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RP: Talking about your father, what was his name?

LS: My father's name was Yaichi Nakazono. He was from Japan, Kurume Hoshinomura, Fukuoka, Japan. And he made his way to Hawaii and lived in Lahaina for many years on the pineapple fields. And then, and then came over to California. And I guess landed in San Francisco and worked his way all the way down to Imperial.

RP: Was he, he wasn't the oldest son in his family was he?

LS: I don't... no, I don't think he was the oldest son in his family, no.

RP: Were there other members of his family that migrated to the United States?

LS: I don't think so. I think he was the only one.

RP: And so he came from Fukuoka?

LS: Yes.

RP: Have, have you had a chance to go back to his village there?

LS: Yes I did. I did visit and the remaining relatives were very, very kind and they took me to the home where my mother was born and where she grew up. And we took this journey from her home to Nagasaki where she got on the boat to come to America and that was very touching, I guess. I think I cried a lot thinking about how she had to leave home and then taking this trip to Nagasaki and leaving on the boat. And my cousin was very funny. He said to this cab driver, "Now her mother left from here, Nagasaki, and she wants to know where she left from." So anyway, the cab driver takes me to the harbor and says, "The boat probably took off from right there." [Laughs] So, yes, I did trace her footsteps.

RP: And did she, did she come over as a "picture bride"?

LS: Yes, yes, she came over as a "picture bride." Yes. Incredible story about her landing in San Francisco and having to stay there for a week before my father finally came to claim her. So she was probably the last one to have somebody come after her and they were teasing her that she would have to get on the boat and go back to Japan because nobody was coming after her. So that was kind of sweet and sad and kind of funny.

RP: By the, oftentimes the husbands would be right there waiting at the boat.

LS: Not my dad. [Laughs] She said she saw this tiny little person coming up the pier and it was my father.

RP: So did he look anything like the photograph that she had seen?

LS: God, his photograph was so handsome. I mean, he was a handsome man but you know, Japanese, very tiny, like four feet ten or something like that. And my mother was a big lady, so...

RP: Did, and what was her name?

LS: Sakae Egashira.

RP: And do you know anything about her family background in Fukuoka?

LS: She came from a very large family and I think the brothers thought that she had to have a husband so they shipped her off to America. So poor thing.

RP: So, how old would she have been when she made that trip?

LS: Oh, my goodness sakes, you know, I'm so bad on time and age and all that sort of stuff.

RP: A young woman.

LS: Yes.

RP: Maybe still in her late teens?

LS: No, no, no, I think she was in her, maybe twenty-four or something like that.

RP: Did she ever share with you what her first weeks, months, or year of life in the United States was like for her?

LS: Well...

RP: Were there struggles or hardships that she...

LS: Well, the thing was that my father's friends were all small so he had stopped in Los Angeles, he traveled from Imperial to Los Angeles to his friends to pick up some clothing for my mother and brought these women's clothing to her. Well, she was so big that she couldn't fit into any of the clothing. So he had to have everything made for her in San Francisco. And she talks about tennis shoes, there were only white ones and he couldn't think of having her wear white so he dyed them black. And, you know, so I think they had quite an experience.

RP: Yeah, that was her introduction to western clothing too.

LS: Right. I think so.

RP: And so he met her and then they returned to the Imperial area?

LS: Yes, Imperial Valley, yes.

<End Segment 2> - Copyright © 2010 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.