My father's photos from Taishan in 1947

Here is a handful of photographs of my father's when he returned to China in 1947 to bring my mother back to San Francisco after  World War II when laws that prohibited the Chinese from bringing their spouses to the United States changed.

My father took many pictures.  This is a street scene in Taicheng, the county town of Taishan.

My father and mother on the right in front of the house he built in Changsheng village with the money he sent from the US in the 1930's.  I think it was built in 1938.  The building still stands there.

I recognize the kid on the right.  His name was Ahk Lihm.  He eventually made it to Canada then to San Francisco.   He hung around our store for awhile then he disappeared...no one knows where he went.  When I visited Changsheng village in 1979, his elderly mother asked me if I knew of his whereabouts. 

I recognize three people here....second from the left is Gohk Hen, next is Jihn Hung (we share the same great grandfather), the guy on the right is Guhk Choh.  He worked for the Farmer's Bank when I met him in 1979.  He has a daughter in New York.

My father looked like he had fun.  This was on the Tongzhi bridge in Taicheng.  Back in those days it took weeks to go back and forth by steamship.  So it was quite an undertaking just to go to Taishan and back to San Francisco.  He left his business in someone's hands and it was a mess when he came back ...so I was told.

 
My mother arrived in San Francisco in 1948.  Four years later, I was born.

My father left a lot of photo albums.  Unfortunately, a nephew was doing some genealogy project for his elementary school project and took all the albums.  He probably cut up the pictures and pasted them on color paper for his presentation for all I know...  Those photos are gone forever.  I still have some negatives...but not much.