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JG: Well, let's go back a little bit and talking about... I mean, your great-grandfather had a pretty remarkable life, when you look at the scope of that. What do you know about his time here when he came to California? At what point did he enter the army to serve?

GF: That was my grandfather.

JG: That was your grandfather, okay.

GF: My grandfather, yeah.

JG: Did he come over from Hawaii?

GF: I think when my great-grandfather came over here, as I mentioned, went from Seattle to, and then back down to L.A., at some point he brought the, he did bring the whole family over. So my grandfather did come over at that time.

JG: And where was he born?

GF: He was born in Honomu, Hawaii.

JG: Okay. Okay, so he was born in Hawaii. What do you know about his life in Boyle Heights?

GF: My grandfather's life?

JG: Yes.

GF: Not a whole lot. I do know that he continued on in the mortuary with his father, my great-grandfather. I do know that he enlisted in the U.S. Army for World War I, and I have pictures. In fact, his picture's on the web, also, 364th Regiment, or unit. So I even have all that and a book has his name in there, when he served.

JG: That was so unusual for Japanese Americans to serve during the first World War.

GF: Oh, yeah. Right. Especially in a segregated army, but yet he served. Someone told me he was probably a cook. Now that's never been substantiated. The sad thing, I remember when my mother passed away, I cleared out her house and I found letters that he had written back from France, and on it it would be blacked out and it would say, "Censored, censored." So I guess certain things they, they couldn't say. And I don't know where those letters are, but they would've been priceless to us.

JG: Interesting. Very interesting. I'm curious about the connection between your great-grandfather and your grandfather and just this continuity in terms of entering into what has become the family business. At what point, or in what ways was the, the business kind of discussed within the family? In other words, thinking about... was there any kind of expectation that people would enter into the business?

GF: You know, probably with my great-grandfather there was. My great-grandfather passed away some time in the '40s. In fact, I think he passed away before World War II, and that, this is the only time that the mortuary did not operate, obviously, here in California, but I think my great-grandfather, my, excuse me, my grandfather stepped up and helped in camps when the camp residents would pass away. He would help with the arrangements there. But how he got into the business, when he got into the business, I'm not certain, but looking back at some of the pictures, it appears he probably got involved right after he got out of the army, and when the war, when did World War II, I mean I end? Probably 1918, 1919, around there?

JG: Yeah, right around there.

GF: So probably the late teens, early twenties is when he got involved, and he would've been in, I guess, mid-twenties.

<End Segment 3> - Copyright © 2010 Densho. All Rights Reserved.