Women's History Month

ABOVE: Sisters Yukiko Yajima Furuta and Masuko Yajima Akiyama, at the Cole Ranch, circa 1915. The Cole Ranch was located where Oceanview High School is today off Warner Avenue and roughly two blocks from Historic Wintersburg in Huntington Beach. (Photo Courtesy of the Furuta family) © ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

   Welcome to Women's History Month! Front and center in the image above from the Cole Ranch, circa 1915, is Yukiko Yajima Furuta (left) and her sister, Masuko Yajima Akiyama, at right. Yukiko's husband, Charles Mitsuji Furuta, is at left holding their first child, Raymond. Masuko's husband and fellow goldfish farmer, Henry Kiyomi Akiyama is at right holding their child.

   Masuko's body language tells a story. These were strong women who came to a new country and a new culture to create a new life.

LEFT: Yukiko Yajima Furuta at Senjokaku (千畳閣, "pavilion of 1000 mats") at Hokoku Shrine on Miyajima in 1912, prior to her leaving with Charles Furuta for America. Hokoku Shrine dates back to 1587 and is still open to the public as of 2022. Miyajima is a small island in Hiroshima Bay in western Japan. (Photo Courtesy of the Furuta family) © ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

   Yukiko was born on March 23, 1895, in Hiroshima-ken in a family of five children and was the oldest daughter. At the time she met Charles Furuta on his trip back to Japan in 1912, she was 17 and he was 31. 

ABOVE: Yukiko Yajima Furuta after her arrival in California in 1913, on the beach at Long Beach. She had acquired western clothing before leaving Japan after her marriage to Charles in 1912. (Photo Courtesy of the Furuta family) © ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

ABOVE: Yukiko with Charles riding in style in 1913. They are parked on the unpaved Wintersburg Road in front of the 1910 Wintersburg Japanese Mission, lost to demolition in February, 2022. When the Furutas bought their own car in 2016, Yukiko was scared to ride in it, the street was not well paved, and they could drive only twenty to twenty-five miles an hour. (Photo Courtesy of the Furuta family) © ALL RIGHTS RESERVED  

ABOVE: Charles took this contemplative photo of Yukiko in 1914. She describes rural Orange County on her arrival as " a vast and lonely place." (Photo Courtesy of the Furuta family) © ALL RIGHTS RESERVED  

   Yukiko and Charles moved into their new home in Wintersburg Village in 1913. She began to learn English from Charles, ventured out on the Pacific Electric Railway trolley into Los Angeles' Little Tokyo for shopping, and began to meet families through the Wintersburg Japanese Mission. Her sister Masuko arrived in 1915, after Yukiko arranged for her marriage to their friend, Henry Akiyama. Life in California became more familiar.

RIGHT: Yukiko and Charles with their granddaughter Marilyn on the Furuta farm in Wintersburg Village in 1953. This was after the passage of the Immigration Act of 1952. By removing race as a basis for citizenship eligibility, the 1952 Act, allowed for the first time a path to citizenship for the Issei. © ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 

   Yukiko held her family together and when they were separated after Charles was arrested by the FBI in February 1942 after Executive Order 9066, as were many Issei (first generation immigrant) men in Orange Couty. She packed the family's belongings and prepared them for their incarceration at Poston, Arizona. She endured life at Poston, rejoicing when Charles was finally reunited with her after more than a year. When the Furutas returned to Wintersburg Village in 1945, Yukiko helped transition their goldfish business to flower farming and they began again. 

   Yukiko watched her children thrive. Her grandchildren attend college and become successful in professional careers. 

   Yukiko watched the once rural farmland and dirt country roads disappear and change. She became a lifelong Los Angeles Dodgers fan. During her lifetime, there were dramatic leaps in technology, from early aviation to space flight and a man on the moon. Silent movies to talkies. Horse and buggy to freeways and fast cars. All American women gaining the right to vote. The dream of citizenship realized in 1952. A trip to Japan in the late 1950s to find her family had survived, but the Hiroshima she knew as a girl was gone. And before she passed, a formal apology and reparations from the U.S. government in 1988. Snapshots of a remarkable journey.

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