From what I can tell from the CEA file, the family began preparing before Yee Jock Leong left China. Immigration authorities began interviewing Yee Kim Wo and associates in April 1903. The goal of the interviews was to determine: 1) whether or not Yee Kim Wo was actually a merchant (see above); and 2) whether Yee Jock Leong was Yee Kim Wo’s son. Yee Kim Wo, in his affidavit, attested to both. Four white businessmen—William J. Gardner, Horace Scott, James R. Keutzel, and J.P. Hughes—attested in an affidavit that Yee Kim Wo had been a merchant with the firm of Kow Kee Jan & Co. for at least one year. Yim Fook Fim attested in his affidavit that Yee Jock Leong was Yee Kim Wo’s son, and that he had visited Yee Jock Leong in China.

Yee Jock Leong returned to San Francisco on board the S.S. America Maru (right) on August 17, 1903. From what I can tell, the America Maru was built by Swan & Hunter Ltd., of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England in 1897-1898. The ship may have brought rats carrying Plague to Honolulu, Hawai’i in October 1899. Authorities burned down Honolulu’s Chinatown—where the outbreak was centered—in an effort to control the epidemic. The Chinese population in Hawai’i dwindled afterward.

The Plague outbreak in Honolulu was not the America Maru’s last encounter with history. The ship was part of the Japanese fleet at the Battle of Tsushima on May 27, 1905, picking up survivors of two Russian ships, the cruiser Svyetlana and the destroyer Buistri, sunk by the Japanese cruisers Otowa and Niitaka.

The America Maru’s career came to an end during World War II. For at time the vessel served as a hospital ship, but later in the war it was converted to a transport. America Maru was sunk by the USS Nautilus (SS-168) while the submarine was on its eighth war patrol. On March 6, 1944, Nautilus attacked a Japanese convoy about 420 miles north-northwest of Saipan and sunk the America Maru at 22°19’N, 143°54’E. Nautilus then endured but survived a counterattack by the Japanese torpedo boat Otori.

Yee Jock Leong was given a certificate of identity upon his arrival in San Francisco on April 17, 1903, but he was detained on the America Maru for several days while another investigation of his citizenship status was conducted. He was interviewed at length by immigration investigators on August 18, 1903. During that interview, he said he came back to the United States to learn English and business. His father, Yee Kim Wo was interviewed on August 21, as was Ow Yung You. James R. Neutzel and William J. Gardner, two of the white men who signed the affidavit attesting to Yee Kim Wo’s merchant status, were likewise interviewed on the 21st and 22nd, respectively.

The interviews of Yee Jock Leong, Yee Kim Wo and Ow Yung You were interesting. They were asked some of the same questions as a check of inconsistencies in their stories. There were some minor inconsistencies, especially regarding the details of the Yee house in Lee Yin Village, but none were apparently significant enough to raise the suspicions of the investigators. Leading questions were asked — such as about an alleged scar over the right eye of Yee Jock Leong’s mother, Wong Shee, to which Ow Yung You skilfully answered, “I never noticed that; it is impolite to stare a lady in the face.” An affidavit attesting that Yee Jock Leong was Yee Kim Wo’s son was drawn up for Ow Yung You’s signature following his interview. It also attested to the fact that Yee Jock Leong was a native-born citizen of the United States.

On August 22, 1903, Chinese inspector Ward E. Thompson recommended that Yee Jock Leong be allowed entry into the country on the grounds that he was both a native-born American citizen as well as a merchant’s son. Yee Jock Leong was landed, and was issued both a landing receipt and a certificate that would allow him to obtain copies of his immigration papers.

Some immigration official—his name appears to be O.P. Fadger—on August 24, 1903, requested permission to copy some of the documents in order to complete Yee Jock Leong’s file.

As I learned later, Yee Jock Leong’s father, Yee Kim Wo (right), first came to the United States in K.S. 2nd year (the second year of Emperor Kwang Sui), or 1876. There are no records of when during the year, nor of what ship he came on. I estimate his date of birth to be circa 1850. (This is an unadulterated guess, however.) I do not know when or where Yee Kim Wo married Wong Shee, but they were living on the second floor of a building at 741 Sacramento Street — Yee Kim Wo worked as a merchant at Quong Hing Lung & Co., a general merchandise firm on the ground floor of the building — at the time Yee Jock Leong was born in 1884.

