<Begin Segment 14>

MA: One thing I, I'd been meaning to ask you was how you got your name, Mara.

MM: Oh, well, this Caucasian lady lived next door, and she wanted to name, put the American name, my American name on there for my mother's sake, because my mother didn't speak hardly any English or anything. So my mother named, put my Japanese name, and then she named me Mara. It's even in the Bible, can you imagine? My name in the Bible. [Laughs]

MA: So did your mother ask this neighbor to help her name you?

MM: No, she, she volunteered, 'cause she thought that I should have an American name and then Japanese name, and the last name. So she put the name on all of us except for my brother.

MA: So let's go through your -- so your eldest sister's name is...

MM: Nino.

MA: Nino.

MM: Nino. And next one is Anna, and then it's Mara. But my mother put the Japanese name on there, and my brother, I don't know where he got his name, Jimmy. That's an American name. [Laughs]

MA: So this neighbor helped your mother name all of you?

MM: Yeah, so it, it was, it was nice. She wanted us to have those names.

<End Segment 14> - Copyright © 2006 Densho. All Rights Reserved.