PREFACE

June 14, 2014

There is a rule that the grandchildren of immigrants seek to find what their parents, the children of immigrants, seek to forget. In the case of the Japanese who first immigrated to the United States (the Issei), their children (the Nisei) had double reasons for wishing to forget their Japanese heritage. Not only did they wish to be accepted as Americans as all children of immigrants do, they also sought to put the memory of the relocation camps of World War II behind them. As one of the Sansei, born after the War, I was typical of the grandchildren of immigrants. I was proud of my heritage, especially on learning that I was a descendant of a samurai. I was also eager to learn as much as I could about our family history and name.

I have made an effort to teach my own children something of our family and they have always been very interested in learning about their ancestors. It is their interest that encouraged me to write this. The Tokuno family has spread far and wide and I have cousins I have not seen in decades. What we still have is the common bond of our family. I would hope that this book about the family’s history will be a significant contribution to the understanding we all need to have of our roots.

I wrote a hard copy version of this on the centennial anniversary year of the date (1899) when Tokuno Bunda arrived in the United States. Anyone of Japanese American ancestry should be very proud of what the Issei and the Nisei were able to accomplish in the first half of the 20^th century. Not only did they overcome the hardships that all pioneers face, such as hunger, poverty, hard work, and difficult living conditions. They had to face a much more dangerous problem: racism. That they made a major contribution to overcoming racism against all Japanese Americans, all Asian Americans, even all minorities is reason enough to be proud. They also helped all of us to become what we are today and that puts us eternally in their debt.

Thanks go to my uncle, Tsuneyoshi Tokuno and my Aunt, Haru Fukushima, for providing me with most of the information about the older roots of the Tokuno family. Additional information was provided by my father, Shiro Tokuno; my uncles, Tim Tokuno and Roy Ko; my aunts, Tey Oji, Lucille Tokuno, and Mary Tokuno; and my cousin, Albert Tokuno. Reference works used are cited in the last entry.

The plan of this blog is to cover the Tokuno family history from its roots in Japan, through settlement in the United States, the troubles of World War II, and the story of the nisei’s families until about 1965. A unified history is given in the first three entries covering the period roughly through World War II when the nisei began to go their own ways. The next seven entries cover each of the Tokuno nisei in turn, oldest to youngest, from their birth through the development of their families, with a small section about some of their accomplishments up to 1999. I hope that this blog will be of interest to historians, genealogists, or anyone who wishes to learn more about the Japanese American experience in the 20th century.

A note about the language: For all persons born in Japan, this history will give the family names last as it is done in Japan. For all persons born in the United States or their children, the family names will come last. For some of the Nisei, the names will change from the Japanese names given to them by their parents to the “Americanized” names they adopted as they grew up. Japanese words, when first introduced, are given in italics with a definition.