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TI: Let's, let's go, I want to learn a little bit more about your father, so can you tell me your father's name?

BS: Takami.

TI: And tell me a little bit about where he's from and what his family did.

BS: His family lived way, way in the rural area of Hiroshima-ken and I guess they did farming, and so around 1915 my grandfather and the family came to the United States to do some farming and then around end of World War II, I guess they made some money.

TI: You mean World War I?

BS: World War I, yes.

TI: Let me, before you go too far, so, so your grandparents and your father, so the whole family came to the United States around 1915. I'm curious if you know this, so this was after the, the Gentlemen's Agreement, where it was harder for workers to come to the United States. Do you know how they, they came to the United States?

BS: No, I don't.

TI: Yeah, 'cause generally what happened was the United States tried to limit the number of laborers coming into the States, and so that's when the "picture brides" really kind of ramped up because of that, so I was just curious if your, to get into the country, if there was anything special that had to happen.

BS: I don't know about that.

TI: Okay, that's fine. So your grandparents, the family, they brought the family over, you mentioned after World War I, around 1915. Why don't you, what happened next?

BS: Well, my grandparents returned to Japan, but my father and his brother stayed in the U.S. and then a couple of years later my father went back to Japan, married my mother and they returned to the U.S.

TI: Now, why did your grandparents return to Japan?

BS: I assume they made some money because they built a nice house back there in Hiroshima.

TI: And when your grandparents came, from 1915, 1915, or actually before that, I guess, or around 1915, what kind of work did they do in the United States?

BS: They farmed.

TI: Okay, so they were farming.

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