<Begin Segment 5>

TI: But I was curious, about when did your mother come?

CH: Then she came around 1916 or something like that.

TI: So about ten years younger.

CH: Yeah, my dad had to work real hard to send money over to get her. And I'm sure he saved every penny that he could make.

TI: Back then, when he sent for your mother, what do you think his plans were? Was his plans to keep working and stay in America or to make enough money to go back to America? Back to Japan.

CH: I always wonder about that, too, because, you know, majority of them, I know that they came over to make money to go back to Japan, or send it back, send money to the folks back home. But I don't know, my dad decided to... I guess a lot of the men were doing that, because my aunt came over, too. Not together, but in separate occasions. The Kondos and Nittas, and they all, I'm sure they all decided to stay. I think they felt there was some future, I mean, there was enough work, and they could work on the orchard, and they could probably start a family. Because they were, the housing was pretty, I mean, they got to be living in a house, which was a part of the, when you work in a orchard, I mean, they always supplied your house. I know my dad, we have a picture of when I was little, right in front of this house, and I remember that house, too.

TI: So this was a house for the workers?

CH: Yeah, but it was a nice house. Of course, it didn't have indoor toilet, but it had running water.

TI: And these were housing that were supplied by...

CH: Supplied by owner, uh-huh. And I remember it was right next to a chicken house, and a horse barn, because everything was horses in those days. Of course, outdoor toilet.

TI: You mentioned so you're about 1916, your mother came.

CH: My mother came over, uh-huh.

TI: And you said that she was maybe a little disappointed that she had to live in a tent?

CH: Well, at the very beginning, yeah. He was still in a tent. And I don't know just when the transition came about, but he did live, he did find work with this, this Callison family, and they supplied the house. And I remember that house, well, I saw pictures of it. But I do kind of vaguely remember that house.

TI: And I'm curious, any other stories from your mother about what it was like when she first came to America?

CH: Yeah, well, I remember my dad saying that all she had on was kimonos, you know. So the minute she got off the boat and in San Francisco, he took her and bought some Americanized clothes, I guess skirt. So we have pictures, I have picture of her in a serge suit, because I remember when I was little, my sister and I used to wear, play in them. And we were playing.

TI: So these were clothes that your father had bought for your mother?

CH: For Mother, and she had it hanging in the closet, and she hardly ever wore it after that. So it's a serge, navy blue jacket and a skirt, real tight, skinny. And then kind of flared skirt, and then shoes were button-up shoes that came up to the button, and we had to take a button hooker and go in and get the button and then go through the hole and lace it all up. That was the kind of shoes that she wore.

TI: It sounds very stylish.

CH: Oh, yeah, well, he wanted her to wear American clothes. And a blouse that was a real thin lacy veil, and I remember my sister and I used to play in that.

TI: Now any stories about how your father bought these clothes, how he knew what to buy?

CH: No. I imagine he took her to a store and just said, "Put her..." they probably charged him for everything. They were nice material, I remember playing in there.

TI: Now when your mother arrived in San Francisco, do you know if she went through Angel Island, is that the immigration center? I'm trying to figure out if that was Angel Island back then, or if she went directly to San Francisco.

CH: Yeah, they didn't say anything about Angel Island. It looked like the boat came into San Francisco Bay.

TI: Because a lot of times at some point they would have the immigrants first go to Angel Island and be processed there before they would go to San Francisco, so I was just curious.

CH: I don't recall him saying anything about Angel Island. I never heard of Angel Island.

TI: And your mother never talked about it?

CH: Uh-uh.

TI: And so you mentioned earlier your mother and father came from the same village.

CH: Uh-huh, yeah.

TI: Tell me a little bit about your mother's family. What kind of work did they do?

CH: Same thing, I mean, farm. Oh, my mother talked about silkworms. They were, she said... it sounded like they made their material, and she said they take their material, the silk material, and they put color on it. And in order to let the color set, you float it down a river and get that cold water to just, hang on to that silk material, and let that cold water set that color. I remember her telling us about that. So they made their own cloth from silk thread.

TI: How interesting. Wouldn't you love to figure out how they did that?

CH: Yeah, I wonder how they did that. But I know she did mention something about her sister taking that, it got loose, and it floated down the river and they were chasing it on the side of the river to get down, and then he grabbed that cloth. But it was to set the color.

TI: And do you know how many sisters and brothers your mother had?

CH: Gosh, they just talked to, just mentioned about a sister, older sisters. No, I don't know.

<End Segment 5> - Copyright © 2014 Densho. All Rights Reserved.