Coming to America

Coming to America

June 16, 2014

So how did the family become samurai? Unfortunately, there is no information about that, but the history of the family can be traced back to over 800 years ago. There is a story purported to be of our ancestor, Sano Genzaemon Tsuneo. This story has been made into both a Kabuki and a Noh play. Sano was a samurai, who was a member of the powerful Fujiwara clan and whose family ties were linked very closely with the Emperor’s family. He was very loyal to the Minamoto family, one of the elite families who were able to carry the title of “Shogun.”

The title of the Noh play is “Hachi no Ki” or “Potted Trees,” translated roughly. The events in the play occurred during the Kamakura period, when even the shogun was not the true power in Japan. The power was held by a family, the Hoojoo clan, who were related to the shogun and ruled in his place. The shogun was now as much a figurehead as the emperor. Sano had been a member of the court of the Hoojoo regents and had spent much of his time cultivating the Japanese art form of Bonsai, which involved growing miniature trees and shrubs. He had been able to create a large collection of these bonsai plants and they were a treasure to him that was beyond counting. Some members of his family were able to cheat him out of his title, so as the play begins we find him and his wife living in relative poverty with only three of his precious bonsai trees remaining, a cherry, a plum and a pine.

One winter, a priest was traveling through Sano Genzaemon’s village during a particularly cold week. Now the priest was not well dressed nor did he act like someone who was important. He looked poor and bedraggled. He begged Sano for a bowl of rice gruel to eat. Not only did Sano feed the priest, but invited him to come into his house. There was not enough wood available to warm this priest, so Sano Genzaemon sacrificed his last three beautiful bonsai to keep the priest warm.

While they chatted, Sano mentioned his loyalty to the Minamoto clan in its perpetual struggle for control of Japan with their archrivals, the Taira. What Sano did not know was that this priest was Hoojoo Tokiyori, later (1246-1256) to become the regent of Japan. He was impressed with Sano’s generosity, honesty and loyalty to the Minamoto. Later, when active warfare broke out again and a battle was being fought, Sano rushed to the aid of the Minamoto. He fought throughout the campaign, joining the Minamoto and Hoojoo forces in Kamakura, where Hoojoo Tokiyori had established his headquarters. At the end of the bloody struggle, the Minamoto were victorious and Hoojoo Tokiyori saw to it that Sano was given the official name of “Genzaemon,” which means “guardian of the castle.”

There is no record of how the Tokuno name comes to us from the days of Sano Genzaemon, but there is a clue that the link between the modern Tokuno family and this legendary figure is real. This is based on a tradition of naming the first son of the first son after Sano Genzaemon Tsuneo. The first son’s given name must begin with the word “Tsune.” The character is (  ) and it translates roughly as “always” although the specific meaning would depend on what character it is combined with. It could come to mean something like “reliable” or “eternal.” The last male Tokuno to have this given first name was Tsuneyoshi Tokuno, who died in 1980. His son, Albert Tsuneyuki Tokuno, continued the tradition in his middle name for one more generation. Perhaps it will survive in some form in some future child.

The name “Tokuno” translates roughly into “Toku,” meaning “beneficial” or “virtuous,” and “No” meaning “field.” Combined, it is not something that translates well into English. The “Toku” is the same Japanese character as that of the Tokugawa clan, who ruled Japan as shoguns for over 250 years. The Japanese characters for "Tokuno" are: 徳野

As a child, I was told that the Tokuno family is the only one in existence. There may be other “Tokuno” families, but not with this same set of kanji. Since then, I have come across other “Tokunos.” Until the Meiji restoration, peasants were not allowed to have family names, they only went by the given names, which often meant nothing more than “oldest daughter” or “first son.” It is possible that people could have picked up the Tokuno name when they were allowed to add surnames. When I was in Kumamoto in 1978, I tried to find the kanji characters in the phone book, but there were none. I did see the kanji at a shrine in Wakayama, but there is no way to find if they are related to us or not. Until evidence to the contrary is found, we are the only Tokuno family descended from samurai.

There is also a family crest, or “mon” shown below. Only samurai were allowed to use such crests.

