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SY: Today is September 20, 2011. We're at the Centenary United Methodist Church in Los Angeles. And this is Harry Kawahara that we're interviewing, and my name is Sharon Yamato and on video camera is Tani Ikeda. So, Harry, thank you very much for being here, and we're going to start off I think with a little bit of background about your family. I think let's definitely start with your parents and where they're from?

HK: My parents are Issei, they came in the early turn of the century, and they are from southern Japan in Kyushu, a ken called Fukuoka, Fukuoka-ken. So therefore I'm a Nisei.

SY: And your parents... your father came here by himself originally?

HK: Yes, he came here as a laborer as many Issei men did, and then he eventually married and my mother was a "picture bride," so that's really another story too.

SY: Right. I am fascinated by the women who came over as "picture brides."

HK: I just thought unbelievable. My mother was eighteen years old when she came, didn't know the language, didn't know the culture, and at a very young age. I just could hardly believe she made that move, but she did. And to come meet a man she had never actually personally met, and to see him for the first time at the port in San Francisco, that is just incredible they did that.

SY: And they were the only ones from their families who came to America?

HK: Yes.

SY: So it was really your father's spirit of going away from home?

HK: It's adventure and maybe a little bit of craziness mixed in through it all.

SY: And did he have siblings in Japan?

HK: Yes, I'm not even sure how many, but he had several, yes.

SY: And then did their families arrange the marriage? Is that how it happened?

HK: As far as I know it was an arranged marriage, yes.

SY: And you're not quite sure who was responsible or how it happened?

HK: Well, the parents... I guess my grandparents, my parents' parents, they knew both parties and they thought it would be an okay match, so that's the way it worked out.

SY: Did your mother ever talk to you about that whole arrangement and how she felt?

HK: Unfortunately, my Japanese is not very good and my mother's English is almost nil, so we had some problems in communication. But we did manage to talk a little bit about her experiences when she first came, and she does say it was a major adjustment to come here at a very young age to meet a man. And she arrived in San Francisco, and my father was waiting there at the port, and he was an agricultural worker, the farm work at the time. So my mother, I think it was in Watsonville up in northern California, she had to get up the next day and go out and work in the farm. [Laughs] So that was quite a rude awakening to life in the United States for her.

SY: I see. And she had not been working when she was in Japan?

HK: No, she came from what I understand, a fairly comfortable family, so that's even more surprising to me that she would've come at a young age to the United States.

SY: So your father originally, when he came, did he settle up in northern California?

HK: He was in San Francisco but he also went up to... of course, he stopped in Hawaii and worked there for a few years in the plantations, sugar plantations and then went to Alaska in the fisheries, did all kinds of work. And then to the northwest, the Seattle area where he chopped down trees where they cleaned out forests. And then eventually found his way down to California in the San Francisco Bay Area, a place called San Leandro, and there he started to farm.

SY: I see, so that's where he was when your mother came... arrived?

HK: Yes.

SY: And that's when they started their family?

HK: I don't know how soon they started the family, but I think it was fairly soon, yes. 'Cause we had... actually there are seven children, but there were two who were born earlier, but like a lot of Issei families, because of inadequate medical care, they would lose some of their children at an early age. So I had... actually they had nine children and two of them died at a very early age because of some kind of illness.

SY: That's amazing. So if we can sort of get an idea of timeframe, your father probably arrived around the early 1900s?

HK: Early 1900s, yes.

SY: And then your mother, do you remember when she came?

HK: No, but too much longer, but I'm not sure exactly how many years.

SY: 'Cause the "picture bride" thing was during a certain period?

HK: Yes, right.

SY: That was the only way the Japanese could come into this country. So then the two oldest children were the ones who passed?

HK: I believe so, yes.

SY: I see.

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