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MA: And just a little bit about your mother, what was her name?

YA: Shizu Otsuka.

MA: And was she from...

YA: Fukuoka.

MA: Fukuoka-ken?

YA: Uh-huh.

MA: How did your parents actually meet and marry?

YA: Through what they call baishakunin. And I think my mother was only twelve when she came to America. Because she went to school after she arrived.

MA: Did she come with her parents?

YA: She came by herself. And I think because her family was already in Tacoma, she was so anxious to be with her, her own mother, 'cause she was left in care of a step-grandmother who was not very nice to her. And she was, I guess, must have been willing to take that two-week trip by herself.

MA: Wow.

YA: Uh-huh.

MA: And then she lived in the U.S. for a while and that's where she met your... or was arranged to marry your father?

YA: Uh-huh, yes.

MA: Okay. So what were your parents doing for a living when you were born?

YA: Uh... I think my father was working at the trading company.

MA: 'Til the trading company?

YA: Uh-huh, yeah.

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