THE HIRONAKA FAMILY IN CANADA
A brief history 1907 - 1988
[This history was complied by members of the Hironaka family and written by Robert Hironaka and Mrs. Florence Senda (Hironaka). These are her words and the collective memories of her family and friends.]
Yoichi Hironaka disembarked from the ship in Vancouver. The date was April 1907. What new adventure awaited him? He had left his native Japan, a farm home in Kudamatsu, in Yamaguchi-ken six months before to go to the United States. He could enter Hawaii, not yet a part of the United States, but the doors to the United States were closed to immigrants from Japan. He thought about his friends in Hawaii who told him that Canada was such a cold country that he would surely freeze to death. But Hawaii was too hot, and cutting sugar cane was hotter. He blamed his illness in Hawaii on the hot humid weather. In Hawaii a person could lose all initiative because there was plenty of wild fruit to be had by simply walking into the countryside and picking it. He thought about his mother in Japan, and about the job he left vending tobacco, about the comfortable home in Tokoji, a district within the city of Kudamatsu. He glanced at the small sticks that resembled kindling for a fire floating on the water and remembered the day that he had gone with the villagers to an island in the Seito Naikai, the inland passage less than a kilometer from his home, to get firewood. The small craft was caught broad side in a sudden storm and gently rolled over. Yoichi climbed up as the boat rolled over and when it came to rest, he was sitting high and dry. The rest of the crew were in the water, safe but wet. Being the youngest member of the crew, it was not polite to be the only one who was not wet so he jumped into the water. Memories, but this was Vancouver, the gateway to Canada, a new life, new customs, a total stranger and he did not speak the language. What awaited Yoichi at age 22?
The first order of business was to find a job. He came without money. He stood 5 feet - 4 inches (162 cm). What kind of work could he do? For a short time it was work in a lumber camp near Vancouver. Then an opportunity to go inland to Fernie, B.C. where he worked for the Great Northern Railway that had a spur line in from Montana. When the spur line was bought by the Canadian Pacific Railway, he switched companies and started to work east from Fernie into Alberta. He saw the Frank slide and the memory and stories of the slide were fresh in the minds of the people living in the area. He saw the vast prairies as he worked on the railway as far east as Fort Macleod. In Fernie, the summer of 1908 was hot and dry. Forest Fire! It was headed for Fernie from the west. Patients in the hospital were moved to a school located in the middle of a treeless block. People were burying valuables and getting away to the creek on the east part of town. Yoichi shared a bunk house near the creek with several Japanese railway workers. These men grabbed buckets and carried water from the creek and doused their bunkhouse and their section foreman's residence. They filled every available pot and pan with water and waited for the forest fire, watching it consume the houses and buildings in the town. The residents who had fled the fire told them that it was useless, the fire would consume their bunkhouse.... they had seen the fury of a forest fire before. When the fire passed, three buildings remained in the town: the school, the section foreman's house and the Japanese railway workers' bunkhouse. The buildings were scorched and small fires had started on their bunkhouse but were extinguished by the water that had been hauled to try to save their bunkhouse. This was a valuable experience for Yoichi. Even when the odds were stacked against him, he now knew he could have some control of his destiny by doing what he was able to do.
From Fort Macleod, which was the eastern end of his section responsibility, he visited Lethbridge by the railway that crossed the St. Mary River at Whoop-Up, west of the present Lethbridge airport then up what is now Mayor Magrath Drive and into the Lethbridge station at first avenue and eighth street south.[sic] In 1909, he decided to learn a trade rather than making a career of working for the railway. He chose to become a cook. He started as a dishwasher at the Dallas Hotel, now the Coalbanks Inn, at 312 Round Street, now 5th Street South in Lethbridge. Mrs. C.J. Eckstorm who owned and managed the hotel appreciated the way that Yoichi worked and taught him how to cook "hotel style." At night, Yoichi studied English and it was his English teacher who gave him his name of "Harry," the name that he became known by to his many friends and associates for the next 50 years. Mrs. Eckstorm soon promoted Harry to second cook. When the chief cook left, Harry was asked to be the chief cook "only until I find a suitable chief." She did not find a suitable replacement. Did she ever look? It was about this time that James Shimbashi came to work at the Dallas Hotel and a life long friendship was started. It was also at the Dallas Hotel that Harry met Kyosei Kohashigawa, a man who at 18 years of age had come to Canada in 1907 with a group of 50 workers, 25 from Okinawa, 24 from Fukuiken-ken, and one from Fukuoka. In 1955, Harry's son Robert married Kyosei's daughter Shizuko. It was during a conversation some 20 years later that Robert and Shizuko learned that their fathers had worked together at the Dallas Hotel.
