Auburn
Picture Bride
by Sen Natsuhara
My husband, Chiyokichi, was a cousin of my step-aunt, but even though he was related to me, I had not previously known him. I felt slightly uneasy to marry a person I never knew except through a picture, but my grandparents had seen him once, and as they said he would be all right, I believed in them and so decided to marry him. Before we had the wedding ceremony, his parents and mine made all the arrangements, and before I left for the States I recorded my married name in Japan, taking the name of
Natsuhara.
|
|
First, Mr. Natsuhara had written a letter to his parents from America saying, "I have opened a restaurant. Would you find a bride and have her come to me." The parents asked an uncle of his to take care of the matter, the only condition being that the girl should be healthy and tall in stature, and able to read and to write letters.
When I was buying things for the trip, my husband-to-be wrote me saying that I did not need to prepare kimono at all, and that I should instead buy only one medium-priced Western style tailored garment. So I went with Mrs. Kosai (who was going to the U.S. with me) to the Beniya Western Clothing shop in Hikone City to order a suit.
It was March 18, 1904, when I registered my name as Natsuhara, and it took a year and two months to process the legal matters before I left Yokohama on the "[Kanagawa]
Maru." Eleven of us stayed at the Taisei Inn in Yokohama and took the optical examination. However, only one person going to the States and one going to Canada passed the tests. I was one of the two, and so I alone was ready to leave for the States. It was just in the period of the Russo-Japanese War, and they said the voyage was dangerous because of Russian naval boats at sea. I hesitated somewhat, but, thinking that I would die whenever my time came anyway, I put my fate in the hands of the gods and boarded.
It was around 3 p.m. Standing on the deck, I waved goodbye, filled with the poignant regrets of separation. Gradually the land of Japan disappeared and Mt. Fuji faded from sight. Then the vast blue fields of ocean. Wondering when I would see my mother-country again, and remembering parents and relatives in my mind's eye, I stood on deck in an abstract mood.
The first dinner served was red-bean rice and other celebration foods. However, before long I became seasick and had to stay in bed. I tried to get up but felt dizzy and painfully nauseated. For a week I couldn't eat anything. The boat doctor came to see me and said, "When you are seasick, even if you don't eat for a month you won't die," and he left me no medicine to take, so I felt completely miserable.
June first, 1905, the boat docked at Smith Cove and four of us girls on board were kept in a second-class cabin for four days waiting to land. Though we picture brides had brought a copy of our family record, and our passport, since we did not have a United States marriage license, the immigration officers did not allow us to land. So we decided to marry on the boat with the husbands who had come to welcome us, having the missionary minister on board conduct the services. In addition to myself there was Mrs. [Yamanouchi] from Kumamoto prefecture. The wedding ceremony was held in the parlor of the first class cabins. About ten Japanese and whites were in attendance. There I presume that the minister prayed for us all, and after delivering a sermon he asked us to promise to share our happiness and pain until we were parted by death. When I bowed my head to his words, he joined my hand to my husband's for the first time, and we finished the ceremony smoothly.
I talked with Mrs. [Yamanouchi] and we both contributed $5.00 as a gratuity to the minister. I forget whether it was $1 or $2 for the marriage license, but anyway we paid for that and had it sent to us later.
Following our method, many others began having their wedding ceremonies on board after arrival, using both Christian and Buddhist styles. Spending the first night in a hotel in Seattle, before we left for Auburn my husband bought me a white blouse with lace and a long green skirt, and shoes and so on, at a white's clothing store downtown. He also bought me a couple of everyday cotton print dresses, at that time called "trumpet dresses." It seemed very strange to me that unmarried girls wore very short skirts and married ladies wore long skirts sweeping the floor.
In Auburn a new house was waiting for us. It was a humble house which my husband built with the help of three or four friends, using about $50 worth of materials. It had only two rooms, bedroom and kitchen.
I had to carry the water every day, in buckets or oil cans, as the well was about 200 feet from the house, on the landlord's property. We heated the water outside of the house for washing and bathing. The toilet was about 100 feet behind the house. As to our new abode, there were many open spaces between the boards in the wall. One cold night I burned the stove and burned the stove, and yet the house didn't warm up, so I got plenty of old newspapers from the landlord, and making a flour paste I papered double over the worst places. When I was burning some home-made charcoal in the room to dry the newspaper, I got a headache so I immediately opened the door and, feeling the cold wind, I went outside and ate snow. After that I felt easy again. Apparently I had been about to die from the carbon monoxide in the room. In this way my life in America began.
Sen Natsuhara
|
Journal Archives
