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SY: And they, these grandparents were on your mother's --

NG: My mom's side, yeah. Because my dad, first I thought that he, his mother died in childbirth, but it was when he was two years old his mom died and then at ten, that's when his dad died, so he just did not have family. I mean, he had, I think, like, I don't know if they were like first... in the story they call him Uncle, but I don't know if it was really his uncle that he stayed with when, after his dad died.

SY: When he was a baby.

NG: Yeah. Well, when his mom died he would, his dad would go to work and then they had, like, these hotels or something where he would leave them there, Japanese run places, and they would babysit, take care of him I guess. And then when he got old enough, then the father took him to work with him.

SY: I see, and this was in Los Angeles?

NG: Yeah, I think he said Lodi. I'm not quite sure.

SY: So you're really closest to your Mom's, Mom's family.

NG: Yeah.

SY: So I guess we should stick with them for a while, and maybe you can tell me a little bit more about what, do you... can you go over again, now, your grandfather came directly to Los Angeles from Japan?

NG: Yes.

SY: And what was he doing when he came here? Do you know?

NG: Yeah, I think they're all like truck farmers.

SY: Truck farmers. So he came, you think, by himself?

NG: Well no, my, I'll refer to my daughter's story. They had, like, partnerships. There was another family name here that kind of, they couldn't own land, but they could lease it. 'Course, they, during the years they lose that, but at the beginning they're able to lease land, and together with another farmer they grew crops and made a good living, I guess.

SY: And this was where when he first came?

NG: Yeah, so they, it looks to me like they were in... [Looks at notes]

SY: This is, I'm going to mention that this a paper that your daughter did when she was in college.

NG: Yeah.

SY: And her professor was Yuji Ichioka.

NG: Right, right.

SY: And so she did a family, it's basically a paper about your family background.

NG: Yes. Well, they say here Moneto? No, Moneta. Do you know Moneta? California?

SY: It's a town in California?

NG: Yeah.

SY: Sounds like it might be in the valley, one of the farm valleys maybe. I'm not sure.

NG: Yeah, they were truck farmers growing vegetables it says.

SY: Okay. So he, was she able to interview your grandfather to get this information?

NG: No. He was gone.

SY: He was gone.

NG: Yeah.

SY: But she managed to find out more about what they did. And when your grandmother came, then I assume she just...

NG: Worked with him.

SY: And do you know if they had siblings, how many siblings they had in Japan?

NG: I don't know about my grandfather, but my grandmother did. She's the only one that came to the United States. I know she has sisters; I don't know about brothers. But she definitely, she had one sister in Brazil, because I remember -- and they were very poor. My grandmother used to send money to that sister. And I remember seeing, maybe it was, her daughter maybe that got married, so here's this picture, she's in a white dress and they're out, like, in the farm. I mean, outside on a farm, country, this wedding picture. And then she had a sister, I know, in Japan. So she, they, she did make trips back to see them.

SY: Do you remember the date -- you said she was twenty when she came to the United States, do you remember --

NG: Yeah, nineteen, was that, 1912.

SY: 1912. That's really, and then your, so, and your grandfather must've come...

NG: Yeah, early, came earlier. I don't have the date here. Oh, 1907. Yeah, 1907, 'cause he first began working for the railroad, it says. He had been recruited -- I guess he was in Hawaii still.

SY: So he stopped over in Hawaii before he came to this, to the coast.

NG: Yeah, he must've been of -- well, she, they had those contract laborers, so he was probably there for that.

SY: And then she came to Hawaii before that.

NG: She was just born in Hawaii.

SY: Right. That's right, so their parents were there before that.

NG: Yeah.

SY: But then they went back to Japan.

NG: Right.

SY: I see. So she doesn't have any recollection of Hawaii.

NG: No. No.

SY: She was a baby when they went back to Japan.

NG: Right.

<End Segment 2> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.