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PW: Let's talk about your mother. Tell me your mother's name and where was she born?

KY: Mitsue Ozeki, and she was born in Alameda. She was born in (1915), and she was the second born to my grandmother. There was an older sister and then there was a stillborn a couple years later, and then my mother and then a younger sister.

PW: And what was her... did you tell me her maiden name?

KY: Ozeki.

PW: Ozeki. Can you tell me anything about her family? What were her parents' names?

KY: I think both her parents came from, like, inland Hiroshima, probably Shobara where a lot of the Alameda people came. Because there were a lot of the Alameda people in that area, and so Mataichi, the grandfather, my mother's father, he came in... he first went to Honolulu in 1895, and then he went to Alameda in 1906. Apparently he worked as a chef or a cook. His wife Akino came in 1906. They got married in 1906 here. And then my Auntie Ne-san was born in 1907, and then a second daughter was apparently a stillborn in 1909. My mother was born in '15, and my auntie Yas was born in '20. And the significant thing is that when my Auntie Ne-san was -- funny that we call her Auntie Ne-san, but that's what my mother referred to her, as Ne-san, so she was Auntie Ne-san. When she was five, her paternal grandmother had died, and I guess they thought that the paternal grandfather would like to have a girl around the house. And I guess maybe for education, too, but I'm not sure that was the main reason. So she was sent to Japan, and there's photos of her as a five-year-old all dressed up. And she went with two kids from another family, and I don't think they were staying, but somebody, family friend took them. And you look at this picture of my aunt, and it was just heartbreaking. She's five and she does not look happy at all. There's lovely photos all dressed up right on the ship. And then, of course, a couple years later, there's a stillbirth. And I always had the impression that my mother, who always was this cheerful, she appeared happy-go-lucky, some would say she was the clown, but I think she would even say that her purpose in life was to keep, to make her mother happy. Because I can imagine how her mother felt. So it was always a prime concern of my mother's that her mother would be happy.

PW: Tell me the names of the siblings again. Because we know about Auntie Ne-san, but what was her given name?

KY: Oh, Hatsuyo.

PW: Hatsuyo.

KY: Hatsuyo. The next one, I don't know if she had a name, Brad found something. He found, what the urn? I don't remember if there was a name. My mother was Mitsue and my aunt, the youngest aunt was Yasue.

PW: Very traditional.

KY: Is it?

PW: They're numbers, I think, right?

KY: Oh, really?

PW: Eight. Do you know where your grandparents lived in Alameda? Like which neighborhood or...

KY: Well, I gathered they all lived sort of around the same area, but I think initially, I think it was all around Buena Vista and Park. And close to the Buddhist temple, and I don't know all the streets. They moved around in that area, Clement.

PW: Tell me anything you know about your mother's parents. You said that you think they came from Hiroshima Prefecture. Do you know anything about their family, her family?

KY: In Japan?

PW: Yeah.

KY: No. I've got names written down someplace, but no, my mother didn't talk about her father. He sounds like he was quite a character based on the photographs and all these things. She didn't talk about... I even checked with my cousins in Detroit, and so my auntie Yas didn't talk about him either. I think he was quite a character. And in the interview I did, the oral history I did with my mother many years ago, she said that he was, she used the word "doraku," which I'm not sure what it means, but maybe manic, maybe fun-loving, there was a bunch of things. But it sounded like he was not consistently employed and that they were poor a lot. But he was apparently a friendly, outgoing guy, and that it didn't bother him to ask friends for money.

PW: Were they part of the Alameda Japanese community, like did they belong to the church or temple?

KY: Yeah. They were associated with the Buddhist Temple. I think my grandmother and Nellie Takeda's mother were friends. And my mother grew up as good friends with Nellie. So there's all these pictures, the same group of women.

PW: And they were close with other families that you're still connected to in Alameda?

KY: I'm not connected to anyone except for the Takedas. My mother passed away in 2001, and I wasn't, I didn't have relationships with the other families, really. So except for the Takedas, and there was a number of them, so that I really appreciate them.

PW: So let's move forward to 1941. Your father was in San Francisco at the time?

KY: No.

PW: Where was he at the time?

KY: Berkeley.

PW: He was in Berkeley.

KY: Yeah.

PW: And your mother was in Alameda?

KY: Yes. Can I go back and say that my grandfather died in 1939, and in 1939 it was the World's Fair on Treasure Island. And my mother, being the fun-loving, social person that she was, went there umpteen times. And he died, I found out, through Brad, after a fishing trip. And the picture I have that my mother gave me is that she was out having a good time. She came home, public transportation, and that when she was approaching the house, her sister and mother were waiting for her like, come on, come on. Because her father had died, and my mother felt so bad that she wasn't there. She felt very bad. Okay, so then that was 1939, and one of the things that he used to... he drove. I don't know whose car he drove, if it was their car. But my Alameda grandma wanted someone to drive the car, and my mother wanted to be the person to drive, but they said, Grandma said no, that she was too scatterbrained. And that upset my mother, so the younger sister was the one who got to drive. And the interesting thing is the younger sister, throughout her life, was the driver of her family in Detroit. Auntie Ne-san had, she was in Japan, came back maybe when she was about in her teens. But then got TB in Alameda, apparently not in Japan, but in Alameda, and was hospitalized for a number of years. And then my mother and her younger sister were in a sanitarium also for a number of months. I guess they were positive PPD, I don't know what they...

PW: What year do you think that was?

KY: That was... my mother was like ten. Oh, it looks like my mother was twelve, and she was there for, like, three or four months, and my auntie Yas would have been then seven. She was five years younger, and she was there for maybe more months, a few more months than that.

<End Segment 2> - Copyright © 2022 Densho. All Rights Reserved.