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TI: Okay, so let me ask a little bit more about your father. Can you tell me his name?

FH: Yes. My father was Yajuro, Y-A-J-U-R-O, Yajuro Hoshiyama from Kitakambara, Niigata-ken.

TI: And do you know anything about his family in Japan?

FH: Not much. So I was curious. So I went to visit Japan one time and went to the Hoshiyama homestead. And they told me, "Right here your father grew up," and pointed to an area. And then I found out there's a company called Hoshiyama company, and they were a construction company, and there was Hoshiyama rice company. So in Japan, in Niigata, Hoshiyama meant something. So I said, "Wow. I should be proud of being a Hoshiyama." So they had a party for me, and some of the Hoshiyamas got together, it's a big group of people. I only stayed there just overnight, so I didn't get a chance to meet too many people.

TI: So was your sense that your father was part of a prominent family in Niigata?

FH: Yes. That's right. But I also learned that my father could not go back to Japan, 'cause he must have been kind of a runaway or something. Anyhow, he never returned to Japan. And fortunately, he did finally get married to a "picture bride." That Mrs. Abiko went to Japan and gathered some women to bring to Yamato Colony because there weren't very many women in this country at this point. This was 1906. 1912 is when my mother came over from Japan. They got married in Abiko's home in Union Street in San Francisco. I've been to that house, I know exactly where that was. Now they moved, Abikos moved to another location. When I grew up, and I was there for one year when I was a student. And the reason I stayed with Abiko was because we didn't have a big enough apartment house when we moved from Livingston to San Francisco. But that was, again, a very much like a night and day experience for this little guy.

<End Segment 2> - Copyright © 2010 Densho. All Rights Reserved.