Transcript: Yamaguchi Photos

Henry Louis Gates Jr.: This is the photo of your grandfather that your relatives have kept in their home for almost a century. Look at that picture.

Kristi Yamaguchi: Wow, priceless. So this is my grandfather.

Gates: This is your grandfather… He mailed it to his mother from America.

Yamaguchi: She would have been proud, I think.

Gates: Handsome, he’s a handsome guy. And very proud.

Narration: Tatsuichi was the fourth oldest son, so he would never inherit the family farm. Still, it took great courage to leave Ureshino as one of that town’s very first emigrants. He had just turned twenty-one.

Yamaguchi: Tatsuichi Yamaguchi, farmer, permit issued November 11th, 1899.

Gates: Now here’s your grandmother with their three youngest children, including your father, Jim, on the right and behind them you can see their farm in Gilroy, California.

Narration: By 1941, Tatsuichi was farming on 175 acres, hiring workmen and earning a good living for his family of eleven…