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AI: Today is October 21, 2004. We're here at Densho in Seattle with May Namba. I'm Alice Ito with Densho, and Dana Hoshide's on the camera. And May, I wanted to ask you when and where were you born?

MN: I was born in Seattle many, many years ago. It was May 12, 1922.

AI: And I thought we would just start out by asking about your father, a little bit about his family background, and where he came from in Japan.

MN: He came from Yonago, and that's in Tottori-ken. And that's where my mother came from, too. And I think he came in (1905), but I'm not sure when he came to the United States, and why he came to United States. Probably, like all the others, make a better life for himself.

AI: Do you know much about what he and his family had done in Japan?

MN: I visited the place, but I can't recall what it was that he was involved in, or what my mother's parents were doing, either.

AI: About when was your father born, or maybe about how old was he when he came to the U.S.?

MN: Ooh, that's a hard question.

AI: Do you know if he was maybe a teenager or older than that when he...

MN: Probably was a little older. (Narr. note: Father was born June 14, 1885, and came to the U.S. when he was twenty years old.)

AI: So, a young man.

MN: Uh-huh.

AI: And what was his name, your father's name?

MN: Noboru. And it was Date, and he got tired of everybody calling it "Mr. Date," so he changed it to Daty, D-A-T-Y.

AI: Because the original English spelling would have been D-A-T-E?

MN: T-E, uh-huh, and so D-A-T-Y is not a Japanese name, but he changed it, 'cause that's what's on my birth certificate, too.

AI: So he changed the spelling of his name before you were born, then?

MN: Uh-huh.

AI: And what about your mother, what was her name?

MN: Sakaguchi. Masuyo Sakaguchi. And she came from a big family.

AI: Do you have any idea about when she came to the U.S. or about how old she was?

MN: No, I don't know much about their backgrounds of when she got married or anything like that. (Narr. note: Mother was born September 19, 1898, and was thirteen years younger than my father.)

AI: Any knowledge of what your father or either one of your parents did in the U.S. before settling down here in Seattle and having you and...

MN: I know when he first came, I think he worked for the railroad, and I think he was a cook at that time. I don't know how he learned anything about cooking, but that's what he was doing. And then soon after that, I guess he started a grocery store.

AI: And whereabouts was that, the grocery store?

MN: Oh, about Eighteenth or Nineteenth on East Union, somewhere in that neighborhood. And that's where I was born, in the back, back rooms of the store.

<End Segment 1> - Copyright © 2004 Densho. All Rights Reserved.