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JT: Okay, and where did your parents come from in Japan?

MT: They all came from this one area called, well, around Niimi, N-I-I-M-I, Okayama.

JT: Oh, Okayama. Both of them?

MT: My adopted mother and my real mother were first cousins. The fathers were brothers.

JT: I see. I'll have to figure that out.

MT: [Laughs] Yeah, figure it out.

JT: We'll do a family tree later. And what did your parents do in Japan, your birth parents?

MT: Well, I think my father came very early to the United States.

JT: To Alameda?

MT: No. He must have come with a wife who passed away shortly after. I think you look at this tombstone and I think it says she passed away in (1910) or before that.

JT: Okay. And do you know what he did for occupation in Japan?

MT: Well, I think the whole family were farmers.

JT: And then when he came to Alameda, where did they live?

MT: (...) (I know) that I lived next door to the Buddhist Temple on 2315 Pacific Avenue, and my real parents lived on Oak Street, I think closer to Lincoln.

JT: Okay, and what was their last name?

MT: Nakata.

JT: Oh, wait, because they were brothers?

MT: (Yes). Actually, if I'm not mistaken, my father, my adopted father and my uncle Buichi, the one that lives in Palo Alto now, or did, all lived in Alameda at one time.

JT: Okay, in the early, at the turn of the century?

MT: No. Well, we were born in the '30s.

JT: Oh I see, I see. Okay.

MT: I don't know what year, from 1920 to 1930, they all lived in Alameda at that time.

JT: And do you know what his occupation was?

MT: Who?

JT: Buichi.

MT: Well, my father had that car wash business, and I think he wanted to be a mechanic at one time, so I think, I'm not too sure exactly what he did.

JT: I see, because it was called the Nakata Garage on the maps, old maps of Alameda. So maybe he was a mechanic.

MT: Well, I'm not sure. I don't know if (Florence, Buichi's daughter), would know or not.

JT: They did call it a garage.

MT: But then after... I don't know exactly what year. Buichi's wife, her name was Chizuye), she was a Kato.

JT: Alameda girl?

MT: Uh-huh, that family. I think she was raised in Japan, though. Anyway, her parents lived in Berkeley and they were, (...) had a lot of illness, let's say. So this Buichi and his family, my uncle, moved to Berkeley to take over the, they had a grocery (store).

JT: Oh, a Kato grocery store in Berkeley?

MT: Well I don't think it was called Kato.

JT: Okay. So that was your birth father?

MT: Well, the uncle, we're all related.

JT: Okay.

MT: The fathers were brothers.

JT: Right, I see. We'll look at those pictures later. That's so interesting.

MT: But anyway, there were five brothers in my father's family. All of them came to the United States. The grandfather was here at one time and went back to Japan for, I don't know, anyway.

JT: To stay?

MT: Yeah. And then after the grandfather died, actually, my birth father went back to Japan and... anyway, or maybe before that, sorry, before he even came to the United States, I think he... I'm not sure whether the grandmother came with him or not.

JT: I see. And when we talk about going back and forth to Japan, we make it seem like it only took a day or two. But in those days, it took a long time.

MT: I'm sure it did, yeah.

JT: With a lot of intention.

MT: Well, when our kids were, I think Paul was thirteen maybe, Donna was eight, I think, Kenji took us to Japan to show us the roots, our roots. So we've been to that area in Japan where our parents were from.

JT: What a great trip, though. And the kids were at a good age.

MT: No, they were too young.

JT: Oh, yeah? Maybe they were too young, thirteen and eight.

MT: Maybe Paul might know a little bit more.

JT: So when your father, Mr. Nakata, had the garage, what did your mother do?

MT: She worked as a, I think as a cook. Because she must have gone to work at maybe four o'clock, and then cooked and cleaned the dishes. I remember going.

JT: With her?

MT: No, with our father, my father, to pick her up.

JT: In a car.

MT: Yeah.

JT: I know that they worked, mothers in those days did a lot of cooking, ironing, and that kind of domestic work.

<End Segment 2> - Copyright © 2021 Densho. All Rights Reserved.