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MN: Okay, today is July 28, 2010. We're at the Centenary Methodist Church in Little Tokyo. We have Dana Hoshide on video, and we will be interviewing Bruce Teruo Kaji, and I will be interviewing. My name is Martha Nakagawa. Okay, Bruce, let's start with your father. What was his name?

BK: Umetaro Kaji.

MN: And what prefecture did he, was he born in?

BK: It was Fukuoka-ken, Japan.

MN: What level of education did your father have?

BK: He graduated from the University of Kumamoto, and he was a veterinarian doctor.

MN: But he didn't pursue that career. What happened?

BK: Well, he wanted to marry his cousin and the parents would not allow it because it was too close of a relationship. He was disappointed and when they came around to look for people to go to United States to make money, work in agriculture, he signed up. And so he came to United States and first place they landed was Seattle, so he worked on farms in Seattle and he found out that it was not very profitable because the boss was taking everything, and there was very little. And he kept all of the papers, I guess you would call it the visas or whatever were required, but he decided it was not for him, so he left with all of his personal papers, left and came south. He came as far as San Francisco down to Southern California, Los Angeles, and working all the way, trying to make money on the farms, but it wasn't very, very profitable. He finally wound up in Los Angeles and he started working for the Santa Fe Railroad, and as a result he had some stability in income. He wrote to his sister in Japan. At that time they were allowing people to get married by proxy, and he asked if they could find someone suitable for him. And then he got tied in with... my mother, Katsu Kaji, who was in Fukuoka-ken, and he would, they would, recommended her. She sent her picture to him, he approved, and she came over.

MN: What was your mother's maiden name?

BK: My mother's maiden name was Shimada. Shimada.

MN: Now, you mentioned that your father found a job with the Santa Fe Railroad?

BK: Yeah.

MN: What was he doing?

BK: He was a repairman for the wheels and the brakes of the major trains, and they had a pool where he did the high maintenance work. It required a lot of manual work, and it was also, was very noisy, so he lost his hearing, hard of hearing. Just like me, I lost my hearing in the army. It's one of those freak deals that follows, I guess, as father-son relationship. [Laughs]

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