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MA: Okay, so today is August 1, 2008, and I'm here with Chiyoko Yano. I'm Megan Asaka, the interviewer, and the cameraperson is Dana Hoshide. And we're at Mrs. Yano's house in Berkeley, California. So thank you so much for doing this interview with us. I really appreciate it.

CY: Well, thank you very much.

MA: So I wanted to start by asking when you were born.

CY: February 27, 1918.

MA: And where were you born?

CY: I was born in Oakland, California.

MA: And what was the name given to you at birth?

CY: Chiyoko Yoshii.

MA: And a little bit about your, your parents. What was your father's name?

CY: Kiyozumi.

MA: Kiyozumi?

CY: Yes, Yoshi. Kiyozumi Yoshii.

MA: And where was he from in Japan?

CY: His family is originally from Kochi, Japan, but his honseki, the home address, is known as Tokyo, Japan.

MA: And when did he, his family go from Kochi to Tokyo? What was that story?

CY: During the (Meiji era in Japan), he followed his, the lord from Kochi castle to the, the contingent went to Edo. And his Japanese address in Tokyo is same as was what was given to him at that time.

MA: And what were his motivations for coming to the United States?

CY: Well, originally, his, they were very... what do you call, outward. They felt that Japan should know the outside world, and so he decided to come to Brazil to buy Holstein cows to set up a dairy in Japan in Tokyo. So he set it up, right now, which is really the middle metropolis of Japan, but at that time it was just no-man's-land, and so that's where he started a farm. But then the Japanese people are lactate intolerant, and they don't drink milk as such. Only when you're, the few days before you're dying is the only time they could afford to drink milk, and so his business went bankrupt.

MA: So his business went bankrupt, and then was he looking to make money then in the United States?

CY: Yes. He was, he never expected to stay here. He came to make his fortune and return to Japan.

MA: And you were telling me that he was stuck in San Francisco during the great earthquake.

CY: Yes, (1906).

MA: And he had an interesting memory of that time. Didn't he have a particular job?

CY: Yes, well, his, he had carried dynamite, a box of dynamite, one box once a day, for one dollar a day.

MA: And was that to clear the rubble?

CY: Clear the rubble, uh-huh. They had to tear down the half-damaged buildings and things. So using dynamite, I guess, was the quickest way.

MA: But dangerous, I guess.

CY: Yes. And so he didn't know he was carrying dynamite, but if he carried one box from one place to another place, well, then that was, earned him one dollar a day.

MA: And how did he meet your mother?

CY: He, it was, in Japan in those days, there was no such thing as meeting. [Laughs] It was an arranged marriage by relatives. And it was arranged by a Mr. Shigenori Yoshii, his cousin.

MA: And was your mother also from Kochi-ken?

CY: No, my mother was from Saitama-ken. But now it's all the greater part of Tokyo.

MA: And what was your mother's name?

CY: Her name is Tsuya, T-S-U-Y-A, Yanai, Y-A-N-A-I.

MA: And what type of work did her family do in Japan?

CY: They were sake producers, and they made sake.

MA: And do you know how old she was when she married your father and then came over to the U.S.?

CY: Oh, she must have been about twenty-six.

MA: And so your, your parents married and then came over?

CY: Yes, they were married in Tokyo, Japan.

MA: And then settled in, in Oakland where you were born?

CY: Yes.

<End Segment 1> - Copyright ©2008 Densho and the Topaz Museum. All Rights Reserved.