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

Becoming head of the family at age 8

There are a couple things that I still remember, and still stays with me. One is that when father died, I was about eight years old. Mother says to me, “Yachio, you are now the head of the family.” Eight! Head of the family! What does that mean? Says, “You have the responsible of the future of the family.” I didn’t really understand the full extent of that. But I think that my behavior later indicate that I kind of accepted that.

For example, when I finished high school I wanted to go to college because all my friends went to college from high school. All the friends I used to run around with, and I missed college, because when they come back on weekends or holidays, they would be talking about stuff that I did not understand, different world for me. And so I said, “I’ve got to go to college!”

Well I stayed out four years, I worked to help the family income, so that our family could survive, and when my youngest brother, William, graduated high school, then I felt my obligation to the family at that point, for that reason, was over and I could go to college. Which I did in 1937.

aesthetics families metaphysics psychology theory of knowledge values

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)