<Begin Segment 2>

SY: So let's go back then and talk a little bit about your parents. Can you tell about your father, start with your father and his family, where he was from?

NS: Well, my father is from a place in Fukuoka, but I don't really know the name of the place. But I went to Japan, but I've forgotten the name of the... it's in the, way in the south, I guess, the end of Japan before they go to another ken. They had a ken, what they call ken, I guess, in Japan, different town. I guess it was a city or a town.

SY: Was it Kyushu?

NS: Uh-huh.

SY: That was the city?

NS: That's the... Kyushu is the place that people live in, it's a town, I guess you would say, just like when we say Dominguez Hills.

SY: So that's the town.

NS: That's the town.

SY: And he had a family, a big family in Japan?

NS: Uh-huh. He was a young boy, I guess, from Japan. He started... I guess he really was a young boy, so what he did with the father I don't know. I guess farming, probably, that he started. In Japan they had to do farming to make a living. I don't think they had a store or anything like that.

SY: So he had brothers and sisters, do you know whether your dad had brothers and sisters in Japan?

NS: Yes, they did, but they all were in Japan.

SY: So he was the only one?

NS: He was the only one in America.

SY: And do you know when he came to America?

NS: I really couldn't... I wish I knew. But...

SY: And do you know, do you have any idea why he came?

NS: Well, because so many people are poor in Japan, so he heard of going to America. This is where he heard about everybody going to America to live because it's a beautiful country they said. And so my father decided he wanted to come too as a young man, and he wanted to explore the place, and so he said, one day he told his parents that he was going to go to America. I think, well, according to my father, he said he didn't want to take responsibility, the parents didn't want to take responsibility, so it was up to him to go to America, that they're not going to do anything about it because they're not gonna be there. So he was a brave man that came out by himself to America. He landed in San Francisco, I think that's what he said, at that time.

SY: And when he first came here, that's when he started farming?

NS: No, not in Dominguez Hills. I mean, in San Francisco, that's where he was, landed. And so then after that, he came to Los Angeles, and then he heard of the farming land, so then that's when he started farming in Dominguez Hills.

SY: And your mother, was she...

NS: Well, she was, she came later, later in America. So then they met through, I guess like a fixed marriage I guess you'd call it.

SY: Arranged?

NS: Arranged marriage, uh-huh.

SY: And they met in Japan?

NS: No, they met in America, yeah.

SY: So how did that happen? Who was the person who fixed, who arranged the marriage?

NS: Well, I mean, I guess they must have had friends in... I mean, Japanese people all had all these people, they called it baishakunin or something like that. And so they arranged it.

SY: So it wasn't his family, but it was more a friend.

NS: Friend, I think it was his friend, or met a friend or something through people coming to America. It's not just one person, there were so many came there all at one time. So that's how my father said that's how they...

<End Segment 2> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.