In 1913, Tsuki Kanehiro came from Shimata, in Yamaguchi-ken, a few kilometers from Kudamatsu to be Harry's bride. Harry took the train to Vancouver and on to Victoria to meet the ship. The marriage was arranged by family in Japan. The formal meeting and courtship was through pictures. The long train ride from Vancouver to Lethbridge gave Tsuki plenty of time to wonder about her decision to come to Canada to marry Harry. She had studied English in school in Japan, but the spoken language was completely foreign. Harry wanted his new bride to learn English when they got back to Lethbridge. Back at the hotel, Mrs. Eckstorm greeted Tsuki. Some 64 years later in 1977, when the family was putting together a family history to present at the "family unity" night in Raymond, at which the Hironaka family was being honored as a pioneer family that had made a significant contribution to the town of Raymond. The children found a card that Harry had received while at the Dallas Hotel and the card was signed "Ec." They asked their mother the name of the lady who owned the Dallas hotel. After a slight hesitation, she said, "Mrs. Eckstorm." The telephone directory for Lethbridge in 1904 listed Hotel Dallas, C.J. Eckstorm and Co.; the number was 67. Harry had a farm background in Japan. He wanted to return to working the soil and asked for and received a transfer to the Dallas farm that was located just east of the Provincial jail outside of Lethbridge. He learned about farming in Alberta and about irrigating to supply the water needed by the crops. It was a new experience to irrigate rather than depend on rain as he had done in his native Japan.
On a visit to Raymond in November of 1913, he noticed that a restaurant was closed right in the center of town. He thought it strange that a restaurant at the best location in town had gone bankrupt. He assumed that it was poor management. He inquired about and found the owner of the building, and immediately rented it. He put his training as a cook to good use. Mrs. Eckstorm insisted that Harry make the coffee. She said if you have good coffee, you attract the patrons for their coffee breaks, and then they will come in for lunches and suppers. Harry practiced what Mrs. Eckstorm had taught him. Business flourished and it was soon necessary to expand the size of the building. A larger building was moved into the area. Customers lined up to get a table. The Brewertons, a prominent Raymond family who had a dry goods and grocery store across the street were regular customers. He bought milk and vegetables from Joe Maudsley who farmed east of Raymond and Mrs. Maudsley taught Tsuki how to bottle fruit. In 1914 Harry bought 40 acres of land about 2 km west of Raymond for $60 per acre to grow vegetables for the restaurant. He had it in mind that a farm was a better place to raise a family than the restaurant atmosphere. By 1915, the farm was doing so well that he decided to sell the restaurant to James Shimbashi and devote full time to farming. It was about this time that he became a British subject living in Canada.
1916 turned out to be a year that old timers would talk about for decades to follow. Rain was plentiful, the Experimental Farm at Lethbridge recorded 2.97 inches (75 mm) in August and 4.6 inches (117 mm) in September. A bumper crop of potatoes was on the way. Most potato farmers were busy building root cellars to store this large crop. Harry used a horse drawn slip to dig a pit along the road to store his potatoes. He harvested his potatoes and put them in the pit, covering them with straw and a bit of soil. The harvest was completed on September 30, just before the wind shifted from northwest to east. Snow fell on October 1, 2 & 3 The temperature dropped to 4 degrees F (-15.5 degrees C) on October 4. Freezing temperature prevailed continuously for 4 consecutive days from October 1 to 4. Harry's potatoes were safe in his make shift storage but most other potatoes were frozen in the ground. When the weather moderated, Harry sold his potatoes for $100 per ton, an unheard of price for potatoes up to that time. This cleared Harry's debts to start farming. He not only paid for his farm and equipment and horses, but he had enough left for a down payment on a farm located 6 miles (10 km) north of Raymond, that he bought for $21 per acre in 1917 from John Larson. In the book Japanese Farmers in Canada, published in 1929, but with information gathered in 1917, it is recorded that Harry owned a farm with six cows, four horses, a full line of machinery, and a house. It is also recorded that he attributed half of his success to his wife Tsuki, who worked along side him on the farm. In another book A Catalogue of Japanese Canadian Farmers it is recorded that in 1928, Harry raised 7,500 bushels (204 tons) of wheat, 1,000 bushels (15 tons) of oats, 150 tons (136 tons) of sugar beets, 100 pigs, 100 chickens, 6 milk cows, and 100 sheep.