As noted before, the family was originally based in Kumamoto city in Kumamoto-ken on the island of Kyushu. They were vassals of the Hosokawa clan, the lords of Kumamoto. The first ancestor about whom we know anything was my great grandfather, Tokuno Tsunenobu (1846 - 1885). His father’s name was Kyuubei and his great-grandfather was Tsunenori. He had one brother who was reportedly killed by their mother because he was of poor character. If true, this was probably because he brought some type of dishonor to the family. As shocking as this may seem to us, remember that this type of killing was consistent with the samurai code of honor. It was not considered murder, but duty.

What we know of Tsunenobu comes largely from the inscription on his tomb in Kumamoto. He taught math at a college in Nagasaki. Nagasaki is across the Inland Sea from Kumamoto and his grandchildren remember hearing stories of him rowing to work across the inland sea. He was very serious, nearly single-minded, about the study of mathematics. There are no photographs of him and no surviving information about what kind of person he was, what he did besides teach, or even his wife’s name, although her family name was Maki. He was highly respected by his students, which was why they honored him with a large tombstone. Although Kumamoto was in the center of things when the samurai made their last stand on Kyushu, there is no way of knowing what side Tokuno Tsunenobu took in the Satsuma Rebellion or what difference it might have made in the family’s fortunes. We do know that he was raised to be a samurai, the last in the Tokuno family, but became a respected teacher. When he died, a gravestone was erected in his honor by his former students. It still stands in a cemetery in Kumamoto city. There are pictures of it and one can see the Kanji characters in those pictures. As of this writing, the words have not been translated into English.

Tokuno Tsunenobu had four children: In order of birth they were, Tsunetoshi, Bunda, a third child whose name is not known, and Shiro. Note that the first son had the traditional clan name beginning with “tsune,” and the names of the latter born sons basically mean second son, and fourth son. It is a mystery why the third child’s name is not known, but it was either a son who died young or a daughter. The family had a large holding of house and land, but when Tokuno Tsunenobu died, the widow mistakenly placed her trust in an unscrupulous family friend. He cheated them out of all their property, leaving her and her sons with nothing. In Japan at that time a “Hanko” was used to stamp a document to give the final authorization for any type of business transaction, just as we use signatures today in this country. The widow was somehow convinced to give the family Hanko to this so-called friend and he was able to gain the rights to the family estate. This echoed tragically what had happened to Sano Genzaemon. The fate of Tokuno Tsunenobu’s widow remains unknown, but it is likely that she died in poverty. There is also very little information as to what happened to Tsunetoshi and Mitsuo, although it is believed they may have died of tuberculosis.

The center of our story now switches to Tokuno Bunda (1874-1933), the second son, who was only 11 when his father died. Having survived to manhood, as a youth he joined the army for a time, possibly to seek a means of living. This must have been a humiliating necessity for someone who had been born the son of a samurai. Once in the Japanese army, he attended the non-commissioned officer's school. He was discharged in 1898 at his request and before the Russo-Japanese War began. He knew about the opportunities to be found in America and found a way to get here. Bunda and his younger brother, Shiro, came to the U. S. to find their fortunes in 1899. They found work in a cigarette factory in San Francisco, rolling cigarettes for $1 a day.

Both brothers were tough, hard drinking men who did not back down from fights. They had plenty of opportunities to get into brawls with men who did not take very kindly to these “Japs” with their funny looking eyes and saffron tinted skin. It was during some sort of brawl that Shiro was hit hard on his chest. He had been drinking and whether it was the blow or the alcohol that led to his getting tuberculosis, he became very sick with the disease. He was sent back to Japan where he died and is buried.

Bunda was now the lone owner of the Tokuno name and thousands of miles from home. In all photographs of him, he looks the same. His expressionless face is almost a stereotype for the “inscrutable” oriental. There is evidence that he was anything but emotionless, however. He wrote haiku, one so good that he had it framed and hung it on his wall where a friend, upon seeing it, praised it so much that Bunda gave the poem to him. It is very sad that none of these poems survive for any of his descendants to read. What else do we see in those photos? His striking feature was his handlebar mustache, framed by a rectangular face. He was of medium build and taller than the average Japanese, being about 5 feet, six inches tall. His eyes are bracketed by crow’s feet as if he had either laughed or squinted a lot in his short life.

