<Begin Segment 2>

SY: So then I guess maybe we can use that same time period and talk a little bit about your mother and where she came from in Japan.

BW: Well, my mother was born in Long Beach, California, so my mother's parents came to California, I would imagine around 1910. And they were both, mother, my grandfather came and I guess my grandmother joined him a little bit after that, and then my mother is second oldest. The oldest was probably born about 1912, in California.

SY: And she, your mother's name again, can you give your mother's full name?

BW: So my mother's name is Katsuye Furuyama, Katsuye Furuyama.

SY: And her family was from what part of Japan?

BW: From Fukushima.

SY: Fukushima, so they were both, so your father's family was from...

BW: Fukushima.

SY: So they...

BW: They lived about, maybe twenty miles apart in Fukushima.

SY: And did their families know each other?

BW: I don't think so.

SY: There was no connection.

BW: No, they were both into farming and both from Fukushima.

SY: And do you know why her parents came here originally?

BW: To farm and make money.

SY: And do you know much about that, the grandparents on that side, like how they met, what their background was?

BW: No, I don't know how they met.

SY: So you just know that your mother was born here and they had already had an older child born here, in Long Beach.

BW: Right. They were farming in Long Beach by that time. And the flower, Japanese Flower Growers Association was forming around that same time, so I have a photo of my grandparents and -- on the Furuyama side -- with the mother, my grandmother holding my mother when she was just born, so this must, photo must've been taken around 1914. And then her older brother standing, and he must've been about two years old, and it was listed in the Japanese Flower Growers Association annual booklet. And that was just forming around that same time, so they were into the early flower growing business in Signal Hill and Long Beach.

SY: So that's where your mother was born, then, in that Signal Hill area?

BW: Right.

SY: Do you know if she was born in a, at home or in a hospital?

BW: I don't know. All I know is, my mother said that my grandfather neglected to register her birth with the county, so I would imagine maybe that meant she was not born in a hospital, maybe a midwife or something. So my mother was, would joke that she has two birthdays, when she was actually born and then when it was actually registered, which is like eight months apart.

SY: So you always celebrated two birthdays for her?

BW: So she would always joke that it was her birthday twice a year. [Laughs] Yeah.

SY: And can you talk a little bit about that Japanese flower market and the early beginnings of it, if, whatever you know about that?

BW: Yeah, so I'd heard that they were farming in Signal Hill, and of course, back then farming was still, flower farming was still kind of a growing business -- growing business, that's kind of funny. Anyway, it was still kind of expanding and people were trying different kinds of things, what's marketable. And so my grandfather had tried all kinds of different flowers, which could be grown, which could be sold, that kind of thing, and so they grew all kinds of different flowers and then they would take it to the downtown flower market. And an interesting story is, apparently, right where their farm is where, is where the Signal Hill oil boom took place, and so my mother clearly remembered that one day these people were building derricks right next to their farm. She didn't know what it was; it was just these tall things. And then as time passed, one day everything was covered in oil and it was a gusher, and so she remembers that the whole, everywhere around was covered in oil, including their flowers. So apparently their farm was kind of wiped out. They didn't have any rights, so they essentially packed up and left and moved back to Japan.

SY: That's what, what prompted them to go back?

BW: That's what I understand. They couldn't farm, really, with the oil, and they didn't own the land. They were leasing it. Of course, Japanese couldn't own land back then, anyway, which is too bad 'cause if they had owned the land I'd be rich right now. [Laughs]

<End Segment 2> - Copyright &copy; 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.