Discovering Your JA Roots
JAs today are turning to the Internet and fellow community members to learn the tricks and tips of tracing one’s family genealogy.
Most Japanese Americans today know, often very well, who their Ojiichan and Obaachan are but how about your great-grandfather and great-grandmother? Add more “greats” and you’ll likely be lost in a world of unknowns.
It’s a dilemma many JAs find themselves in today, especially since the experiences of the internment camps left many Issei and Nisei reluctant to maintain ties with their ancestral home. Often, the younger generations like the Sansei and Yonsei become the driving forces to find the missing pieces of their family genealogy.
Sansei-han Jennifer Akiko Reven, 21, did a family history project in high school tracing back some of the names of her ancestors and soon became interested in doing a full genealogical search. She has managed to trace back her mom’s side of the family five generations and three generations of her dad’s side.
“I was waiting for years for other older family members to do this but the older members started to die,” said Reven, originally from Sacramento but currently living in North Carolina at Fort Bragg where her husband is currently stationed. “I started to realize that if I didn’t do this, 10 years from now there would be nobody to do this.”
Reven’s quest has taken her to Japan twice already. On the last trip she and her sister Julie managed to get in touch with her long lost relatives in Hiroshima. Her aunt’s cousin, who spoke English surprisingly well, took them around to the various sites and she was able to make a memorable visit to the family gravesite.
“They didn’t know that we existed. It was the first time our family had been back in 20 years,” said Reven, who speaks and writes a bit of Japanese but communicates with her new-found relatives in English. She described her recent trip to Japan as “awesome” and now regularly corresponds with her Japanese relatives, mostly through e-mails.
For Sansei Chester Hashizume, 51, tracing his Japanese roots was never a priority, especially growing up in New Jersey with few fellow Asian Americans and speaking no Japanese. But 18 years ago he moved to the West Coast and after a stint at the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles, Hashizume got inspired to explore his family ancestry and can now trace his family back five generations.
“The Nisei have lost touch with Japan and so there is nothing to pass on to their kids. From the Sansei generation on our connection to Japan becomes less and less. But as adults we have become interested” in tracing our roots, he said.
Hashizume’s search would ultimately bring him to Hiroshima and Ishikawa prefectures for the first time. He’s been back twice now and regularly corresponds with his cousins through letters in basic English, establishing close-knit relationships that he never thought would be possible.
Both Reven and Hashizume have now collected an immense amount of information on their family histories, facts and anecdotes that had never been passed down to them from their immediate family members.
Reven discovered that her maternal side of the family, the Miyamuras and Katos, are originally from the area of Suda in Hiroshima. Her dad’s side (Shingu, Kawaye) come from Kumamoto, Hiroshima, and Kochi in Shikoku. Most of her family immigrated to the United States in the early 1900s, returned to Japan, and came once again to the States prior to World War II. Several of her family members were interned at Tule Lake, some at Manzanar and Amache, and many of her relatives in Japan were directly affected by the atomic bombings in Hiroshima.
“I’ve tried to talk to everyone who is still alive,” said Reven, who has also found extended family members throughout California and even some who are currently living in Brazil.
Hashizume learned details of his family history that his mom and dad, now both deceased, did not pass down to him and his two older brothers.
His paternal grandfather Yosaku Hashizume arrived in Atlantic City, New Jersey in 1919 with a cousin to sell ceramics and laquerware and eventually opened up a giftshop. His maternal grandfather Katsukichi Munekiyo was in Portland, Oregon from 1905 to 1910 before he married his grandmother and moved to California. He also discovered that his maternal ancestors were likely descendants of samurai and one of his relatives in Japan, Hiroshi Munekiyo, is a famous jazz musician.
Experiences like Reven’s and Hashizume’s are not unique and many JAs have been inspired to take the first steps to discover their family roots.
Sansei Stuart Terashita, 47, from Seattle has started his own genealogy Web page (http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Garage/4464/Home.html) where he not only writes about his JA family roots but lists techniques and ideas that he has learned from others.
“I guess the lack of knowledge about my father’s side of the family started me on the search. I published the genealogy page so other JAs don’t have to stumble around like I did,” said Terashita. “Besides, with the reach of the Internet these days some long lost relative might read my page and contact me.”
Like many of his fellow Sansei, Terashita’s family did not talk much about their Japanese family ancestry although he now knows they were originally from Wakayama prefecture. His father’s family lived in Bainbridge Island and was one of the first groups to be ordered to internment camps during World War II.
“When they got the order to evacuate, [my grandfather] had one of the sons take anything that looked Japanese including correspondences to relatives and place them in a clay pot and bury it on their property,” he said. “To this day we still can’t find the clay pot or their contents.”
Like Terashita, Hashizume has also used his own experiences to help those wanting to trace their family roots. For the past 14 years Hashizume has hosted regular workshops throughout Southern California on how to trace one’s Japanese family genealogy. He shows his clients how to trace your Japanese family tree, how to find your ancestral home or “furusato,” and how to obtain your koseki or “family registry.” He also goes over meanings of family names and identifying family crests.
In general most JAs do not speak Japanese so the language barrier is the biggest hurdle for those tracing their family roots.
“We’re not like the Chinese who encourage young people to still speak Chinese. We don’t speak Japanese,” said Reven.
Reven and Hashizume, like Terashita, have also relied on the Internet in their research.
On Genealogy.com several people in search of their Japanese ancestors posts messages and requests for assistance on the Japan Genealogy Forum. Reven used people searches on Yahoo! and also recommends cyndyslist.com that has a Japanese forum. She’s also noticed that many young JAs are looking for their ancestors on sites like myspace.com.
Other Web sites include: Keizu–Japanese Genealogy (members.tripod.com/runker_room/family.htm); Japan GenWeb (http://www.rootsweb.com/~jpnwgw); and Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com).
Although Hashizume is not quite sure how many people from his workshops end up finding their relatives or take the big step to visit Japan, he is happy to be able to pass on what he has learned from his own experiences.
“I like to help other people who are interested in finding their ancestors. That experience for me was very good even though for a long time I wasn’t interested in my ancestry,” said Hashizume. “Exploring my ancestry has been very rewarding. This is our heritage, a way to try to make a connection.”
Reven hopes to pass on what she has learned of her family’s roots to her daughter Lillian Kimiko, 1 1/2 years old, and help her relatives rekindle long lost relationships.
“I want to go as far back as I can,” she said. “I have gotten a lot of fulfillment but I’m not going to stop.”
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