Densho Digital Repository
Densho Visual History Collection
Title: Helen Takeshita Interview
Narrator: Helen Takeshita
Interviewer: Brian Niiya
Location: Emeryville, California
Date: March 13, 2019
Densho ID: ddr-densho-1000-471-1

[Correct spelling of certain names, words and terms used in this interview have not been verified.]

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BN: Okay, we are here in Emeryville on March 13, 2019, and we're interviewing Sumako Helen Takeshita. My name is Brian Niiya and I'll be doing the interviewing, and Dana Hoshide is doing the videography. So thank you, Mrs. Takeshita, for joining us and for talking about your experiences. And as we often do, I wanted to start by asking you about your parents, and in particular, since your father was the one who came from Japan, if you could start by talking about him. Tell us his name and what you know about...

HT: My father, Denichi Akashi, and he was... what was it now? What's the name of it, I can't even remember it now. (Narr. note: Printer.) But then he was, his father and parents, I think, died early, and he was living with his older brother or something like that, he didn't get along, and he ran away from the thing, and he got onto a boat, one of those ships in those olden days, and he got on there, and it's a... not American, I don't know what it was, American, but it was on a ship and they used him to work on the ship, and he went here and there and everywhere. And what happened was, when he was on the ship, and they said that the war was going to start, so you have to get off the ship and get off at San Francisco, says, "There are Japanese, and then you could just get off," and that's how my father stopped in San Francisco, and he never returned to Japan, he never did. So that was his life.

BN: Now, with the war, was this World War I?

HT: Yeah, was it World War I? Maybe it's World War II, huh?

BN: What year was he born?

HT: Gee, I don't even know, because I'm eighty-four. (10/22/1901). But that's what I remember, and he came to San Francisco and he was doing sumo and wrestling and all that kind of stuff, but then he got married to my mother in San Francisco and were active in the Konko church.

BN: Do you know what he did to make a living?

HT: Yeah, he worked for a Japanese... what was he doing? What was it, one of those, not a store or anything, it was... gee, I can't identify it. But it was a Japanese company that he worked for. That's how little, I'm getting forgetful about... but it was always in Japantown. (Printer at Nichi Bei Times.)

BN: Then you mentioned, I know he was very active with the Konko church, was that something from Japan?

HT: No, Fukuda-sensei came from Japan, him and his wife came from Japan, and at first he had a little house and then he had, he was doing all that, but he became really good friends with my father. And as the church became bigger and bigger, my father was very active in helping him physically. He was very handy, handyman, and he was always very close to the Fukuda-sensei there, that built the church, which is really, really nice right now, to this day, Fukuda-sensei.

BN: But it's something that he, they met here, he didn't know them before?

HT: No, they met in San Francisco. We were very active in the Konko church, even to this day.

BN: And then you mentioned your mother was actually Nisei?

HT: Yes, she was Nisei.

BN: How did they meet?

HT: I sort of wonder, you know, because he didn't have a real job, kind of stuff, because he's an "illegal," right? And then my mother is a Nisei, I think her father was a farmer or something like that, and she was born here.

BN: Do you know where she was from?

HT: I thought she was more southern, not real south, but then he was... what was it? Not Sacramento, but he was lower than San Francisco.

BN: Kind of a farm, rural?

HT: Or something like that, yeah. I forget what it was. Those are the things I'm really forgetful now.

BN: You mentioned your father was, came over illegally, but was that, did he freely talk about that? I mean, that was something that everyone, I mean, he told the kids and so forth?

HT: Yeah, we all knew about it.

BN: Did that affect him in any way that you know of?

HT: He never wanted to go to Japan even as we got older, and (my) sisters were going to go to Japan and wanted to know if my father wanted, he never wanted to return to Japan. I think he had bad memories of Japan.

BN: So later on, I mean, after the war, Issei could become citizens and so forth. Did he...

HT: He never did.

BN: He probably would have, might have had a hard time.

HT: Yeah, but he never, I don't know.

BN: Interesting.

<End Segment 1> - Copyright © 2019 Densho. All Rights Reserved.