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MN: Today is Tuesday, February 7, 2012. We will be interviewing Setsuko Evelyn Izumi Asano at the Centenary United Methodist Church. We have Tani Ikeda on video, and I will be interviewing, my name is Martha Nakagawa. So Setsuko-san, I want to start with your father's name. What was his name?

SA: Kango Izumi.

MN: Now, which prefecture was he from?

SA: Yamaguchi-ken.

MN: Can you share a little bit about your father's early life? Like when did the come to the U.S., where did he land?

SA: 1919 is I think when he came to Hawaii, went to Honolulu. And he married there. From there he came to San Francisco.

MN: What was he doing in Hawaii?

SA: Working for the newspaper, Shingo?

MN: Hawaii Hochi?

SA: (Yes, it was Hawaii Hochi)

MN: (...) And then it was in Hawaii that he sent for a "picture bride," for your mother?

SA: Right.

MN: You said 1919. Was it 1919 or 1914 that he went to Hawaii?

SA: (...) So then he came to California in 1919 then. I don't know. I don't know why 1919 in my mind.

MN: It's okay. Yeah, I think he came to San Diego in 1919.

SA: Oh, okay.

MN: According to the book you put together.

SA: I did a lot of research.

MN: I memorized the book. Do you know what he was doing at this Hawaii newspaper?

SA: I have no idea.

MN: Okay. Let me ask a little bit about your mother. What was her name?

SA: (...) Hisa Wakimura.

MN: Now your mother was very unusual for her time. Can you share a little bit about her early life in Yamaguchi-ken? What was her education like?

SA: Well, she was well-educated, was a valedictorian in her class. She went to a nursing school, became a midwife. She came from a family of all boys.

MN: So she must have been a tomboy.

SA: I think so.

MN: Your mother was involved with the Russo-Japanese War. Can you share that story with us?

SA: According to her, she was... I have no idea, but around 1904. She liked gory things; it didn't bother her to see wounded soldiers. And she did share the fact that one of the soldiers, thinking that they would have a wound, instead it was a ruptured appendix. So she did help in that.

MN: So did your mother share that she actually went out into the battlefield or was she in the hospital?

SA: She was in the hospital as far as I know.

MN: So your mother is a very highly educated female. Did she share with you why she decided to get married to somebody in the United States?

SA: In those days, you did what the family said to do. She was called to go, and she was sort of an adventuresome lady. Decided, okay, I'll go. Not knowing who she was going to marry. She (was) a typical "picture bride," so she had a picture of him. And it's interesting, she'd tell me how he took his picture in his three piece suit in front of a beautiful house. She thought it was his house, and it wasn't. And he was very short. She imagined to see a taller young man.

MN: But those kind of things are kind of common during that time, huh?

SA: Common, right. I think so. Not knowing...

MN: Yeah, in front of somebody else's house, yeah.

<End Segment 1> - Copyright &copy; 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.