Undoubtedly, the success that Harry enjoyed was a factor in three nephews and a brother-in-law coming to Canada. Junsuke Hironaka came to Canada and worked for Harry from about 1915 to about 1919. Junsuke returned to Japan in about 1925 when his elder brother passed away to look after his parents and to attend to family affairs. Junsuke married his elder brother's widow and raised his brother's children: Takeo, who passed away in 1974, and Umeko Sake, who lives in Yuda, a suburb of Yamaguchi City, with her son Shuzo, a truck salesman, and two granddaughters Eri and Akemi. Takeo's son Kazuhisa lives in Tokyo and visited Alberta briefly about 1967. Junsuke's son Mitsugu, who lives in Kudamatsu City, has two married daughters, one of them, Keiko (Hiromi) Matsumoto, lives in Hiroshima City. Umeko's sister-in-law Fumiko married Mitsugu. Fumiko and Umeko visited their Uncle Kaisuke Hironaka in Lethbridge in 1980. Junsuke spoke English and was employed by US occupation forces for a short time after World War II as an interpreter. Tsuki's brother, Kiyoma Kanehiro spent about 10 years, from about 1917 to 1927, working for Harry. He was an expert teamster and drove six-horse teams on the farm. He was also a good horse rider and broke horses for riding and for work on the farm. He returned to Japan to marry and remained there. Kaisuke Hironaka, Harry's eldest brother's son came to Canada to work on Harry's farm in 1918. Kaisuke decided to spend a few days in Vancouver on his way and arrived later than expected. Harry went to town with a team of horses to meet the train but Kaisuke was not there. When he did arrive a few days late, he was asked where he had been. When he said that he decided to spend a little time in Vancouver to have some fun, he was immediately scolded by Harry, who needed the help to get the harvest in. Harry noted Kaisuke's small stature and said, " If I had known that you were of such small stature, I would not have invited you to come. Farming in Canada is hard work and I doubt that you are big enough to do the work." Kaisuke came with an agreement to work for Harry for at least three years. He stayed four, then bought a 10 acre farm west of Raymond near to Harry.
In 1939, Kaisuke moved to Rosemary, Alberta, where he pioneered the commercial raising of potatoes in the Eastern irrigation district. His contribution to the potato industry was recognized by Eastern Irrigation Potato Growers Association for his pioneer work in commercial potato production in that part of Alberta before he retired to Lethbridge in the early 1960's. Kaisuke has written his memoirs in Japanese and should be consulted for further details on his experiences. Naoichi Aimoto, Harry’s nephew came to Canada in 1923 and worked for Harry until 1936 when he started to farm on his own, first in the Raymond area and then near his cousin Kaisuke at Rosemary. On one occasion, Naoichi who knew how to drive a truck borrowed Harry's Chev truck to go to the coal mine to get some coal. Kaisuke and his wife Yoshino, who was pregnant with Tsuyoshi at the time went along with Naoichi. Along the way, Naoichi said that Kaisuke should learn to drive and they traded places. Kaisuke drove in to the ditch and the truck ended up on its side. They had to crawl out of a window and were able to get the truck back up right and they proceeded to get the coal. Mum was the word. No one was to say anything to Harry about the episode because there was no damage to the truck. A few days later, Ikey, Harry's eldest son noticed some scratches on the truck, but no one knew how they could have occurred. On a visit to Japan some 35 years after Kiyoma went back to Japan, Kaisuke met a young couple on an excursion boat near Nagasaki. Thinking that the couple appeared to be American, he inquired if they were. The reply was no, but we have an aunt who lives in Canada. "Well, I'm from Canada. Where in Canada?" - "In Raymond." - "I used to live in Raymond." - "Tsuki Hironaka." - " Then is your name Kanehiro? Was your father's name Kiyoma?" - "Yes it was, but how did you know?" - "I worked with your father on Uncle Harry's farm in Canada." Toyoji Kanehiro is a school teacher in Tokuyama, Yamaguchi-ken, which is a city that is continuous [sic] with Kudamatsu.
