Densho Digital Archive
Densho Visual History Collection
Title: James O. Ito Interview
Narrator: James O. Ito
Interviewer: Martha Nakagawa
Location: Laguna Woods, California
Date: November 9, 2010
Densho ID: denshovh-ijames-01-0001

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MN: Okay. Today is Tuesday, November 9, 2010. We are at the Ito household in Laguna Woods. We have Tani Ikeda on video, and Toshi Ito here in the room, and my name is Martha Nakagawa, I will be interviewing James Ito. So Jim, let's start with your father's name, and what prefecture did he come from?

JI: Ito Chotaro, and he was born in Fukuoka, Hantoku-mura, Chikushi-gun. I don't remember what, I don't remember what year it was. [Laughs] But he was pretty old.

MN: How about your mother? What was her name and what prefecture did she come from?

JI: Who?

MN: Your mother.

JI: My mother? She was... my mother came from Fukuoka also. Let's see... I can't think of the... Asakura-gun, or anyways, the island of Kyushu up in the hillside.

MN: And what was her name? What was her name?

JI: Yoshise... I don't know why I can't think of it.

MN: That's okay. Kiku Yoshise.

JI: Kiku Yoshise.

MN: So your mother was Chotaro's second wife. What happened to his first wife?

JI: I don't know. It was in Japan, she passed away in Japan before he came to America. So we don't know much about that.

MN: When did your father come to the United States?

JI: Turn of the century. Let's see... I think my father came before my mother, about ten years before the 1900 (and first worked in the Hawaiian Islands). And then he worked on the farms in California and he settled in Riverside and became the head gardener for Mission Inn. And then he started the Ito Nursery.

MN: The garden that your father landscaped at the Mission Inn, is that still there?

JI: The waterfall is still there, and most of the landscaping is still there. We saw a waterfall he put in at 1900 (...). I guess most of the... landscaping changes. But in 1900 he landscaped the Mission Inn. And you know where Mission Inn is in Riverside? It's a very prominent hotel. Then he started the Ito Nursery.

MN: So your father did very well with the Mission Inn, so he was able to start his own nursery business.

JI: Yes.

MN: I'm going to back a little bit, okay, Jim? Now, your father, did he first go to Hawaii first and then work on the plantation and then go back to Japan and then come to Oakland, California, and then come to Riverside?

JI: Yeah. He did a lot of traveling.

MN: Now, then your father went and married your mother, Kiku Yoshise. And I'm going to read the names of the children your parents had, and I'm going to start with the oldest. Your oldest in your family is Hanako, Hannah.

JI: That's for the... he, my father had Fred and Frank, and he brought those two over, and the sister, they didn't quite make it over here. They were, grew up in Chikushi-gun, Fukuoka. And the two boys came over, and for a while, they worked in our grocery store, and then they started the Ito Brothers Markets in Glendale, Eagle Rock area.

MN: So Fred and Frank are your half brothers.

JI: Yes.

MN: And that is from your dad's first wife. And with your mother, he had Hanako Hannah, Tamotsu Tom, May, and then you, Osamu James.

JI: Her name was Minoru, but she didn't like Minoru, 'cause it's also used for males, too. So she called herself May.

MN: And then you came after Minoru May, James Osamu. And after you is Tomiye, and then Yutaka, Makoto David, Satoru Bill, and Toshiko Dorothy.

JI: Yeah.

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