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TI: What's the date today? It's May...

Tani Ikeda: The 17th.

TI: 17th, 2012, Thursday. We're in San Jose at the Japanese American Museum of San Jose. On camera is Tani Ikeda, and I'm the interviewer, Tom Ikeda. And so Yosh, I'm gonna start with just a basic question. Can you tell me when you were born and where?

YU: Okay, I was born in Calexico, California, on April 1, 1920.

TI: And what was the name given to you at birth?

YU: Yoshihiro Uchida.

TI: And any significance to Yoshihiro?

YU: Well, my mother said that it was a good name. She said that Yoshi was after a warrior named Yoshi, Yoshi... I forgot. And Hiro is a wise man or a professor.

TI: So April 1, 1920, so you're ninety-two years old.

YU: That's right.

TI: Just recently turned ninety-two.

YU: I remember now, Yoshitsune, that was a warrior during the, during the feudal days.

TI: So this, kind of this warrior, but also this other side.

YU: The warrior, wise.

TI: Okay. And Calexico, I'm not familiar with that. Where is that located?

YU: Calexico is on the border of California and Mexico, and that's where my dad was farming. And so I guess it's called Calexico, and very few people know about it, except that that's what it says on my birth certificate. [Laughs]

TI: So I get it, so it's like a combination of California and Mexico.

YU: And Mexico, right. Right on the border.

TI: Right on the border. So you mentioned your father. Tell me your father's name and where he was from.

YU: His name is Shikazo Uchida, and he, both he and my mother are from, well they were from Kumamoto-ken.

TI: And how did the two of them meet?

YU: I think they were from the same village, and I think it was through a picture bride -- not picture bride but in the, what would you say? Like introduction.

TI: Like an arranged kind of marriage.

YU: Yeah, arranged, they were arranged, yes.

TI: So tell me why your father decided to come to America?

YU: Well, I found out that they were very poor, and as you know, in the Japanese family the oldest inherits everything. And there're about eight in the family, and the last three or something like that, they just said, "Well, you guys better do something." And so that's why they came to America, three of the brothers came together.

TI: Interesting. So the three youngest ones, essentially, because they had, the older ones had all the land or all the other...

YU: Yeah, the oldest one had the land, so they were...

TI: So they went together. And do you know about when they came to America?

YU: The closest I can figure out, talking with my mother, they were about 1898 or somewhere in that era.

TI: Good. So let's go to your mother. What was your mother's name?

YU: My mother's name was Suye, S-U-Y-E, Itoh, I-T-O-H.

TI: And tell me about her family. What did they do in Japan?

YU: Well, she was adopted, and her parents had died early and so she was adopted by the, her cousin or uncle or someone. And she didn't do much except work on the farm for these people. And she didn't, she said that she didn't, didn't get a chance to go to school or anything because they were all so poor.

TI: Okay. And do you know about when she came to America?

YU: She came in the early part of 1900.

TI: Okay, so early 1900s.

YU: Yeah.

TI: So your father came with his two brothers, and they were, sounds like they were farming.

YU: Right.

TI: And then he and your mother, they were kind of an arranged marriage, and then she came over.

YU: That's right.

TI: Do you know if your father went to Japan to marry her, or did she just come?

YU: No, she came by boat.

TI: Okay. So let's talk about your siblings. You were born in 1920 in Calexico. Tell me about your siblings, in terms of your oldest to youngest.

YU: My oldest brother is Sam, or Isamu, and he was five years older than myself. And then my sister, Kazuko, she's about three years, two to three years older than myself, and then I was in the, right in the middle. And then my younger brother, Henry, he was born in about 1923, I believe, and then George was, my youngest brother, was born in 1925 in Uplands, California.

TI: Wow, so four boys and one girl.

YU: That's right.

TI: So lots of boys. And I'm curious about your father's brothers. Did they have families also?

YU: Yes, they had families, and they lived, the family lived, all of 'em lived right together. And then in 1918 the World War I, well it had started earlier, but it ended in 1918, and during the war they had a dairy farm and they made cheeses and they made, sold milk, and apparently they did very well, so that in 1920, right after I was born, they decided that they wanted to go to, back to Japan because, one reason was that Imperial Valley, there's hardly any Japanese there and it's very isolated. So they thought they would go to Japan, and so they all sold the dairy and they went back to Japan.

TI: Well, so all three brothers?

YU: All three.

TI: Okay, so your father and the two brothers went back to Japan.

YU: Right.

TI: And so took the families with them?

YU: Took the family, right.

<End Segment 1> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.