It is interesting to speculate what might have been going through his mind as the sole heir of the Tokuno heritage. Did he think that he was obligated to make his fortune and return to Japan to marry? Did he think he should marry first and make his way as best he could in this new land? He must have had a great deal of pride in his name because what he told his children is now the only source of most of the information that we have about his parents and brothers. Whatever his thoughts, there is no record of what Bunda did around the turn of that century. He did find himself getting away from the city of San Francisco and into the Central Valley of California where he found some employment on the W. R. Hearst ranch. (William Randolph Hearst was a wealthy newspaperman who founded the San Francisco Chronicle.) Census records show that he was in Butte County, California, in 1900. He befriended other Japanese immigrants whom he met or knew from his army days, such as Karakawa Tetsuji, for whom he was to later name his second son.

While he had been in San Francisco, Bunda met Tajiri Usako, who owned a hotel there, and was shown a picture of Tajiri’s sister, Suye. She was the daughter of a merchant and hotel owner in Kumamoto, so her family was very well to do. It is likely that she lived a relatively soft, city life as a child. Pictures that exist of the young Tajiri Suye (1887-1956) show a pretty young woman who has a look of great calmness about her. That look and her unburdened childhood belied a quiet strength that would allow her to go to a foreign land and raise seven children. Around 1905, perhaps inspired by that picture, Bunda returned to Japan and married Suye. According to my Aunt, Haru Fukushima, he had been a soldier in the Russo-Japanese War, which took place in 1904 and 1905, and broke his wrist in the fighting in Korea. He either re-enlisted or was drafted back into the army after returning from the United States. After he broke his wrist he could not fight so he was discharged and was free to go back to the United States if he wanted. He did. He and Suye made the return trip to the United States in July of 1907.

Their first child, a son, was named Tsuneyoshi to continue the naming tradition of the Sano clan. He was born in November 1907, meaning that Suye endured the lengthy crossing of the Pacific Ocean while pregnant with her son. It was around 1908 that Bunda found himself back among the red hills of the northern Central Valley of California, just south of Oroville. He became re-employed at the Hearst ranch and there, a second child and the first daughter, Haru was born in 1910.

What did the young family do to earn a living in those early years? As most immigrants from Japan, Bunda almost certainly worked very hard. Suye helped by maintaining a spare lifestyle so they could save their money, for Bunda had a dream. He wanted to buy land and return to Japan a wealthy man with a big family. It was not going to be easy. In 1913, the State of California’s Webb-Heney Act made it impossible for a Japanese alien to own land. This was a purely racist act intended to discriminate against what many people thought was an inferior race. It was still true, however, that anyone born in this country was a citizen by right, so little Tsuneyoshi was legally the first American Tokuno and he could buy land. (Later another act made even this impossible and by 1924, no Japanese could become a citizen or even enter the United States.) It is almost certain that Bunda planned to make his son the owner of the kind of land that had been taken from his mother in Kumamoto. But it would take lots of money.

By 1912, Bunda had accumulated enough savings to buy a house and 5 acres of land in the tiny community of Palermo, California, just a few miles south of Oroville. Phoebe Hearst, the wife of William Randolph Hearst, wanted to develop Palermo into a resort area because of its similarity to southern Italy. (The original Palermo is a town in Italy.) The palm trees that still line Railroad Avenue, the old Hearst mansion south of Palermo, and the ditch bringing water from the hills are signs of her efforts. No one knows why the project was never finished. Bunda, however made good use of his new land in Palermo as a base of operations for contracted labor, labor provided by men whom he knew to be hard, reliable workers: the Japanese. Although he had to purchase this land in the names of his son and daughter, it was now Tokuno land and they lived in a Tokuno house for the first time in decades.

Bunda continued to contract labor, but in the 1920s, he began to plant his own crops, such as strawberries and persimmon trees. He also planted olive trees, which still stand on the property. He was establishing himself and his family in the rich farm land of Northern California’s breadbasket. Some of these crops were part of the Nisei’s pioneering effort in agriculture. They were told that strawberries, for example, were never going to be a successful crop because they required too much labor. Bunda and many other Nisei made such claims seem hollow by producing rich, tasty crops of strawberries through their hard work and innovative farming methods.

There were not a lot of Japanese Americans in that area, especially any whose children owned property. In 1900, census numbers showed 330 Japanese immigrant laborers in Butte County. Many of them did not marry and start families, but many of these men formed the core of the Japanese American community who eventually settled in the area. A small number of Japanese families settled in the Oroville area. The Ono family ran a dry cleaning store in town and Mr. Sakuma was a barber. There were also the Uchidas and the Kudos; not so many families that they formed any kind of major threat to the non-Japanese, but enough so that the Tokuno family was not in complete isolation. There were a number of other Japanese families scattered throughout Butte County and neighboring areas, but they did not spend much time together on a regular basis, distance and cost being major obstacles in those days. Besides, while trying to start a living for themselves, there was plenty to do around the house.