In 1923 when fire destroyed their house, Harry and Tsuki and their children, Ikey and Tucker, were taken in by the Vance family who lived just a block north on the next farm. The farm was within the town of Raymond so that the land was all divided into blocks of 1/8 mile square. News quickly spread within the Japanese community and a house building bee was organized. In three days, a new house was built and Harry and his family moved back into their own home. Mile Vance was just a young lad then, but later as a school teacher in Raymond, he pointed to this cooperation by friends and neighbors to help a family in need. In 1924, Tommy Roberts, a local builder added a large kitchen, living room, bedroom, sun-porch, and bathroom with a basement under the kitchen, to the two rooms at a cost of $4,000. This was the family home in which their eight children grew to adulthood. The Association with Tommy Roberts continued both in business and as a friend. Tommy built the large hip roof barn at the north farm in 1928, re-modeled the home in 1941, and built the house on the north farm in 1943.
Harry was thoughtful towards his wife and family. About 1925, clothes washing machines were new and he bought a gasoline engine driven machine complete with agitator and ringer to lighten the load for Tsuki. However, Tsuki was afraid of having gas in the house, it was too noisy, it was too expensive, they needed the money for the farm. However, she was persuaded to try it. "Okay, but I won't like it, and after I've tried it you take it back to the store." - "Okay, but just try it." It was tried, it stayed. Another labor saving device was running water. A tank in the attic was filled by hand pump. A float in the tank was connected to a steel ball by a chain and marks on the wall showed how much water was in the tank. On occasion, the chain stuck where it came through the ceiling and an exuberant pumper not paying attention to the ball would overflow the tank and flood the ceiling. On one occasion, Ladell Vance was in the kitchen when the water poured in from the ceiling and he rushed home thinking that the house was on fire and someone was pouring water on it. Speaking of Ladell Vance, bareback rides on his white horse were a part of a nearly daily ritual in the summer. Florence continued to ride when her badly sprained wrist healed, but she made sure that she was not sitting on the horse ahead of Robert, who pulled her off as he fell from the horse. The irrigation canal and the farm dugout pond were where the children learned to swim. Friends from town came to swim. The mud bottom pond was complete with diving board. After a dive, muddy hands were common, but occasionally, kicking feet and a muddy head would emerge following a dive. Horses were farm power and transportation. Tucker and Mark Dahl who lived three blocks east of the Hironaka home hooked a saddle horse to a buggy. Jim was still hanging on tight when the horse jumped the irrigation ditch where the buggy came to a stop. Mark got a licking from his Dad Rhonda, but there is no story of whether Tucker was reprimanded. Prince was a saddle horse that was on the run as soon as the foot hit the stirrup. The trip between farms was all in a day's work for him. Mugga, a white horse, was raised from a colt for draft power on the farm. As Mugga aged, a hired hand suggested that Mugga be sold for horse meat, she was big and would bring a good price. Harry would not hear of it. She had served him well and she deserved to live out her life on the farm. This was part of Harry's nature, to live a life of gratitude, to people and to animals to whom he felt indebted. In addition to grains, sugar beets, potatoes, and hay grown on the farm, Harry grew vegetables and flowers. The large garden supplied the tables of the family and many friends. Flowers covered the whole large front garden, even fruit trees were grown as much for their flowers as for the fruit. The first and best flowers were cut for the church altar.
Church was an important part of Harry's life. Starting from the Japanese Society, a Buddhist group was formed. The group raised $1,000 and negotiated with James Walker of the Mormon Church for the sale of the wooden structure that was vacated when the Mormons built a new brick church next door. The price was $5,000, then there was $1,000 for church pews. Harry was elected president and Kaisuke the treasurer in the first election of the newly formed Buddhist Society. In the fall an economic depression began and the members who were primarily farmers were unable to meet the pledges that they had made to pay for the church. As the depression deepened, the situation was compounded by a drought and crops were poor. Harry gave up smoking and alcoholic beverage and gave the money that he would have spent for these to the church. Harry was a lifelong committed Buddhist and gave freely of his time and talents to the church. In the booklet entitled First 50 Years Raymond Buddhist Church 1929 - 1979, there is a further account of the Hironaka family's involvement in the church.
