Densho Digital Archive
Densho Visual History Collection
Title: Frank K. Omatsu Interview
Narrator: Frank K. Omatsu
Interviewer: Sharon Yamato
Location: Los Angeles, California
Date: October 24, 2011
Densho ID: denshovh-ofrank-01-0001

<Begin Segment 1>

SY: Okay, hi. Today is October 24, 2011. We're at Centenary United Methodist Church in downtown Los Angeles. And I'm Sharon Yamato, we're talking today with Frank Omatsu, and on camera is Tani Ikeda. So, Frank, like to start off talking a little bit about your family history, if we might. Can you just tell us a little bit about where your parents are from and how they met?

FO: Yes, okay. My dad is from Shizuoka and my mother is from Tokyo. And my dad, my dad left Japan and went to Hawaii, and he worked there for a while and then he came over to Los Angeles, and he got to know Reverend John Yamazaki, who's the founder of St. Mary's.

SY: Of St. Mary's Episcopal Church.

FO: Episcopal Church, yeah.

SY: Here in Los Angeles.

FO: In Los Angeles. And when the exclusion act was gonna be, what do you call it, and in fact, all these single people went back to Japan to get their, get married and bring their wife over and stuff like that. So my dad went to look for a bride, and he ran into Reverend Yamazaki in Tokyo. And from what I understand, Reverend Yamazaki asked him, "What are you doing here in Tokyo?" He says, "I'm looking for a bride." So he says, "Hey, I might know somebody." So he introduced my dad to my mother's family, and her father asked her, "If you get married to this man, would you go to the United States?" and she says, "Yes." So Reverend Yamazaki married them in Tokyo, I believe, and my mother and my dad came back to the United States.

SY: And your father's name?

FO: My dad's name was Fred Ichinosuke Omatsu. My mother's name is Clara Sato Hashizume Omatsu, and she's from Tokyo. And she's from a pretty prominent family, and the fact that most of her family were medical people. My dad's family was farmers. So he came to Hawaii right before the... or right after, I don't know exactly when, but in the Russo-Japanese War.

SY: Wow, very early.

FO: Yeah.

SY: It must have been in the early 1900s.

FO: Yeah. So he was in Hawaii and then he came here to the United States, and then he met Grandpa Yamazaki.

SY: So where was it that he ended up in when he came to the States, the mainland?

FO: He came, he was in L.A.

SY: So from Hawaii he came directly to L.A. And in Hawaii, do you know exactly what he did when he farmed?

FO: I'm not sure exactly what he did, but it had to do something with produce. I know I've seen pictures of him, he had produce trucks and produce boxes, so he must have been in the produce business.

SY: And this was in Honolulu?

FO: I guess so. I guess so, it must have been Honolulu.

SY: So he was there maybe how long, do you think?

FO: I don't know.

SY: You don't know.

FO: He never said anything.

SY: Uh-huh. But now, when he came to Los Angeles, then he ended up in the area where...

FO: Yeah, Uptown, where Grandpa Yamazaki had a church. That was the beginning. Grandpa Yamazaki got all these bachelors and he started a church, a place where they can all gather, evidently.

SY: I see.

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