The original house stood well back from the road. It had been built before the Tokuno family moved into it. It was a standard farm house with four rooms: a small kitchen, a large living/dining room and two bedrooms. There was also an attic. There was no indoor plumbing originally, so people had to use out houses for toilets, and baths were drawn from well water heated on the stove. Later, they built a furo, or Japanese bath, just outside. There was a large tank used for water storage; water from the well was pumped up to the tank for use at all hours.

The outhouses were located over large holes in the ground that had to be re-dug every few years. The men would dig holes about 5 feet deep, then bring out gold pans before they moved the toilets over the holes. Remember that this was gold country. If there was a lot of gravel in the area, there was a good chance they could find some gold by adding water to the gravel in the pan and letting the heavier gold settle to the bottom. They never struck it rich. Years before, Bunda had been asked to sell the orchard so they could dredge it for gold, but he refused, believing that what he was doing was more valuable than gold. Of course, he was right. Still, the gold seekers dredged right up to his fence.

Over the following years, the house began to fill with children. The second son was named Tetsuji (1914-1996) after Bunda‘s old war buddy. Yuzo was born two years later, followed by the fourth son, Shiro, named after his late uncle, in 1918. As the younger children filled the house, the older boys had to sleep with the workers. Two daughters completed the family: Tey, born in 1920, and Alyce (1922-1994). The children ate with the workers, for at heart, Bunda was still a samurai and the father was like the lord of his domain. He ate before everyone else and in the privacy of the house, where Suye would cook for him special dishes of Okazu, sort of a Japanese stew. It had meat in it! The children often got only rice gruel with Japanese pickles purchased from the Japanese stores in Marysville, 20 miles to the south.

Dinner was usually a formal event and Bunda insisted that only Japanese be spoken at the table. He spoke very little English himself and when he spoke to his children he expected them to understand him in his native language. The older children had to learn to read and write English exclusively at school since they were not exposed to it at home. They also learned it from their friends and neighbors, who not only taught them English, but gave some of them American names. Tsuneyoshi became “Tony” and Tetsuji became “Ted,” probably because these names sounded like their given names. Yuzo, however, became “Tim.” Although Shiro picked up the nickname of “Sheik,” after a popular movie figure of that time, he continued to use his given name.

Bunda was a very strict father. Tim relates how when he first started school, Bunda told his teacher that he should spank his son if he misbehaved, but to be sure to send a note home, so Bunda could spank him again. He wanted his sons to be tough. He would have them put on boxing gloves and he would referee matches between the boys. If one of them got a bloody nose or got hurt and wanted to quit, he would tell them, “You’re a man now! Men don’t quit. Go at it again.”

According to his eldest daughter, Haru, Bunda was a “country gentleman,” who never got directly involved in labor, aside from picking light crops such as peppers and beans. Instead, it was his custom to take a nap each day in the early afternoon, sleeping for an hour or so when the sun was at its hottest during the torrid summers in the valley. When he was awake, though, he did work that mattered, planning his next venture, accounting for his laborers' hours, or figuring the family budget. It is also not hard to imagine him proudly watching his children in the fields picking strawberries, gathering olives, or harvesting tomatoes. It was very hot, hard work, yet all his sons would one day grow to own their own farms and watch their own sons proudly as they learned to work the soil to produce food for the tables of California.

Suye, on the other hand, worked very hard, taking care of all of her children, as well as doing all the cooking and much of the cleaning for the laborers they contracted to other farmers. When they were working on the Hearst ranch, Suye used to make miso soup in a big washtub enough to feed all 100 men their breakfast. In doing such hard work, she was similar to many young issei women, who came to this country as picture brides. They would be sent pictures of their prospective husbands in America, along with stories of the easy life in the prosperous young country. When they arrived in the United States, they usually found themselves with husbands who had lied about their economic situation and even sent pictures of themselves when they were much younger to encourage the women to make the long boat trip across the Pacific. Even though Suye had not been deceived in this way, her early life had not prepared her for the hard work of a farmer’s wife, yet she did it.

