Densho Digital Archive - Rose Tanaka Interview (denshovh-trose

<Begin Segment 2>

AL: Do you know your grandparents' names in Japan?

RT: Yes. My father's was Hanawa, of course, which was a family name, and they lived in Chiba-ken in Japan. Actually, I discovered quite a bit later on, in fact, only about ten or fifteen years ago, about my mother's background. I always wondered why she had a strange last name, and it was Zoza, Z-O-Z-A. And I knew she had some relatives there, she was one of many children. She had one sister who became a "picture bride" also in Hawaii, and another who went to Brazil, and I've never met those aunts. And my mother, of course, came to the United States and married my father. And I don't know if you want me to go into the Zoza part.

AL: Yeah, I'd like to get as much of a, we'd like to get as much as a background as we can on your history, so that's fine. Yeah, just whatever you can tell us is great.

RT: Well, I'd never heard the name Zoza before, I mean, among any of the other people, and even Hanawa was not a very common name. But a few years ago when a second cousin from Japan got in touch with me, and she sent a family history. And it turns out that over a thousand years ago, my mother was born from the family of Michizane Sugawara, and he was deified in Japan back in, before a thousand, 1000, he had been high up in the government and he had been thrown out by the ruling party. And after he died, there were all these storms that occurred in Japan, and they decided that his spirits were punishing Japan. [Laughs] And so they deified him, and I think I mentioned his name was Michizane Sugawara, and they started building shrines. He was a scholar of Chinese literature. And so he was banished to Kyushu island and he was down there. And he had a son named Zouzake, and Zouzake got shortened to Zoza, and then over the centuries, and thousands and thousands of descendants, my mother was in that, still in that line, and so she continued to have the name Zoza. [Laughs] It was kind of interesting to me that that's where the name came from.

AL: Can you spell the name, the first and last name, or the two names, of the man who was deified?

RT: Sugawara was his full last name. S-U-G-A-W-A-R-A. And Michizane, M-I-C-H-I-Z-A-N-E.

AL: Okay. You didn't know you were gonna be in a spelling bee today, huh? Oh, Arnold and Rosie told me you were the smartest girl in the class, so I figure...

RT: That's a lot of baloney. [Laughs]

AL: And so they became known as Zoza.

RT: Zoza, the family name became Zoza.

AL: How many people were in your mother's family? How many brothers and sisters did she have?

RT: She had a lot, but I really don't know the exact number. Seven, eight or nine, and they were very clannish, so they would adopt their nieces and nephews and that kind of thing. So I do have a whole list of things that this second cousin sent me, but I didn't memorize any of that.

AL: Would it be possible to get copies of any of that that you feel is relevant to your background?

RT: You really think that's relevant?

AL: You know, that's the kind of thing someone else could decide if they're looking for something. But any of those things we're interested in.

RT: I have not shared this information with many people.

AL: Okay.

RT: When I tell my kids about that, they say, "Oh, there are millions of people in Japan, they all say they're related to Michizane," so it doesn't really mean that much.

AL: Well, you know, I think it does in the sense that regardless of whether it's historically, quote, "accurate," it's how your family sees itself and its heritage. What is your mom's name, first and last name?

RT: Asa.

AL: A-S-A?

RT: Asa Zoza was her name.

AL: And I think we have her birthdate on the roster, but just for this interview, do you know when and where she was born?

RT: Well she was born in Kyushu, Japan, and Kumamoto-ken. You want the spelling of that? I'm sure you know that, K-U-M-A-M-O-T-O.

AL: Yeah, because I'm not going to be the one transcribing this, so that's helpful to whoever is.

RT: Well, that's commonly known.

AL: Yeah, Kumamoto. Do you know her parents' names?

RT: No, it's written down on that family record that was given to me, but I just don't pay any attention to... at my age, it's too much to remember. [Laughs]

AL: Do you know what her family's occupational and religious background was in Japan?

RT: Well, I think they were Buddhist Shinto. My father was Shinto. She converted to becoming a Southern Baptist in the U.S. [Laughs]

AL: I'm sure there's a story behind that, so we'll definitely keep to that. And you said she had two sisters who were "picture brides"?

RT: Yes.

AL: Did she have any brothers?

RT: Not that I know of, so who knows. I don't know.

AL: Do you know what her educational background was in Japan?

RT: She just had a sixth grade education. My father had an eighth grade education, which was, at that time, was considered as much as anybody had there, were considered educated.

AL: What about your father's background? His name, his parents, their family background?

RT: My (grandfather) was not very well. They had a farm in Chiba-ken, and it sounded like his mother did most of the work on the farm, or took care of the farm. His father made, was a barrel maker, you know, the barrel's very useful in having soy sauce, it's the kind of thing everybody had to have, and were used for, as containers. So he was a container builder, I guess.

AL: And do you know his parents' names?

RT: Not offhand.

AL: Okay. What was his name?

RT: Shintaro, S-H-I-N-T-A-R-O was his first name, Hanawa, H-A-N-A-W-A.

AL: And do you know where he was in the family as far as the youngest son, oldest son, middle son?

RT: I think he was the oldest. Back in those days, they tended to send their oldest child, it was their responsibility to save them. It was a period of poverty in Japan, and that was why we had, as I understand it, a large group of immigrants from Japan to the United States, because they were to come here and earn a fortune and ship it back. [Laughs] But that didn't happen. I think they did send back money as much as they could, but once they got here they wanted to stay here. Some people did go back.

AL: It's interesting, 'cause I know a number of people whose fathers and uncles came because they were not the oldest, because the oldest sometimes stayed in Japan and inherited the family home and business, and therefore these guys came because they didn't have any prospects.

RT: Oh, yes, there are different stories, too. Yeah, there are some where their parents said, well, he's a good-for-nothing, let's get rid of him. [Laughs] But there are different aspects. He may have been the second son. A lot of times the second son, as you say, might have been the one who got sent here.