Interviews

1. Early Childhood

2. The meaning of his middle name Yaichio

3. Discrimination in San Francisco

4. Life in Yamato Colony

5. Social life in Livingston versus San Francisco

6. Becoming head of the family at age 8

7. Advice from his mother

8. Attending San Francisco City College

9. Celebrating his birthday on December 7, 1941

10. Starting a YMCA program in camp

11. Leaving Topaz

12. Leaving a camp to attend college

13. Getting a job in Honolulu

14. Feeling free and accepted in Hawaii

15. Getting fired from a job

16. Marriage and Family

17. Becoming involved at JANM

18. Volunteering at JANM

19. Defining “Nikkei”

Fred Y. Hoshiyama

(1914–2015) Nisei YMCA and Japanese American community leader

Early Childhood

I had a hard harsh childhood, losing my father when I was quite young, and mother left with six kids – and then later four of us finally survived. But we stayed together from...father died in 1922, and we survived on the farm for about six, seven years. But mother, without a man, it’s very difficult to farm and it was hard enough with a man. So we couldn’t even pay the taxes, and so we lost our farm, our 40 acres of apricots, and vineyards. We even tried to grow carrots, strawberries, and things like that for ready cash.

Again, Mr. Abiko and Mrs. Abiko came to the rescue and found a place for us in San Francisco in 1929, after seven years of struggling on this farm. So, the Hoshiyama’s left Yamato colony in December of 1929, and started a brand new life in San Francisco as city dwellers. It was from dire poverty, dirt farming, to almost heaven like paved streets, electricity, indoor plumbing, you put a nickel in the street car and it took us anywhere you wanted to go in San Francisco. For me, that was like heaven, at that time.

Abiko family California families prewar San Francisco United States Yamato Colony (Calif.)

Date: March 4, 2005

Location: California, US

Interviewer: Florence Ochi, Art Hansen, Yoko Nishimura

Contributed by: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum

Interviewee Bio

Fred Yaichio Hoshiyama was the first of six children born to Issei immigrant farm workers who were members of the pioneering Yamato Colony of Livingston, California. His father died when he was only eight, and his family struggled to keep their farm, eventually losing it and moving to San Francisco in 1929. After earning a BA from the University of California, Berkeley in 1941, he was confined at the Tanforan Assembly Center in San Francisco and the Topaz “Relocation Center” in Utah in 1942 with thousands of other innocent Japanese Americans—victims of their racial similarity to the enemy that had attacked the U.S. Naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawai‘i.

Even in confinement, Fred continued his lifelong association with the YMCA (Young Men’s Christian Association), helping to establish much needed recreational, educational and social programs. After obtaining an early release from Topaz to earn his Masters Degree at Springfield College in Massachusetts, he served as a YMCA youth program director in Honolulu before returning to California where he continued to work in urban youth programs. From 1976 to 1983 he helped to form the National Association of Student YMCAs. In retirement, he contributed his expertise and knowledge of financial planning, development and management to several non-profit organizations. (February 2016)

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