<Begin Segment 3>

TI: So let's, let's talk about your mother now. Where did she come from?

NH: Oh, now, that's a different story. Her father, my grandfather, was in the United States, and he was the eldest son of the Yamazaki family. But apparently he didn't want to stay in Japan, and he was, they were involved in agriculture, too, but not rice farming, it was something else. But whatever it was, I know it was agriculture. I think growing pear trees or something like that. And he came to the United States, and he left, he left everything to his younger brother, his younger brother, that would be my mother's uncle. And my mom grew up on the farm there in the same place, Fukuoka, and, but she was reared by her grandmother because when my mother was born, her mother died. And so Grandma, her, my mother's grandmother reared her in a very traditional way, and so she never went out, she never did anything, my mother didn't do anything. She had one duty, or chore, and that was to clean the wicks of the oil lamps, 'cause they didn't have electricity then. And her job was to take the oil lamps, clean the glass, trim the wick, and put it all together so it'd be ready for the evening, so they could light it in the evening, that was her one job. And everything else was to be a lady. [Laughs]

TI: So would you say then she was kind of raised to be a little more cultured, a little more...

NH: Oh, yeah. She went, they, she was sent to school. As I understand it, from where they lived on the farm, she walked to the train station, and then from the train station she went to, by train she went to Fukuoka city, went to school, came back on the train and went home every day, that was her job.

TI: So your, your mother's family, were they pretty wealthy?

NH: Yeah.

TI: They were landowners.

NH: They were landowners, yeah. They were landowners and they were quite wealthy.

TI: And so let me... so while this was happening, her father was in the United States.

NH: Yeah.

TI: And where in the United States was her father?

NH: Oh, my grandfather was in Tracy, in Modesto, and that area. And in Modesto or Tracy, he started a hotel business, which was fine. It was mostly a transient hotel, but anyhow, that's where he went. But by that time, of course, he had married a second, his second wife, would be my mother's stepmother, and they had several children. I don't remember them all, but they would be my uncles and aunts, and there were quite a few of them. I haven't kept track with them, but they're here, some of them are here, I mean, in the United States. But anyhow, my grandfather was in Modesto, and it was 1923 or thereabouts, and the exclusion act was to be enforced in 1924. So he said for my mother to come to the United States, otherwise she will never be able to join the family, and at that time she was nineteen years old. So my grandfather called my mother to Modesto, and she came and my father's family and my mother's family had a mutual friend from Fukuoka who knew both families. And he went to see my grandfather on my mother's side and says, "I have the perfect husband for her," for my mother. And so he arranged the marriage between my father and my mother, and they got married in Oakland.

TI: What a story.

NH: Yeah, and that's, they got married -- well, I was born in '26, and so they got married in '25, 1925.

TI: And how old, so your mom was about nineteen.

NH: She was nineteen.

TI: How old was your father?

NH: My dad was, at that time -- I haven't figured it out yet, let's see. He was born in 1989 -- 1889.

TI: And so 1926 around there, '26, so he was about thirty-seven.

NH: Yeah, yeah, thirty-five, thirty-six, thirty-seven, yeah.

TI: So he was almost, about eighteen years older than your mother?

NH: Yeah, yeah.

TI: So there's an age difference.

NH: Yeah, oh, there's a big age difference between the two of them.

TI: And when the person who arranged the marriage, they said, "I have a perfect husband," what would be the characteristics that would make a good husband for your, your mother?

NH: Whoever had a job. [Laughs] At that time, whoever had a good steady job and was earning money and came from a good family. "Good family" meaning in Japan it was a good family, and that was it. And I think that's...

<End Segment 3> - Copyright ©2008 Densho and the Topaz Museum. All Rights Reserved.