<Begin Segment 4>

MA: And do you know about how your parents met? Did they meet in California, or in Sacramento?

NM: Uh-huh, I think so. Yeah, and this was not a baishakunin marriage.

MA: You mean it was a love marriage?

NM: Right.

MA: How did your grandparents react to that?

NM: I really don't know. When they got married, my mom didn't have to work. They had a beautiful house, a nice backyard. And that's when my brother was born. So she was leading a good life then. And then something happened and I don't know the whole story but they separated before I was born. And there's one incident where my brother was in the backyard and my father came from San Francisco and kidnapped him and took him to San Francisco. [Laughs]

MA: So your parents then split up, or separated for some reason. And your brother, your older brother was a small child and your father just kind of came and...

NM: Took him. [Laughs]

MA: What were your, so you said your father was pretty well off. What was he doing in California?

NM: I think he had a garage or something like that.

MA: And did your parents sort of separate, was it because your grandparents didn't approve, or just sort of circumstances?

NM: Circumstances. Yeah, and then my grandfather didn't want them to get back together even though my mother was carrying me. So he did come around when I was being born, but they wouldn't let him in. And I have never seen him.

MA: So then they separated when you were, even before you were born, so you must have been...

a newborn. Yeah. And so your mother then, did your mother then move in, did you live with your grandparents?

NM: Yes, we did. Until my mom decided well, you know, she didn't want to be a burden to my grandparents, so this is like a baishakunin marriage, and my stepfather was a farmer, a strawberry farmer.

MA: I see. So then your mother was set up with someone else.

NM: Yeah. And my brother says she went from riches to rags. [Laughs]

MA: Really?

NM: Yeah, 'cause she had silk clothes and all that and then she had to wear cotton dresses and go out in the field and work in the strawberry farm.

MA: Right, that must have been a really difficult transition for her.

NM: Uh-huh, but she never complained. And she was very talented. She sewed and did craftwork and read and write English and Japanese. And so, all the friends that knew her when they got a letter from Japan, they would come to her to read or translate and write back and so forth.

MA: And what was your stepfather like? You said he was a strawberry farmer?

NM: Uh-huh. He was very nice to us. It's just that he was, how do you say, poor. [Laughs]

MA: And how old were you when they were married?

NM: Let's see, I must have been five, maybe, four going on five, maybe.

MA: And how old is your brother? How many years older is your brother?

NM: Just eighteen months apart.

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

NM: Harry Haruo Sawada. Well, it used to be Tomita.

<End Segment 4> - Copyright © 2008 Densho. All Rights Reserved.