Densho Digital Archive - Homer Yasui Interview I (denshovh-yhomer-01-0003)

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MR: You've mentioned your uncle a couple of times. Was he in your family group or where did he stay?

HY: Uncle Dotso was really special to the Yasui children. He, let me give you a brief history there. He was adopted by a childless maiden and, when he was five years old. Well, let me back up. His real name was Renichi Yasui, and he was the middle brother between the three Yasui or Issei brothers, okay. The oldest one was Taitsuro, the second was Renichi, and then my father was the youngest, Masuo. At age five, Renichi, the middle son, was adopted by his Aunt Haru because she was childless. And so when he was adopted, his name was changed from Renichi Yasui to Renichi Fujimoto, and that's the way he was mostly named, but not always, there was exceptions. So these brothers grew up knowing that they're blood brothers, but Chan, my uncle Renichi, was physically moved to a little village called Aono which is a few miles away from Nanukaichi, and that's where he grew up and went to school. So physically, they were separated, but they always knew that they were brothers. That's the way it was very, well, I don't know how common it was in Japan, but that's the way they did it in those days.

So when my uncle came over, he preceded my father to the United States by working on the railroad two years before. And when my father proposed in 1908 that the Yasui brothers, that's Taitsuro, Renichi, and Masuo, pool their resources and buy a store in Hood River because one was for sale, that they do that, so they did. But my oldest uncle, Taitsuro, decided well, keeping shop is not for him, so he demanded his share of the money back, and he went back to Japan. But my second uncle, Uncle Renichi, decided to stay to win his fortune with my father and stay in Hood River, so he did. He stayed the rest of his life in Hood River. And so from 1908, he was there, and my Uncle Renichi, he was different in personality and character. He was much more easygoing than my father, and he again like my mother, he let things come to him and then he'd handle it. My father would do the other way around. He'd go out and find things to do. But my Uncle Renichi -- we used to call him Renichi -- not Renichi -- we used to him Chan. And the reason why we called him Chan is that's a diminutive endearing term the Japanese use for older people frequently, but we call him Chan because in Japanese, the word for uncle is ojisan. But as little kids, two and three and four, five years old, it's easier to say ojichan not ojisan, so we used, eventually, it was ojichan and then eventually became Chan.

Now there's another anecdote that I have to tell you about Chan. He was also known very affectionately as Uncle Dotso. The way that came about is because we had a farmhand that worked on our property out in Odell and he stuttered very badly, but he was a real comedian, and he and Frank would get together, and my uncle would say, "Oh, Frank, how's the farm going?" "Oh, fine, fine, fine." And then my uncle, he'd stop us, "Dotso, Dotso, lots of pears." "Oh, yeah, lots of pears, hey big deal, lots of pears." Oh, Dotso -- and so Frank Bush started calling him Uncle Dotso because Uncle Dotso -- he'd always say, "Dotso, Dotso." So eventually, that's what we called him, but always in a loving way. We never, we never picked on our uncle, and he took it very well. He laughed. He's a great guy, great, great, and he was kind of our surrogate father. He treated every one of his nine nieces and nephews as if they were very special like, "Hey, you're the only kid for me," and you know, that takes real talent to do that. And he made, every one of the Yasui children says, "I was Dotso's favorite child," everyone said that. Even today, they say that. God, that takes someone special to do that, real good guy.

MR: Did he ever have children of his own?

HY: He was childless. He and my, well, there's a good reason for that. Shall I tell you this anecdote too? He got married in 1904, okay. He went after his wife in 1928, and that's why he had no kids, I think. He got married in 1904 in Japan. Then he came back to the United States in 1906 working on the railroad. He stayed in the United States from 1906 until 1928 working on the railroad. And twenty, twenty-four years later, he goes back to get his wife. We call her Obasan. He brought her back to the United States to Hood River to live with us, so no kids. He was in his forties. They were both in their forties when he went back after her. That was a little bit different but not unheard of among the Japanese, probably among the Chinese too. But that was different that they had no kids, so we were her, his surrogate children.

MR: And what did she do in Japan for twenty whatever years?

HY: Twenty-four years. Well, mostly, this is again, I don't know how typical it is, but she went, moved in with his adopted parents Hana and Chojiro Fujimoto and lived with them and helped take care of them in their old age. And they were still alive when he went back after her, Obasan, but I don't know what happened after, to my other aunt and uncle. I don't know who took care of them after that because Obasan did come back to the United States, so I'm not sure what happened on that, Margaret.