The Kitahara Family's Immigration: The Gamble of a Lifetime

"What is life if not a gamble?"

                         - F.E.Higgins

Stories of gambling come up often in my family. You could say it's in my blood. Even my grandparents make frequent trips to Reno where they receive the perks of the VIPs.  

My great grandparent's immigration to the United States was perhaps the biggest gamble. Knowing no one they moved alone to a new country hoping it would be the start of something new and prosperous.

Both of my grandmother's parents were immigrants from Japan and were from the same village Kozeta inside the limits of Okayama.  Through an arranged marriage my great grandmother, Takako, was wed at the age of 18 to a man that was 16 years her senior.

My great- grandmother Takako Kitahara (Fukanaga)

Marriages in Japan are heavily researched.  Even still before one is married there is a deep and critical look into the spouse's past to see what sort of family they come from and whether there are any skeletons in the closet.  Coming from the same village my great grandmother was paired with my great grandfather Kotaro.  From the outside this seemed like a great opportunity- a wealthy business man living in the United States. Surely they could have a prosperous life.

Kotaro was a young and rebellious guy who was pushed to the United States after veering from the traditional path that his family had chosen for him.

" He was the oldest son. And his family were (rice) farmers. And generally the person who gets the farm is the oldest son.  They made him handle the money."

" Well you know, he likes to gamble.. So things are going good and he is setting aside the money won. But next thing you know it's all gone.  So his father threw him out." 

After that his father told him to go to the United States to avoid further trouble.  From his records he reported coming to the United States in 1900 when he was only 17 years old.  

My great-grandfather Kotaro Kitahara

Most people on the boat coming to America were coming to work the railroads.  To get onto the boat my great grandfather pretended that he was interested meanwhile having his own plans.

"So when he got dropped off in San Francisco he went to the Salvation Army acting like he always wanted to be a Salvation Army person. There he learned English. In the meantime he was gambling and met a lot of people in China Town."

"Finally the Salvation Army- they found him a job as a house boy for some, you know, white people. That's where he learned more English and how to cook and stuff like that."

After moving around and working more as a houseboy (and continuing to gamble) he ended up in Monterey where he opened two businesses. One on the books, the other underground.

Funneling his love for gambling my great grandfather opened an underground casino.

"You had to know someone who knew someone who knew someone," my grandmother said. "You couldn't just walk in there."

Owning an underground casino didn't exactly make him the most popular guy in town though.

 "All the wives hated him because their husbands would lose money."

Besides gambling he also owned a business that was on the books.   

"He had a legitimate fishnet company that he imported from Japan. That was a pretty good business actually... Monterey was a big fishing town at that time."

"But when the war started he said well that's doomed. But he didn't have to wait too long because they put us in camp anyway."

My grandmother and her family's journey came to an abrupt stop when they were forced into Internment Camps during World War II.  Their story continues next week.

Me and my great grandmother in 1985. I was a BIG baby!