Densho Digital Archive
Densho Visual History Collection
Title: Kazue Yamamoto Interview
Narrator: Kazue Yamamoto
Interviewer: Megan Asaka
Location: Spokane, Washington
Date: June 8, 2006
Densho ID: denshovh-ykazue-01-0001

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MA: Okay, today is June 8, 2006, and we're here in the Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture in Spokane, Washington. And today I'll be interviewing Kaz Yamamoto, and Dana Hoshide is the cameraperson. So Kaz, I wanted to start off by asking you where and when you were born.

KY: When and where?

MA: Uh-huh.

KY: When, I was born on January 14, 1927, in Wapato, Washington.

MA: And what was your name when you were born?

KY: Kazue Nabata.

MA: Where were your parents from in Japan?

KY: They are from Niigata-ken, but it's the island off of the main Honshu island, it's called Sado Island.

MA: And do you know which year they came to the United States?

KY: Well, according to some of the paperwork I have, it seems like my dad came here in 1920, that was his first trip. And then he went back and came back in 1923, so he's back in the States in '23. But I think he went back after that to marry my mother, so it's, so I don't know what year that was.

MA: So your father came first and then...

KY: Came first, yeah. And I don't know, I think he was going to, they sent him to come to school, but he just didn't finish school, so they called him back to Sado. And then they figured maybe he should get married and then come back to the States again.

MA: So your parents actually met and married in Sado.

KY: In, in Sado, uh-huh.

MA: And you said that he came to the U.S. to go to school?

KY: The original, in 1920, yeah.

MA: Was that like a college, or, do you know what kind of school?

KY: It sounded like it was just high school, 1920. Could that be high school? Let's see... well, that doesn't sound right, because I think he finished high school in Japan, and so I think he came here to go further his education. I'm not, some of the paperwork I have, it sounded like they sent him to the States to go to a dental school. But I don't think he stayed in the school too long, because maybe it didn't work out, or maybe they called him back to Sado.

MA: And when he, and when he came over to the U.S., he's, did he go to Seattle, or did he...

KY: Uh-huh, Seattle.

MA: And then when did he end up in Wapato?

KY: After he went back to get my mother, and then I think they came back to, to Seattle first, and then to Wapato.

MA: Did they have a friend or a relative in Wapato, is that how they made it out there?

KY: We don't know that. I asked my sister and she didn't know. I asked her why we ever ended up in Wapato, she didn't seem to know.

MA: And how many siblings do you have?

KY: Living?

MA: When, when you were growing up.

KY: Well, there's just three of us left now, but I'm, I think we had two plus one, so a total of six. But the oldest one, I think she had in Japan. Could that be right? When she went back to Japan, so it was born in Japan, and then my older sister was born in the States, and then we had two in between, because there's two cemetery markers in Wapato named "Baby Nabata," so they weren't even named, so they must have just died in infancy.

MA: Oh, I see.

KY: Because when I visited there last year, there was two markers that said, "Baby Nabata." And then my younger sister, who is still living in California. So total of six, but there's only three of us remaining.

MA: And what are your sisters' names, your two...

KY: Oldest one is Yae, Y-A-E, and me, and then my younger sister is Pat Kawamoto. Yae Minami and Pat Kawamoto.

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