I remember I was playing after a carefully prepared lunch, when my okasan came up and touched my shoulder: “Do you see that man over there? “He is going to be your husband.” I thought he was handsome.

Your ojichan was a wonderful man, he fell several times but always had the strength and courage to get up and reinvent himself. A man of honor, descendant of samurai and one of the few Japanese of his time to obtain a Business degree from Waseda University.

Did you know that he was the first from the Japanese Peruvian colony to travel to the United States of America to bring hydraulic elevators for our second self-service? I remember it like it was yesterday because that trip changed him. He returned with a different vision of life, with other priorities, he planned to leave the taps and accounting to your uncles and retire to enjoy his grandchildren.

ojichan and obachan

Did you know that when his fateful car accident happened, we were about to move to the San Isidro district? Not many Japanese lived there but he chose it because it was central, with direct roads close to businesses, and not so far from the other family homes. The plan was to buy an entire block and build three houses, one on each corner, so the one that was free would serve to be used as a family parking lot. I had also thought about it having two entrance and exit entrances, to be together but maintaining independence. We would have many gardens with tall trees and in the center a park with games to enjoy with the grandchildren and old age together.

Physically you don't look like him but I see something of him in you. I think that if they had met they would have gotten along well, I would surely have sent you abroad to study and I would have missed you for a while; That would have been nice because we would make up for that time when we met again. Besides, your oka was his conceited, last daughter, so you already had a head start; that and also being the last granddaughter. Always be proud of our family.

This is how my obachan told me how he met my ojichan . For me it is difficult to imagine a marriage based on family agreements between future children promised before they were even born. Get married when you are almost a child and embark on a three-month boat trip crossing more than one ocean, leaving the people you love behind and starting a new family of your own, with your pockets full of faith, trust and hope bound for a new continent. of unknown culture. Being sixteen years old and with a nineteen-year-old husband, you have to be very brave to board a ship, a new life and bet on everything or nothing.

Never giving up and honor were his drive. Love, admiration, respect and my great family the result. Señei, Senka, Sugako, Senko, Nobujiro, Senjin, Jumi and Eiko. They had eight children who gave them grandchildren, great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren in life. One died as a child, another at fifteen years old, fighting in World War II; Three returned to Nihon to live with their maternal grandmother when they experienced their worst economic situation in Peru, due to the looting and abuses that were committed at that time. I got to know almost all of them, each one different from the other but similar, I could always recognize something of my grandparents in them, an imprint that is not seen but perceived.

Fall down seven times, get up eight. One hundred years have passed since the beginning of this story but nothing has changed. Shintzu Yagi and Fumi Kuniyoshi of Yagi, so grateful to be a part of their brave and inspiring story. Thank you for this inheritance.

© 2018 Noriko Takey Yagi