<Begin Segment 1>

TI: Today is Wednesday, July 28, 2010. We're at the Centenary United Methodist Church in Los Angeles, in Little Tokyo. We have an interview with Takashi Hoshizaki. In the room we have Jim Gatewood, who's the secondary interview, and on camera we have Dana Hoshide, and I'm Tom Ikeda, the interviewer. So Takashi, I'm just gonna start at the beginning, so why don't you tell me your birth date and where you were born?

TH: October 3, 1925, and I was just born about a mile east of here, so right east of Little Tokyo in Los Angeles.

TI: And, and what was the name given to you at birth?

TH: Takashi Hoshizaki.

TI: Any significance of that name?

TH: It was, the Japanese character is the first character of my father's name, Kei. Keijiro is his name.

TI: Okay, so in some ways then, you were named after your father?

TH: Correct.

TI: So tell me, what was, again, tell me your father's name, and where was he from?

TH: He was Keijiro Hoshizaki, and he's from Kanagawa-ken in Japan.

TI: And do you know, like, a town or...

TH: The town is called Yahagi.

TI: Good, okay. And tell me a little bit about your father's family. What, what kind of work did they do?

TH: In my father's family, basically they were farmers, and he was one of thirteen children. There were three brothers and ten daughters. And he was born, I have to think back, 1895.

TI: Now, in my notes I have that he attended college.

TH: He attended Waseda (University) and (...) graduated out the second in his class.

TI: Now, was that, was that common for his siblings also, to attend college?

TH: That I don't know. (...) The firstborn, my uncle Sadagoro, according to his biography, only attended (...) grammar school (...) and by the time he (was) old enough (to work, financial) conditions in family (was) such that he had to go out in the field and help with the farming (...) and harvesting (...).

TI: Because I've, I've done quite a few of these interviews and it's pretty uncommon to have someone's parents, an Issei, with a college education, so I was just curious about that. That it, it's more like your uncle. A lot of them went up to grammar school and they had to help out with the family, and so I was just wondering if you knew any of the circumstances behind why your father was able to go to college.

TH: I think, I can't remember exactly, but he was the youngest brother, and I think there were several other sisters born before him, so I think he was about midway in the family, so therefore I think that they, possibly the economic conditions and also the workload was such that he was able to attend college.

TI: So they, there might've just been a sweet spot where the older ones had to work to help support the family?

TH: I think so. I think that would probably be the situation.

TI: Well, you mentioned also that he was number two, second in his class.

TH: Second in his class, and (...) the person who was number one was given a very good position in some large corporation. And so apparently my dad said well, he's number two, so he then returned home and the story goes that he was out fishing when (...) some young boy came running out telling him that he was now number one because the number one person turned down the position. And so then my dad went to work, I guess it was Manchuria and I believe it was a mining company, pushed papers for about three months and decided that wasn't for him, so then he (...) came over to United States.

TI: And do you have any sense what the reaction of the family was when he decided to, to go to the United States?

TH: No, I don't know. But his oldest brother, Uncle Sadagoro, was already here (in America), had established a business by that time (...). He probably came over here, also, to help his older brother in his business.

TI: Okay, that, yeah, that makes sense. Do you know about what year this was when he came over?

TH: I can't, can't remember, but he probably was here about the time that he was, say, twenty, so that'd be 1915, around that period.

TI: Good. So he comes to the United States to work with his older brother.

TH: Yes.

TI: And this is in Los Angeles, Little Tokyo? Is this where this...

TH: Yes.

TI: So tell me a little bit about the business. What kind of business was that?

TH: Basically importing Japanese food and commodities.

TI: Good.

TH: And the company still exists today. (...) Eventually turned into the Mutual Trading Company.

TI: Good. Any memories or stories that you can remember about your father's early years in, in Los Angeles?

TH: No.

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