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TI: So today's Thursday, April 27, 2006, we're in the basement of the Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture in Spokane, and we're interviewing Dick Yamamoto. And I'm Tom Ikeda, the interviewer, and on camera we have Dana Hoshide. And so, Dick, I wanted to first thank you for coming down and doing this. I know you're not a morning person, so you had to wake up for this, so I appreciate that. But the first question I have is when you were born, what was the, the name given to you?

RY: My name is Hiromichi Yamamoto, so that was kind of complicated for a kindergarten teacher to call me Hiromichi, so they called me Dick.

TI: Well, so I'm curious, so who, when they said it was complicated, who gave you the name Richard or Dick in kindergarten?

RY: Well, it was given to me by one of the kindergarten teachers, Caucasian. They couldn't pronounce my name, so they asked my folks whether they can add, add Dick, Dick, to my name. Or Richard is the side name to Dick, so I got it legalized as Richard, I guess when I got my citizenship or something, I don't know. [Laughs]

TI: So I'm curious, so when they did that, how did you feel about having, being called Dick or Richard?

RY: Well, I don't recall too much about that. Like my... I guess I spoke nothing but Japanese in kindergarten, and during my kindergarten years, I couldn't speak Japanese -- I mean, English too well, so they held me back for half a year. I couldn't go to first grade, and my age was right there in September, so they held me back for, in those days, it was a half a year, held me back 'til January. They said I couldn't speak English. So there I was, I was in, I was a half-year behind some of my classmates with my same age group. And as for Richard, I just, just figured that Dick is -- I mean, Richard is Dick, so I legalized it. I guess it was just before the war I legalized it in the city hall.

TI: Although people would still call you Dick, you just wanted to make it legal in terms of your, your papers.

RY: Uh-huh.

TI: Okay, so where and when were you born?

RY: I was born at Spokane, at the, at the hotel. I think, my understanding is I was born at the hotel, at 417 1/2 Trent Alley, where it used to be the Japanese district.

TI: So you were delivered by a midwife?

RY: Well, I guess it was a midwife. They said... you know, I'm not too clear about this. They said I was stillborn, but they got me out of it somehow, I don't know.

TI: Oh, that's unusual. So you were delivered at the hotel, and they said you were stillborn.

RY: Yeah.

TI: And somehow they revived you?

RY: It's a mystery to me.

TI: And then, and the date of your birth was...

RY: September 4, 1922.

TI: So 1922, that makes you about eighty-three, eighty-four years old today?

RY: Eighty-four, eighty-three? [Laughs]

TI: September... eighty-three. So you'd be eighty-three right now.

RY: Yeah.

TI: Okay.

<End Segment 1> - Copyright © 2006 Densho. All Rights Reserved.