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MN: July 18, 2011, we're at the Japanese American Cultural and Community Center in Los Angeles. We will be interviewing Yuriko Katayama Hohri, and we have Tani Ikeda on the video camera, and I'll be interviewing. My name is Martha Nakagawa. So, Yuriko, I wanted to start by asking you about your maternal grandparents, Fusakichi Kanow from Osaka, and Hide Dan Kanow from Kobe. What were they doing in the early 1900s in San Francisco?

YH: They moved there from Japan.

MN: What kind of business did they have?

YH: My grandfather, Fusakichi, was in the import/export business.

MN: So he was importing a lot of Japanese goods?

YH: Yeah.

MN: And selling to the Caucasians?

YH: Yeah. Well, not Caucasian but to anyone who wanted to buy the merchandise.

MN: Now, your maternal grandparents had a total of eight children, and how many were born in the United States?

YH: I think it was ten, because I think I've forgotten, let's see, there was Taro, my mother, Yaye, and her sister Helen, and Noble, and Shimpachi, and Franklin, and Hichiro, and Hachiro, oh, and there was Jimmy. So there were nine. There were seven boys and two girls.

MN: Now, were they all born in the United States? Were some of them born in Japan?

YH: No, they, I think they were all born in the United States.

MN: And so where was your mother, Yaye Kanow, born?

YH: She was born in San Francisco.

MN: So she's a Nisei.

YH: Yes.

MN: Now how old was your mother when your grandparents sent her to live with relatives in Tokyo?

YH: She must've entered before she was in kindergarten.

MN: What kind of school did your mother attend in Tokyo?

YH: She attended a Catholic school.

MN: So she learned English at this Catholic school?

YH: She must have.

MN: Do you know what other lessons she learned at this...

YH: Well, she learned Shakespeare and she learned all the arts, like tatting and sewing and, 'cause she sewed all her kimonos and she knew how to draft the kimonos.

MN: You mentioned tatting. For those of us who don't know what that is, can you explain to us what that is?

YH: Oh, that's, you use very fine thread and you, and it makes something like a lace and you, and she edged all the handkerchiefs around with this tatting lace, and then on the corners she would make the more elaborate lace.

MN: Sounds like it's a very detailed kinda work.

YH: Yeah, it is. And you use a shuttle.

MN: What's a shuttle?

YH: It's a type of a hook that you put the thread into, and then you poke it and then you take thread out, and then it makes another loop or, you know, to make these lace like edges. It was about this big, I'd say, and it was shaped like, sort of like an oval with a point at the end.

MN: Is this something you learned also? Did she teach you?

YH: No. No, I didn't learn it at all.

MN: What sort of memories did your mother share with you about her experience in Tokyo?

YH: She said that the only time that she missed her mother was when she received honors at the school and there was no one to praise her for those honors.

MN: Now, after your mother graduated from this Catholic school in Tokyo, what did she do?

YH: Well, a marriage was arranged for her, and she met the man and she didn't like him at all, and so that's when she decided to come back to the U.S.

MN: So by the time your mother returned to the U.S. and rejoined her family, your grandparents had moved to Long Beach. Do you know why they moved from San Francisco to Long Beach?

YH: Because there was an earthquake in San Francisco, so that's why they decided to move the whole family to Long Beach.

MN: And this is that big 1906 San Francisco earthquake?

YH: Right. Yeah.

MN: Were your grandparents still in the importing business?

YH: Yes.

MN: Where did they have their store?

YH: They had it on, on some place called the Pike in Long Beach.

MN: That was like right on the, like a pier, is that what it was?

YH: Yeah. And it wasn't on the pier, but it was next to the pier. It was close to the pier.

MN: Did your mother have to help out in the family business?

YH: Yes.

MN: What did she do there?

YH: She sold the goods. They had Japanese materials, and they had a lot of china.

MN: So I'm assuming when your mother returned from Japan she still spoke English? And she was able to look after the store?

YH: Yes.

<End Segment 1> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.