A few day camping trip to Waterton Park by truck was nearly an annual event for Harry's family. Friends who otherwise would not have had an opportunity to visit Waterton accompanied them. The family have warm memories of seeing deer, bears and the snow that Harry carried down from Bretha Lake. On the way back, a stop near St. Mary River for lunch became a part of the trip.
Guns were not a prominent part of Harry's life. In fact he rarely used one. He did own a .22 caliber rifle and a 12 gauge pump shot gun. The latter was bought to satisfy Naoichi Aimoto, who worked on the farm. The shot gun was kept in the house on the north farm. Tucker and Kelly Nemeth a neighbor from the home farm got the gun out and were playing with it. The gun was too heavy to hold up so they put the butt on the floor and pulled the trigger blasting a hole through the ceiling and loosening a few shingles. Naoichi Aimoto was working outside and came running in to see what was happening. He found Tucker and Kelly trying to put another shell in the gun before they put the gun away.
Education was important to Harry. All the children knew that, if they so misbehaved in school and received a strapping, they would get at least twice as much at home. At least that was the impression that the older members of the family seemed to give the younger members. Poor grades in art and writing were accepted because Harry had problems with these subjects in school. Tsuki loved to tell her children that she was the top in her class in mathematics. After the children were grown up and when Tsuki noticed that her writing skills were slipping, she practiced calligraphy, filling a page each day. Ikey wanted to go on a mission for the Mormon Church, but Harry insisted that he attend a school called "Kaigai Kyoiku Kyokai" (International Education Society) in Kanagawa-ken, Japan. From 1939 to 1941, Ikey studied language, art, history and the like. Tucker studied Mechanics at Calgary Technical School, Jim earned a B.Sc. degree in Agriculture from the University of Alberta. Florence studied sewing and later took up judo and obtained a second degree blackbelt. There is a suspicion that Flo took up Judo to be with her husband Yosh Senda rather than being at home alone, especially after all of the children were into judo. Robert earned B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in Agriculture from the University of Alberta and a Ph.D. degree in Animal Nutrition from the University of Illinois. Misae earned a B.Sc. degree in honors Chemistry and a M.Sc. degree in Chemistry from the University of Alberta, and a degree in Computing Sciences from the University of Calgary. Marshall earned a B.Sc. degree in Geology from the Montana School of Mines. Arthur earned a C.A. degree. Now there are many university and college graduates in the family.
There are many stories that could be told. The discussions between Harry and Alex Nemeth and George Calcoen speaking English with a Japanese, Hungarian and Belgian accent. Harry having an intuition that in 1929 he should sell some wheat and sending Naoichi to the elevator with a load of wheat, only to have him return with the load because the elevator agent said that he thought that the price would go up some more, then finding that the market crashed the next day. Working with neighbors to clean the irrigation ditches with six-horse teams. Digging the water reservoirs with a combination of horse drawn slips and tractor drawn fresnos. Digging a well 30 feet (9 meters) deep by hand-shovel. Using the clay that came out of the well to build the walls of a chicken coop. Following the trail of wheat left by a robber who stole wheat from a granary in the field to the elevator where he sold the wheat, tracking down the robber and recovering the unspent portion of the money. Misae, Marshall and Arthur winning prizes and getting good prices for their 4H calf and Robert coming second to the last, but Robert won a provincial flaxseed championship and later became an animal scientist. Reverend Waiichi Suehiro, a nephew to Harry lived in Seattle. He visited Harry on at least two occasions. Waiichi's daughter Ruth (Mrs. David) Wong lives in Hawaii at 98 - 1155 Malualua, Aiea, Hawaii 96701. David has a dairy farm. While his mother was still living, Harry sent money back to Japan to buy some land on which he planned to build a house for her. However, before he saved enough money to build the house his mother passed away. At the end of World War II, all absentee land-owners were given a short period to return to Japan or lose their property. Harry looked at the situation philosophically. He had bought the land to build a home for his mother. That need no longer existed. He no longer needed the land.