Sample Belongings

Father's Day Gifts from Guatemala

Every morning, when the sun barely rises over the foreign place where I now live, I feel a new energy to keep going when I look at the caps my children sent me in the mail. They decorated them by hand for Father’s Day, embroidered with colorful threads—awkwardly stitched, but full of love, reminding me of home.

Although the distance weighs heavy, every time I see those caps, humor and hope return to my life, like a secret joke shared between a father and his children.

J arrived to Sonoma County from Guatemala in 2019, leaving behind his three children: 9-year-old twins, Noemi and Santiago, and his 11-year-old daughter, Linda. He has not seen his children in six years. The twins are now 16, and his older daughter is 18.

About the storyteller

As a young man, my Jichan (grandfather), Bunzo Fujimoto, traveled from Japan to Mexico and made his way to California in the early 1900’s. In 1942, he and his young family lost almost everything when they and 120,000 people of Japanese descent, both Americans and immigrants, were forced into concentration camps during WWII. Jichan survived a suicide attempt in camp, but my mother said he was never the same again and he never fulfilled his wish to see his hometown in Japan before he died. Jichan made this bird carving while incarcerated in Poston Arizona during WWII.

Carved in Confinement

Japanese American Citizens League board member Phyllis Tajii was born and raised in San Jose in 1951. She is a third-generation Japanese American (Sansei) and worked for many years in admissions at Sonoma State University before retiring. She now enjoys caring for horses at Hoofbeats while continuing to stay active in the community.

Phyllis Tajii

Farewell in Manchuria

I am the daughter of a Russian born, China raised father and an Irish mother. This photo represents the separation of my father from his family at the age of 19 as he was being sent out of Manchuria during difficult political upheaval in the late 1930s in order to save his life. His parents said goodbye to him not knowing if they would ever see him again as he was going to San Francisco. The grief is apparent in their eyes as they bid farewell to their son. They did not reunite until eight years later.

Katherine Solovieff

Katherine Solovierff is a retired nurse originally from Berkeley who spent her childhood growing up in Japan, Washington, and Germany. She moved to Petaluma seven years ago from Berkeley and says that she finally feels “at home” here in Petaluma.