This essay, translated from Japanese, was written by Kyuji (Nakahiro) Furuno, my maternal grandfather. It originally appeared in a 1932 publication called The Fighting History of the Japanese in America, a collection of personal essays written by the Issei, the first generation of immigrants in the U.S. This re-published essay appeared in the 75th Anniversary of the Nanka Ehime Kenjinkai commemorative book in 1985. – K. Moriyama
I was born in 1889. As a child, I didn’t have a particular ambition about what I wanted to be when I grew up. As I grew older, I wanted to into business. Wanting to study dyeing, I came to the United States in 1908, after graduating from business school.
I landed in Seattle in the autumn, when the leaves were turning, right up to the seashore. Overall rose majestic Mr. Rainier, with is eternal snow cover. Overwhelmed by the natural beauty of this foreign land, I decided to stay and work in Seattle.
This was the year of school segregation in San Francisco. And as a condition for desegregation, the Japanese government had to agree to forbid immigrants to Hawaii from further immigrating to the Mainland. It was an unforgettable year for us Japanese.
I worked for a while for a white family, and in the following May, made arrangements to enter the business high school in Tacoma. In the fall, there was a big depression due to America’s involvement with the Panama Canal project. Bad times reached rock bottom that year. Even Mr. Kyuhachi Nishii, who was said to have been one of the original pioneers from 30 years ago, was feeling the pinch in his restaurant business. I couldn’t say no to his entreaties to me to work for him. I gave up my efforts toward higher education and went to work at his restaurant for $20 a month.
It was a step which spoiled my future. I am not blaming him, but those who give a thought to the future of us Japanese and hope for a brighter future for Japanese in America ought not to stunt their ambitions. Young men should conquer all obstacles and march resolutely toward their goals, or they will miss opportunities and regret it in later years. Then it will be too late, and they will harbor bitter feelings of what might have been.
In 1910, the world’s fair was held in Seattle. At that time, my older brother opened a restaurant, and I went to work for him. As the saying goes, when a crow tries to imitate a cormorant, nothing good comes of it. My brother suddenly went into buying and selling real estate with disastrous results, and three years’ profits from his restaurant went down the drain.
He finally had to sell his business and went to Portland, Ore. Getting together with a brother-in-law there, he went into the liquor business. Things went well, fortunately, and they were able to make a neat profit in less than a year. Four brothers then got together to sell liquor and made quite a nice profit in two years.
However, next year there was a slump in business, and on top of that, the whole state of Oregon went dry. We closed the store on December 31, leaving debt as well as money owed us, and moved to San Francisco. There we opened another liquor store. But now the entire country went dry, as Prohibition went into effect. Again, we experienced failure. Becoming vagrants, we drifted down to Los Angeles and finally settled in Pasadena. The city was famous as the home of the wealthy, and truly the homes were palatial, but I was lonely.
In December of 1920, I married Kameno, and our son Eiichi was born the next November. I started a produce store, and both my wife and I worked day and night, but we could only realize $24 or $25 for a day’s sale. However, we persisted in our efforts and our business grew. By the end of the year, our sales were three times what they were. The next New Year, our poor son Eiichi died after living only 60 days. In November of that year, our second son, Hiroshi, was born, bringing us some solace.
In 1922, we opened a flower store, but due to lack of experience, we lost $1,500. However, our produce market flourished, and sales grew to six times what they were when we first opened. We opened a branch store in 1924. It went well at first, but later because of certain reason, business suffered a heavy blow and I lost $2,000. The main store was also affected, and I was on the verge of bankruptcy.
With my family – my wife and three children – I struggled to get through this new crisis, but at the bottom of my heart, I cried. I had a hard time paying my employees’ wages and they would purposely say insulting things within our hearing. Every time my wife heard them, she would burst out crying when we got home. Many a time, I could only stand stupefied before fate, but I never gave up.
When you’re at rock bottom, you find out what is at the core of people’s hearts. I will never forget the kindness shown me by Mitsuru Inouye, who is now managing our present store. In March 1925, we moved to the current address and expanded the main store. Times were still hard in general, but my store did comparatively well. Because of my past losses, we are not out of the woods yet, but there is some breathing space in our everyday life, for which I am very happy.
I have four children, all American citizens. My oldest is six years old. In the near future, I intend to go back to Japan and engage in forestry. I have already made some arrangements along the line in Oita Prefecture. Not that I am afraid of the anti-Japanese sentiment in America. I personally have always been good to the white people with whom I have come into contact and don’t think badly of them. But I have seen that no matter how intelligent a Nisei is, there is no opportunity here for him. I know of a Japanese American who graduated at the top of his class from USC. He works at California Bank, where he is still a bookkeeper, while a white man who went to work the same time he did is now a general manager. Everyone realizes that you can go only so far before you hit a stone wall. I cannot say that prejudice and discrimination always happen, but those of us with children need to think deeply about this problem.
