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

Life in Yamato Colony

The lifestyle, the life, kinds of opportunities that I experienced in Livingston, was at the—we were in an area called Yamato Colony. Yamato Colony was about two miles outside the town of Livingston. We had kindergarten, church, social activities, all in this one community, Yamato Colony center.

When I was growing up at age five, around from there, my father woke me up and said, “Yachi!” He would called me, “Yachi,” “Yachio,” “Yachi,” not “Fred” because I wasn’t “Fred” until I was six, when I went to public school. “Yachi! Yachi! Get up and get the horses out!” I didn’t know what happened. He said, “The house, the barn is on fire!” During the middle of the night, somebody came and threw a Molotov cocktail, and the barn was burning. Hay was burning, and horses would burn to death if we didn’t release them. So my job was to release the horses, while father looked for water to put out the fire. Now, that I remember very distinctly.

So, it was not a very nice place to grow up. There was a sign on the highway, coming into town, and going out to town, says, “Japs keep out.” Now that’s not a very friendly welcome either. So this is a kind of social milieu, economic situation that I grew up in. And so when I think of the Issei farmers that stood all this, and yet succeeded, it’s a tremendous achievement.

California Livingston 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)