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MA: Can you talk a little bit about her parents and that story?

NM: Uh-huh. It would be my grandmother and grandfather, right? On my mother's side. And they left Japan at an early age, I would say in their teens. And, I think my grandmother was a little younger. And they lived in Hawaii, pineapple -- well, my grandfather was a foreman for the pineapple plantation. And, they met there and got married. And they had their first child there. And then in 1906, they decided to come to the United States.

MA: So your grandparents, your maternal grandparents, then, came separately to Hawaii. And then they actually met in Hawaii?

NM: Yes. Uh-huh.

MA: And you said your grandfather was working on a plantation?

NM: Uh-huh, as a foreman.

MA: And then what were his reasons for leaving Hawaii and moving to California?

NM: As I recall... I can't remember. I should have brought that article, but I forgot. And my mother, or my grandmother was, I think her father remarried and the stepmother was kind of cruel to her. So, there was a relative living in Hawaii, so she left it and came to live in Hawaii.

MA: I see, so that's how she left Japan and ended up in Hawaii. And then, did they eventually end up in Sacramento, your grandparents?

NM: Well, they were supposed to land in San Francisco, but it was the time of that earthquake, in 1906. So they had to bypass that area, and I think they eventually landed in Oakland and then migrated to Sacramento area.

MA: Did they ever talk about seeing San Francisco? Like at that point, I guess it would be kind of...

NM: No, I hear it through my aunts and uncles. And that's how we get our stories.

MA: And so then, your mother was born in Sacramento?

NM : Uh-huh, right.

MA: And what's your mother's name?

NM: Grace Aiko. The maiden name?

MA: Sure.

NM: Morikawa.

<End Segment 2> - Copyright © 2008 Densho. All Rights Reserved.