Densho Digital Archive - Fred Y. Hoshiyama Interview (denshovh-hfred

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TI: Well, tell me first about your father. I knew he died as a young man.

FH: Well, he, unfortunately, he worked hard, but he died early. He was only forty-six, not quite forty-seven years of age. I was less than eight; I was seven, maybe eleven months.

TI: So tell me what you can remember about him. What was he like?

FH: He was short of stature, and so I thought, well... but he was kindly and very caring. I remember sitting on his lap, and he used to laugh a lot. He had a full head of hair, so I thought, "Well, if he lived longer, he'd have been bald like me, too." But he was very kind, but I saw very little of him, 'cause he worked night and day, from sunup to sundown. But one thing I learned about this man, and that has influenced me as I kept going, and that is this: that all his coworkers trusted him. He was a foreman of a crew that went to Alaska in the canneries, and the sardine and salmon canneries, and he used to, they used to trust him with their money, because if they kept it, they will spend it imprudently, and then they'll gamble it away. So they trusted my father to hang onto the money. And he told me he was not big, but he was very trusted, and people loved him. So that much, he died early age, but that influenced me also. I said, how could I live up to such a wonderful father? And so I never knew him, but I knew him.

TI: And what caused his death at forty-six?

FH: He had a stomach cancer. And one time an insurance man said, "Fred, don't ever say that because the rates will go up." [Laughs] "If I didn't know about it, then I'll give you the regular rate, but now you told me, I have to charge higher rate, because the risk is higher." So people ask me, so I say, "I don't know." [Laughs] Now it's okay.

TI: Okay. Yeah, now you outlived all the actuarial tables.

FH: [Laughs] Yeah, exactly.

TI: Can you recall the funeral service for your father?

FH: Not too well. I remember Mother took us there, and Turlock is ten miles away from Livingston, it's the closest cemetery at the that time. Now they have one in Winton, which is closer to Yamato Colony, right on the edge. But at that time... so my father and my youngest brother and my sister is buried in Turlock Cemetery, yes. I don't remember too much about it, but I do remember that people were very, very kind and caring. And so I felt Father had to be very important for people to be so nice to us. And they tried to help Mother out, and told her, she had four boys left, because we lost a sister and a brother. So there were six children, and here she had four boys. And when the father died, my youngest, Willie, was crawling. Couldn't walk yet. Must have been maybe, maybe one or two, but wasn't doing much more than able to hobble. Mother spoke no English, didn't have any skill. She was a midwife, but that's, in this country, a midwife, I don't know if you could get a job being a midwife or not. But she somehow struggled, people advised her, "You should send these kids, your kids to the orphanage." But she said, "No, no. Family should stay together." Thank god she kept us together.

TI: So tell me your siblings, the birth order. I think you're the oldest. Can you tell me your other brothers?

FH: Yes. I have... well, I was born '14, then my brother Tom, '16, 1916, John in 1917, then Willie, 1919. And in 1918, Osako was born, then in 1920, '21, I guess, was Goro. But he was like stillborn, 'cause he died at infancy. But my first, Tom, he raised five children. And he and his wife finally separated after the kids were quite young yet.