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KL: It struck me when I was reading your narrative, that you know a little bit about your dad's immigration experience. What can you tell us about his decision to come to the United States and what it was like when he first arrived and how he got here, because that's pretty interesting, too.

MS: Yeah, well, he came with two of his brothers, and apparently they booked passage to San Francisco, but they got duped and they ended up getting dumped in Mexico. And not speaking either English or Spanish, they apparently would just point, ask people, they'd just say "San Francisco" and people would point them north. So they had no choice but to walk. And it took them two years to finally get to San Francisco. But apparently the natives also felt sorry for them, and they did feed them, give them some food. And quite a few of their meals, I'm sure, it was because of the natives taking pity on them. When they finally got to San Francisco, it was right after the earthquake, yeah, the 1906 earthquake.

KL: Did he give you ever a description of what San Francisco, what his impressions of San Francisco right after the earthquake were?

MS: Not to my knowledge. As I said, he was not very verbal with us. [Laughs]

KL: I was surprised to read that he came with his older brother, too, because oftentimes you hear that the oldest son often stayed in Japan. Do you know why all three brothers came together?

MS: We have no idea.

ST: Where'd you hear that? I thought he came by himself first.

MS: The three brothers.

ST: Yeah?

MS: Yeah, that's according to Chick, so I assumed he got the information from Mom. Tsumasaburo, I guess, was two years older than Dad, and then the other brother, I forget his name, was two years younger. I think Dad was like twenty-two when they came, and the older brother was twenty-four, and then the other one was nineteen.

ST: And where does Uncle Dick fit in?

MS: Oh, that was much later. He came much later, because he was the youngest... I think there was another brother somewhere also. I'm not quite sure how many kids there were. [Laughs]

KL: It sounds like you've mentioned five, at least five brothers.

MS: I think there were about five brothers, and I think there was a sister or two in there somewhere also. It's too bad we didn't really find out more about our ancestry from our parents when they were alive, and I'm sure that's what most people say now, you know. And here we are now, we're trying to document things we're not really quite sure of.

KL: Did you know those two uncles that came with your father? Did they stay in the U.S.?

MS: I wouldn't know, because one of 'em went back to Japan, and the older brother died, I think, in 1932 in an auto accident on the road going down to Half Moon Bay.

ST: Who was the shoemaker?

MS: I don't know. You're talking about something I don't know, because I didn't know we had a shoemaker in the family.

ST: Yeah. We had all his equipment, that's why I learned how to repair shoes.

MS: Oh, maybe that was him then, the one that passed away.

KL: It was one of your dad's brothers who was a shoemaker?

ST: Yeah, yeah.

MS: See, I'm learning things now I didn't know.

KL: Yeah, I know, it's great.

<End Segment 2> - Copyright © 2015 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.