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TI: Okay, so let's transition to the other side. Let's talk about your mother's side and why don't we start with your, again, your grandfather Nakayama. So tell me about him a little bit.

JG: Oh, he was a very interesting man.

TI: First, tell me his name?

JG: Boy, now I'm doing... okay, Yeizo Nakayama. Anyway, he was born I think in Gifu and his family, his father was a lawyer, his first... his older brother became a judge in Tokyo. He was born in... my grandfather, Yeizo, was born in I think 1861. And he was trained as a pharmacist and he had, I think, two sisters and another brother and they were well-educated people. The father I think was associated with the council that helped the government. So anyway, what I did find about that family is that being the fourth son he did not... he was more of a dreamer. When he was by Lake Biwa where he settled he met a man called Joe Niijima who is a very popular figure in Japanese Christian history. This man at the time of the Admiral Perry was a youth and he was interested in the Americans so he boarded an American ship, snuck on, and he went to United States and was befriended and supported by an American Christian minister. He lived with that family and was trained at Andover and became, went from Andover to... I'm trying to think of that university that's connected with it but... anyway I'll go on to say he became the first Japanese that was ordained at an American seminary back east. But returned to Japan and helped the prince because he spoke fluent English. And so he also founded Kyoto University.

TI: What an extraordinary man.

JG: So anyway, my grandfather met him and was so impressed by him that they became friends and he gave up his career as a pharmacist. And apparently he was so influenced by him that he went and as a student... had a student visa in the early 1880s, went over and whether he was a student in the Boston area or was he just visiting the university, he was so impressed that he came back to Japan and when he met my grandmother... he must have been a missionary, I mean, selling bibles, I don't know.

TI: But your grandfather went all the way to the East Coast.

JG: That's right.

TI: So it wasn't the West Coast but he went all the way to the East Coast.

JG: Because of Joe Niijima and his Andover connections, you know.

TI: And at this point do you know if your grandfather knew much English?

JG: He must not have but I mean through Joe he must have done something because... so he decided he wants to live there. This was his dream. Anyway, through Joe and he met my grandmother and that was at Nagoya and my grandmother was a student at the Golden High School or something. It was started by two missionaries in 1889 and it later became this university which I cannot remember at this very moment. But anyway, it was founded in 1889 and I looked it up but cannot remember the name right at this moment.

TI: What's your grandmother's name?

JG: Her name, Tsuna, T-S-U-N-A, Asai Nakayama. So anyway they met and married later and introduced by the missionaries and Joe. And they came to the United States. He came earlier but they were married and she came in 1894. And this was an interesting find because it was through research. I emailed the National Archives in San Francisco and this crackerjack researcher helped me and I told her I would like her to look up anything she could on my grandmother and she actually found the ship my grandmother came on. I was thrilled to pieces and that particular ship years later was the "Titanic of the West Coast." The Rio de Janeiro and there is a monument to it in San Francisco by the... well anyway it's over there in San Francisco.

TI: And why was it called the "Titanic of the West Coast"?

JG: Because it sank and many people died.

TI: Okay.

JG: You could look it up on the internet.

TI: Okay, yeah, no I'm curious.

JG: It was a fascinating story.

<End Segment 4> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.