Jusaku Kobayashi

Jusaku Kobayashi was born Oct. 23, 1878 in Matsusato town, Higashi Yamanashi-gun, Yamanashi Prefecture, Japan . He arrived in Seattle in May 1903 stating that he was joining a relative in San Francisco. On Jusaku’s World War I draft registration form (September 1918), he listed his wife as Takano living in his hometown in Japan. He married Tadayo Yamashita (b. 1896) in 1919 about the time that she arrived in San Francisco.

Jusaku and Tadayo had the following children: Tokiwa (f) b. Nov. 25, 1920 in Los Angeles; Yayoi (f) b. March 12, 1922 in San Pedro; Satoshi (m) b. April 30, 1923 in San Pedro; and Toru (m) b. Feb. 5, 1925 in Redondo Beach.

Jusaku held the lease on Ranch 15 in the Vanderlip area above Portuguese Bend in 1918. He and Tadayo are listed in the 1920 Census between the records for Hirose and Inumaru. It is probable that the families were immediate neighbors. On Sadahei Hirose’s WWI registration Jusaku Kobayashi was referenced as a friend. Because the Kobayashi family was also from Yamanashi Prefecture, they had social ties to the Hirose family who were also from that prefecture. Photos of get-togethers at the Hirose house include the Kobayashi children.

Jusaku died in late 1926. Tadayo is listed in the 1930 Census as the wife of Masagi Maruyama. However, on the Asama Mura Passenger List of November 1930 she is registered as Tadayo Kobayashi with “Masashi” Maruyama as the relative she was to join. This is undoubtedly the way she is registered on her July 1930 passport. All four children had accompanied her to Japan.

Masagi Maruyama was born around 1885 according to the 1930 Federal Census. He arrived in America in 1904. Also according to the 1930 Census, he was first married when he was 29 years old, around 16 years prior when he was in his early 30s.

In 1930 the family with Masagi Maruyama as head continued to live and farm Ranch 15 . Shoko Maruyama was born to the couple on March 31, 1932. No record of any family member interned during WWII could be found. It is probable the Kobayashi-Maruyama family left for Japan sometime before WWII.

U.S. Public Records show that Toru Kobayashi lived in San Francisco from 1982 until his death in 2011 (Social Security Death Index). He had served on the USS Pecos. In 1957 he listed Yayoi Nitobe (nee Kobayashi) in San Francisco as his next of kin. She arrived in San Francisco in 1958 from Okinawa with a US passport (#13592). Toru might have joined the US Navy after WWII because of the widespread lack of jobs in Japan. This may be a clue as to why the family had no camp records.

Five family members are pictured in the 40 Families Photograph of November 1923: Jusaku #19, Tadayo #119, Tokiwa #121, Yayoi #120, and Satoshi #18.