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RP: Your father, can you give us a portrait of him physically and personality-wise?

GK: Well, yes. My father, since he lost his mother when he was fourteen, his father remarried and that's when he decided to come to America. And he was nineteen at the time, in the year 1900, and he was a slight man. I think he must have been, I would say, maybe 5'5", but he was thin, on the thin side, had high cheekbones, and a short crew cut. And he was a gentle man, but he was also strict. He was strict. I think up to me -- I'm the sixth child -- from the top up to me, I think he was a lot more stricter than... my younger sisters, I felt like, got away with more. I think he kind of mellowed out, and so he wasn't as strict with them, maybe, I don't know. But anyway, that's the way it seems, yeah.

RP: Can you give us his, his full name?

GK: His full name is Taneji Koshio.

RP: Where in Japan did he...

GK: He came from Fukuoka. Fukuoka, island of Kyushu, I think.

RP: Do you recall how much education he had in Japan?

GK: You know what? I don't think he had much education because he couldn't read or write. My mother said that when he was supposed to be going to grammar school, his mother would make him lunches and he would play hooky and go fishing, but then he'd always come home at the right time, and so I don't know what happened. He didn't learn to read or write, but I think it was always a handicap for him, because I always remember that Mother would read -- there was a Japanese newspaper that came from Denver, and whenever they were getting along, he would sit alongside of her and she would read him the newspaper. But if they'd been in a fight, he'd sit next to her, and she read to herself. [Laughs] And then when things were okay, she was reading, you know, she'd read the newspaper to him again. But he did sign our report cards, I remember his name was Tom T. Koshio, you know. He did, he did sign our report cards, and he did look at our report cards and made sure that our grades were good. And signed our excuses if we were absent from school, but that was about the only time that I remember him writing in English and never saw him write Japanese. But I think my mother was very good with that. And because he didn't know how to read or write, she always took care of things. And I remember when they would come out for donations to the church, they would always have this sheet of paper with the name of the person and how much they donated. And so Mother would always stand behind my dad and she would read that to herself, and she'd always say, "I think this is how much we should give," and it was probably right down the middle of the road. So I'm not, I'm pretty sure that other people didn't realize that he couldn't read or write, 'cause Mother always took care of that, and I always admired her for that. That was such a good thing.

RP: When your, when your dad's, your dad and his parents came over to America, where did they first settle?

GK: Oh, I think my dad came, I think, to Seattle. This is where he came, and he worked along the coastline, went down into California, and I remember him saying that he would go and work for food. And when I see signs now where they have little sign, "Will work for food," I think, "This is exactly what my dad did." And he would work at a place enough so that he would be fed, and then he'd go, if they didn't have, I'm sure he stayed there as long as he was needed. But once that was done, then he'd go on to the next place. He worked alongside all the way through, down in California, I think, and then he worked on the railroad. And he would say, a lot of times, he would get, he called it dango, dango means a dough, dango is like, like, well, dough, I think. And they would make... what do I want to say, dumplings, okay, dumplings. And he said by the time he got to where he could eat, there was nothing left but the broth. He never got the dumplings, 'cause everybody before him would eat. And so he ate a lot of broth, he said, and that's what he lived on a lot of the time.

RP: He worked in, he worked on the railroad in California?

GK: In California, uh-huh, and I think, I'm not sure how long he worked on it, but I think when the, whenever the tracks met, then he came to Grand Junction. And I'm not sure why he chose Colorado, but he said that when he came to Grand Junction, he saw the mesa up there, but they also had a band. And they were playing, the band was playing and he, and I don't know how many other Japanese fellows came with him, but he said they were wondering what the band was all about, and they told him that the people around there had come to see the Japanese. So they were the attraction. [Laughs] The attraction.

RP: They were welcoming them to the community?

GK: I think, I think so, I hope so. I think that for them to have a band for everything, so I think it was a welcoming committee.

RP: Considering how the other Japanese were --

GK: Yeah.

RP: -- treated by the West Coast. So he didn't, he didn't go to Grand Junction as part of his railroad job...

GK: No, no.

RP: ...he decided to leave that job.

GK: Yes, yes, he was ready to settle down, I think, move on. And so as far as I know, I think he worked in that Grand Junction, Paonia area where they grow, have a lot of fruit trees, and he said that one of his jobs was to prune the trees. And he said he pruned them real, back a lot, and they were just horrified, but they next year, he said the peaches were just so big and so beautiful, and they were very happy that he had pruned it. So I guess, I'm not sure, that's what he did, I think they did farming, he was a farmer in Japan, and I think his folks were farmers. So I don't know where he learned to do the pruning, but he said it turned out well, thank goodness.

RP: And then he eventually worked his way over to Fort Lupton?

GK: Yes, and then eventually he came to Fort Lupton, and he just always, I think he must have settled down, settled in Fort Lupton around 1904 or '05, something like that, I think. And he might have, I think they moved two or three times. But then, then where I was born, they were there the longest, so the farm is still there.

<End Segment 2> - Copyright © 2008 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.