I suspect that Wong Shee was in San Francisco with Yee Kim Wo by 1882, for the first Chinese Exclusion Act was passed by Congress in the Spring of 1882 and signed into law by President Chester A. Arthur on May 6 of that year. The law almost completely prohibited the immigration of Chinese to the United States, because “in the opinion of the Government of the United States the coming of Chinese laborers to this country endangers the good order of certain localities within the territory thereof.” Those who were already in the United States at the time the act was passed, but who left the country afterward, could re-enter the United States ONLY if they had obtained a certificate prior to their departure from a U.S. port. Legal immigrants, such as Yee Kim Wo, were denied U.S. citizenship, however.

Yee Kim Wo held a shaving ceremony for Yee Jock Leong at the Hom Fa Lau Restaurant in San Francisco shortly after the birth. From what I can find out by searching the Web, head-shaving ceremonies are common in East Asia. In Buddhist families, for example, when a baby is about one month old his head is gently shaved and cotton tied around the wrists in the belief that the ceremony will bring blessings to the child. Yee Kim Wo did not offer any details about Yee Jock Leong’s shaving ceremony other than where it was held.

Yee Kim Wo, Wong Shee and Yee Jock Leong left San Francisco for China in K.S. 12th year, 9th month (circa October 1886) on board the S.S. Gaelic (right). The Gaelic, built by Harland & Wolff of Belfast, Northern Ireland, for the White Star Line, was launched on February 28, 1885, and made Pacific crossings for the Occidental & Oriental Steamship Co., from 1885 to 1904. What was arguably the ship’s most historic voyage ended on January 13, 1903, when the ship arrived in Honolulu, Hawaii, with 102 Korean passengers — the first Korean immigrants to what is now the United States. The Gaelic was overhauled by Harland & Wolff in 1905 and sold to the Pacific Steam Navigation Co. the same year, but was retired and broken up in 1907.

Yee Kim Wo settled Wong Shee and Yee Jock Leong in Lee Yin Village, Sun Ning District, in what is now Guangdong Province in southern China. They lived in a five-room house consisting of two bedrooms, two kitchens and a sitting room. Yee Jock Leong, in an immigration interview in 1903, said the house was on the third alley, fourth house from the corner. Yee Kim Wo, in an interview the same year, said that the house was on the second alley, third house from the corner. Both agreed that a river lay in front of the village and hills lay in back. and that the nearest marketplace was Gong May (Gong Mei), about two blocks (between one and two lees) from their home. Yee Kim Wo said their nearest neighbor was a widow, Soo Ho Shee. Her husband was named Yee Foon. (His married name was Yee Jung Toong.) Yee Jock Leong mentioned another neighbor, Yee Wah Due, whose father, Lee Jung Toon, had previously owned the house where Yee Wah Due lived.

Yee Kim Wo returned to the United States without his family one year later, in K.S. 13th year, 9th month (circa October 1887).

Passage between the United States and China took several weeks, and often included stops at several ports, such as Shanghai, China, and Yokohama, Japan, along the way.

The image at right shows Chinese passengers eating on the deck of the S.S. China about 1901. Note that they are using the huge coil of rope as a rug.

Yee Kim Wo departed San Francisco again on K.S. 16th year, 10th month, 26th day (December 7, 1891) on board the Gaelic. This time he stayed in China for four years, and while there he and Wong Shee had two more children, a son, Yee Suey Leong, and a daughter, Yee Yah Yit. Yee Suey Leong was born circa 1892 and Yee Yah Yit was born circa 1894.

Yee Kim Wo returned to the United States in K.S. 21st year, 4th month (May 27, 1895) on board the S.S. China (above and right). (The S.S. China was involved in a historical event when a General F.V. Green and detachment of troops from the U.S. Philippine Expeditionary Force annexed Wake Island for the United States on July 4, 1898.)

About 1900 Yee Kim Wo joined the firm of Kow Kee Jan & Co., a general merchandise firm at 840 Clay Street in San Francisco. Yee Kim Wo was interviewed at the firm prior to Yee Jock Leong’s return to the United States on April 22, 1903, and Yee Kim Wo is listed as a partner in the firm on May 25, 1903, and on January 8, 1904. U.S. authorities required Chinese businesses to list all partners and the amount of their investment. The CEA prohibited the immigration of laborers, and the government went to great lengths to document whether or not merchants were actually merchants. Immigration authorities could not believe the word of Chinese merchants alone, and interviewed several white businessmen — including James R. Neutzel and William J. Gardner — to corroborate Yee Kim Wo’s contention that he was a merchant. The white businessmen signed an affidavit certifying Yee Kim Wo’s merchant status on April 22, 1903.

Yee Jock Leong later said that Yee Kim Wo returned to China in 1906 and never returned (as of April 14, 1914). Chinatown was destroyed in the great San Francisco earthquake and fire was on April 18, 1906. I do not know if Yee Kim Wo left prior to the earthquake, but is is possible that the disaster prompted his departure.