniture.)

TI: And before we even get to Seattle, do you know where in Japan, what part of Japan, like what prefecture?

SY: It's southern part of Japan, but I don't know the exact area. (Narr. note: Agenoshomachi, Yamaguchi Prefecture.)

TI: And did you ever hear why he left Japan to come to the United States?

SY: Well, according to a relative, the brother of my grandfather, son lives in New York (George Horishige), and he won't talk at all, but he'll talk with me. He says that that family started off with lots of money in Japan. Now, why he migrated to Seattle, Washington, I have no idea. (Narr. note: According to George, it was adventure and financial gain.) But because of the fact that he was successful in his business, at that time the Japanese immigrants could not marry to any other ethnic group, so he got a "picture bride" from Japan, and they got married.

TI: Okay. Well, and let's now back up a little bit. So your grandfather came to Seattle, fifteen... so this is in eighteen hundred --

SY: 1892 or --

TI: 1892 around...

SY: (He was born November 26, 1877.)

TI: Okay, so pretty, pretty early for Seattle, that's one of the earlier people. And tell me what your grandfather did when he came to Seattle at about fifteen years old.

SY: Well, he started a business. He got horse and wagon and he transported coal and wood. At that time, evidently they didn't have a gas furnace and so forth, and, but he also hauled furniture. But he made, according to George Iwasaki, my cousin, and Peggy, he said he had a tremendous amount of energy, that he could do the work of two people, you know, hauling things. But at the same time, because of his financial background, he was able to help all the other immigrants that came from Japan, either feeding them, housing them, loaning them money, just to get started. (Narr. note: He started the furniture, express and coal business with two horses and a wagon. Later he purchased a truck.)

TI: And maybe even helping them get work and things like that, do you think?

SY: That I don't know.

TI: Okay. But you mentioned lots of energy, was he, I mean, hauling coal, wood, furniture, was he a big man?

SY: That I don't know. I did see him and meet him when I was four years old, but when you're four, everybody looks humongous, you know, so I can't really say how big he was. (Narr. note: My cousins told me he was strong and did work for two men by himself.)

TI: Did you ever hear what kind of man he was in terms of his personality? Was he a quiet man?

SY: He was so well-liked that whenever he got drunk and then went to the jail and after he sobered up, the jail was like a revolving door, "Okay, don't come back again." Because he was, his personality was so great that everybody loved him. (Narr. note: I was told that he was able to meet people and he was well-liked with a great personality.)

<End Segment 1> - Copyright © 2010 Densho. All Rights Reserved.