<Begin Segment 4>

KL: Well, let's talk a little bit more about her. How did they decide to marry and how...

MS: Oh, that's typical of the old Japan, you know, you had to marry within your class and all this, so it was all prearranged. Well, they were, she didn't even meet him, she didn't even know him before they got married, because it was arranged when she was still a teenager. So she came in 1915. And she told us that the only thing she kept hoping was that he would be taller than her, because she was five feet three, and for a Japanese female at that time, that was tall. And so here he comes and he's only five feet one. [Laughs] So the only thing she wished for didn't happen. Yeah, she had a lot of funny stories to tell us.

KL: Yeah, what did she say about the trip? Did she ever talk about...

MS: Not really. I don't recall any discussion about... and I guess she was at Angel Island also, but I don't recall her ever mentioning anything.

ST: Never talked about it, no.

MS: All the picture brides. [Laughs]

KL: Did anyone else from her family come to the U.S.?

ST: Yeah. Her brother was in Mexico.

MS: Yeah, the Banditos got him. She talked about her brother that was in Mexico. Was it in Chihuahua?

ST: Well, I'm not sure where, but he disappeared.

MS: Yeah, she said the last time she heard from him, she said he had written, he found silver, and that was the last she heard. So they figured that he was killed for the silver. So I think that was the only brother that came this way, right?

ST: Yeah.

KL: Yeah, I need to do some reading, because I would love to better, have more knowledge of early twentieth century Mexican history, because it is closely tied, I didn't realize before I started working in Manzanar even, how closely tied to Japanese immigration Mexico is.

MS: Oh, really?

KL: Yeah, like your dad who came through there, and then that uncle. It was dangerous times, I think, in the Mexican countryside at that time.

MS: Oh, our father didn't intend to go there.

KL: But your mom came through Angel Island, and did she help in the embroidery shop?

MS: Oh, yeah. But they started having children right away because Mari was born, I think, about nine or ten months after she got here. So didn't wait.

KL: Oh, yeah, you had a funny story about her, about Mari and the embroidery shop. Would you tell that?

MS: Yeah. There was, I guess, a fancy dress that some lady brought in to have some embroidery work done, and it had, Mom called them diamond buttons, so I assume they were rhinestone buttons. But she had to remove them to do the embroidery work, and she had them put away. And when it came time to put the buttons back on, there was one missing. And I guess they looked all over for days and couldn't find it, and they didn't know what to do to replace it, because it would have to match the other buttons. So in the meantime she noticed that Mari was having some kind of problem with her nose, and so one day she finally took her and she looked in, went like that, and out came the missing diamond button. [Laughs] They probably didn't tell the lady that it was stored up her nose all that time. Yeah, Mom had all kinds of funny stories.

KL: Yeah, are there other stories about your parents' lives in San Francisco that stand out in your memory? That pool hall one is a great story.

MS: The one about the eggs, going shopping for eggs?

ST: The what?

MS: The egg story. Remember Mom told us about... I think it was one of the sisters-in-law, she wanted eggs, and not being able to speak English, they went to a non-Japanese store and she couldn't find the eggs. And I guess she went to the clerk and she tried to explain what she wanted, and he didn't understand. So Mom said it was so hilarious because she went through this whole routine. And in Japanese, it's not called "cluck, cluck," it's more like "ka ka ka ka." And she said she squatted down and she was going like this and making this noise, and then she'd go, "uh-uh-uh," like this, like she's catching an egg. And she said it was so funny to watch her. But apparently the guy caught on, I'm sure he was laughing, but he found her the eggs. You remember any other stories she told?

ST: Not really.

MS: Oh, you remember that one.

ST: Now that you mention it, yeah.

MS: She was pretty good at telling stories.

KL: Where did they live in San Francisco?

ST: Otsego street.

MS: Yeah. It's where Balboa High School is right now, so it's in the south end of town, just below the Mission district, also very close to City College. But prior to that, after they left the embroidery business, they first went to Isleton, which is up in the river country.

KL: Let me actually ask, Larisa knows San Francisco and the Bay Area history more than I do. Did you have any questions about their time in San Francisco?

LP: Did either of your parents ever talk about why San Francisco in particular is where they wanted to go, like what caused them to want to come over and immigrate?

MS: I imagine that's...

ST: Because of his business.

MS: ...primary reason, place that most of them were coming to. And I remember Mom saying that they heard stories that the streets were lined with gold, and in her mind she actually pictured that they really were lined with real gold. So I guess in Japan that sounded like the place to go, the opportunity to make a living was good. When they started their farming, they first went to Isleton, and is that where Nij was born?

ST: Yeah.

MS: Because Mari and then Kazuichi. Kazuichi was the second born, and he died as an infant, so then it was Nij, so I think he was in Isleton. And then shortly after that they moved to Mandeville Island, and that was where Ack was born, my brother Ack was born.

ST: Everybody was born different times.

KL: Yeah. Say that brother's name again who was born there?

MS: The first one, well, it's Nij, but his actual name was Yoneji.

KL: And you called him Nij?

MS: Yeah. We all had nicknames. [Laughs]

<End Segment 4> - Copyright © 2015 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.