<Begin Segment 4>

RP: Your mother, her name?

CH: Her name is Yoshiko, Yoshii Hirabara.

RP: And she came from another area of Japan.

CH: Yeah. She's a city woman. [Laughs] Yanai.

RP: Tell us what you can about her background in Japan. You say she was from the city.

CH: Well, she had how many brothers? Two or three brothers, and she was the only daughter. She told me that she was a very good student, and she was a salutatorian, is that what you say? The second person, you know...

RP: Oh, right.

CH: Not a valedictorian. I don't know much about her at that time. I think, I think her mother died rather early. So the father married again, and I guess at that time, she probably didn't want to stay home. I mean, that's when my father went back to Japan and married her.

RP: How did they, was it an arranged marriage?

CH: Well, yes it was. Because the correspondence with my grandfather and I don't know who else, so...

RP: And so your father went back and married her...

CH: Before that...

RP: Before the immigration restriction was passed?

CH: Yes, 1923. Yeah, came back.

RP: Quite a few Isseis went back in sort of, just, eleventh hour.

CH: My mother was not a "picture bride" as they say in history.

RP: And they returned and settled on this, on the farm in Florin?

CH: Yeah. At that time, they lived separately. I don't know where my grandfather lived, must have been close by, but they had a...

RP: They had separate properties?

CH: Yes. I can remember the name Landsborough. Maybe he's the one that owned the land. No, there was the name Thomas. My brother's name is Thomas. Could be that that person owned the property.

<End Segment 4> - Copyright © 2008 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.