When they first bought the land, there were many rocks on it and Suye helped to clear the smaller ones, loading them into her apron and struggling to get to the edge of the field where she would drop them into the neighboring property. As it happened, Bunda wound up buying the neighbor’s property, so poor Suye would have to go through the same laborious process all over again. Apparently this happened more than once at which point Suye might have humbly asked if Bunda planned to continue to expand his holdings. When the land was planted to orchards, those rocks she hauled were use to control the water flow in the irrigation ditches.

All of the older children knew what it was like to go to bed exhausted from having worked in the fields all day. Life was not all drudgery, though. Sunday was always a day of rest. Occasionally, on Sundays, Bunda would take them out to the banks of the Feather River, fishing poles in hand, to try to catch some of the perch or bass that thrived in the clean streams of Northern California in those days. They would pack a picnic lunch and eat on the riverbank, the children dangling their skinny brown legs in the cool water as they nibbled on musubi and takuan. About once a year they would go south to the big city of Sacramento and would occasionally pose for a family portrait. In those photographs that have come down to us, they certainly appear to be a happy and well to do family. There is a look of serene satisfaction on all faces except that of Bunda, who--as noted earlier--looked as inscrutable as any legendary samurai warrior had ever been. Life in those days was very different, especially life on a farm. Tony’s diary tells about how they did not buy new shoes. When shoes got worn, they were repaired at home using a shoe stand, leather, and nails. There was no television, of course, so entertainment had to be outside of the home. The major event was going to the “picture shows” in Oroville. Tony noted that sometimes they would put in a hard day’s work picking strawberries, peaches and plums nearer to town so they could see the movies afterwards. Once in a while the whole family would go to a special event, such as the time in September of 1923 they drove to Chico to see the circus.

Still very much Japanese, the Tokuno family observed the various celebrations of their motherland. New Year’s Day was always a major event, far exceeding Christmas as the most important holiday. A day or two before, the men would perform “mochitsuki” pounding the sweet rice to make mochi cakes. On January 1^st, the Japanese families in the community would visit one another to wish everyone a happy New Year. By the middle of the 1920s, several families were involved: the Onos, Sakumas, Uchidas, and Kudos already mentioned; but there were also the Kimuras, Mishimas, Inouyes, Tokuyamas, and Tominagas. Besides that holiday, they also observed other Japanese occasions, such as hanamatsuri, the cherry blossom festival, and the bon-odori, the Japanese festival to honor their ancestors.

The contract laborers came and went, mostly anonymous single men, seeking their fortunes. Eventually, the Japanese were replaced by Filipino workers, and even later, Mexicans. At the peak of the harvest there were as many as 80 men living in shacks behind the house. At one point, Bunda owned three different camps, one at their homestead and two others supervised by his trusted comrades, Mr. Agima and Mr. Fujiwara. One of the laborers was Yonesuke Ide, or Ideochan as he came to be known. He was more like a member of the family than a laborer as his friendship with Bunda was long standing. In the early 20s, Ide was living in the Bay Area and Bunda stopped by to ask him what he was doing. Ide said, “Not much,” so Bunda asked him to come to Palermo to help out. He slept in the main house and often shared a bed with one of the boys. He worked hard, never spoke much, and would sit in a corner of the room rolling cigarettes out of Bull Durham tobacco. He became like an uncle to the boys and, later, almost a grandfather to Tony’s children. In some ways he took better care of the children than Bunda did.

The family prospered in their little corner of the fertile Valley. They were not only accepted but well liked by most of their “hakujin” (Caucasian) neighbors. As was true for the times, there were people in the community who did not like the “Japs” and would call the children derogatory names, but there were very few cases where there was much discrimination.  This was in distinct contrast to what happened in many other communities in the West.

As with almost all of the Japanese immigrants who came to California, it was Bunda’s dream to return to his native land once his fortune was assured, wife and children at hand. As with most who achieved the dream of family, he began to realize that his children were better served by staying in America, where they were now citizens, speaking the language of the hakujin despite his strictures. He and Suye came to believe that they were raising solid Americans who would soon prosper and contribute to this country which could give them so many blessings. As the children grew, it became obvious to their parents that true success in this country was going to be dependent upon one thing: education. After all, Bunda’s father had been a teacher. Each son and each daughter completed high school in good time. It was very rare in those days for young people to go to college, as it was a privilege that was affordable only to the wealthy. The fact that most of them were able to go to college is part of the continuing story of the value of hard work and persistence among the nisei. They would need all of that as they soon were to face a major obstacle to their success in the United States of America.