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TI: Okay, so after you were born you went to Japan.

YU: Japan.

TI: Okay. And then what happened in Japan?

YU: Well, my dad apparently decided that there was, he helped to get the farm and everything fixed up, I guess, and the home and everything. Yeah, so they started to look a little bit comfortable, and then my dad decided that that was not for him, so he decided to come back to United States. He left Japan and came back.

TI: I'm curious, when the three brothers returned to Japan, how did the rest of the family perceive them? I mean, did they come back as kind of the successful...

YU: They were received in that manner, that they were successful people that had gone out and made something of themselves. That is, that's what I hear.

TI: But then your father wanted to return to...

YU: He wanted to return to, he fixed up the family home and I think they bought a few acres around there, and so it made him look like a prosperous farmer.

TI: But he decided to move away from that? I mean, he had all that...

YU: He, but he decided that, after being in United States, he decided he wanted to come back and start all over again.

TI: How about his two other brothers?

YU: There was, his immediate brother came back with him, a younger brother came back with him, and the other did not come back.

TI: Okay. So when they returned to California, where did they go?

YU: They came back, first they landed in, I came with them, with my, not with my father but with my mother right after, and we landed in Tacoma, Washington. And from Washington, we came down to a place called Uplands, California, and that's by Pomona.

TI: Right.

YU: And he started a farm there.

TI: I'm curious, why was your point of entry Tacoma, Washington and not maybe Los Angeles or San Francisco?

YU: That is, that is something we, I've always wondered, because people have asked, said, "Well, didn't you come to Angel Island or San Francisco?" But I have not heard of any Japanese going to Angel Island. Most of everybody that I heard of went to Tacoma, Washington, whether it was because the country was supposed to go to Tacoma and the Chinese ships went to Angel Island, I don't know.

TI: Yeah, in the Northwest, Tacoma was a big entry point, but Seattle was also. People landed in Seattle, and also Port Townsend was another. Those were the three places that I hear about.

YU: Is that right?

TI: And I think earlier was more Port Townsend, but yeah, there was those three main places.

YU: But everybody I talk with said that it was Tacoma, Washington.

TI: Okay. But then you went to Uplands. For you, what, where were you when you had your first, like, childhood memories? Do you remember the Uplands? Or where was it?

YU: Well, I remember coming up, coming on the ship, and we were on the ship about twenty or thirty days, they said something like thirty days, but I had no idea. And the only thing I remember about it is my mother would say, yeah, go in and ask the stewardess, I guess, to see if we can have some hot water. And so I would go get some hot water in a pail and bring it back to her, so that's all I remember about the ship. And I don't even remember too much about getting to Tacoma, except that I had some apples that were given to me. [Laughs]

TI: And how old were you when you...

YU: I was four years old.

TI: Boy, that's still young. That's, that's...

YU: Four years. But the reason we came at that time was because of the Oriental Exclusion Act that was put in. In July you had to be, be here by either July 30th or July 1st or something like that, so we came on the ship to Tacoma.

TI: Because you had, your younger brother Henry, was he born in Japan?

YU: Yeah, he was born in Japan, but according to his birth certificate he was born in Calexico. So I think things were done a lot, well, screwy, you might say, and I guess you could register. Because midwives took care of a lot of the births, and sometimes they didn't register for a long time, so maybe that's what they told my, or my father told the registrar. So he's, he was registered as an American-born citizen.

TI: Okay. Interesting. So your father, your parents, decided it would be better for him to have a U.S. citizenship, then.

YU: That's right.

TI: For him to do that. Did you ever ask him why they did that?

YU: No. [Laughs] Actually, if I, if we were there probably a little older, there was a lot of questions we could've asked 'em.

TI: No, it's interesting because, so it sounds like your parents really were thinking that in the future California was gonna be their home. That, because if they thought they would return to Japan they might've, it might've been better for Henry to have been born in Japan.

YU: I think they came with the idea that this was gonna be permanent here.

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