<Begin Segment 6>

TI: Okay. You mentioned your mother and father had six children to care for.

JS: Yes.

TI: So I know about Midori, and then the second daughter died. You were the third.

JS: Yes.

TI: So that means there were four others.

JS: That's right.

TI: So why don't you tell me about your siblings, then.

JS: Okay. Then I have a brother that is barely a year younger than I am. His given name was Terumichi.

TI: What, and what did people call him?

JS: Term.

TI: Term?

JS: Term.

TI: T-E-R-M? Term?

JS: Yeah. Well, it was Turk, I was given the name "Turk," a nickname, because my Caucasian friends could not pronounce Teruyuki, so they shortened it and called me Turk. And similarly with my brother, he was Terumichi, and they called him Term. [Laughs]

TI: So after Term, who was next?

JS: Then there was Sally.

TI: And what was her, did she have a Japanese name?

JS: Yes. Her Japanese given name was Mibaye.

TI: And so how did she get "Sally" out of that?

JS: Well, I don't know. I think that our oldest sister, Midori, is the one that gave us our English names.

TI: So, like, Term, Turk, Sally?

JS: No, Term, Turk, those were given to us by this Willie Cockle.

TI: Okay.

JS: [Laughs] You know, because he couldn't pronounce Teruyuki and Terumichi.

TI: So did Midori give you English names? Did you have an English name?

JS: Well, yes, I do. Well, but I think that it wasn't my sister at that point, it was some, someone that was staying at the hotel, and so he, my brother and I were just, as I say, barely a year apart, so we were running around like almost twins. And he, so he called me James, and my, James and John. But my brother never adopted the name of John.

TI: Did you ever use "James"?

JS: I did. I took James as my name, yes.

TI: After Sally, who was, who was next?

JS: Well, then I had a brother and sister who happened to be twins, fraternal twins, and the daughter, and she was, her name was... let's see, Japanese given name was... I can't remember what it was, but we called, everybody called her Peggy. And my brother was Peter. But Peter's given name was Teruhisa. My father gave all of us his own name, Teruharu, so he, Teru- something, you know. So all the boys were Teru.

TI: Okay. So, yeah, so it was a sizeable family.

JS: Yes.

<End Segment 6> - Copyright © 2007 Densho. All Rights Reserved.