<Begin Segment 2>

AI: Well, thank you. Now I'm going to ask Mr. Hirotaka, where and when you were born?

TH: Oh. Will I remember? [Laughs] My dad and my mother both came from Hiroshima, Japan... [pauses] I figured, this is what I was afraid of, my mind, it goes. Since I had a stroke, why, it goes blank on me. And this is the hard part.

AI: Do you --

TH: But my dad's name was odd. It was very long: Tatsunosuke. And my mother's name was Chiono Morihara. And they came, my dad came to America in, around 1900, and Mother came over in... 1904. And their, I think their first home was around where Stennet's, Bill Stennet's Garage was on. That would be Main Street and 104th? Oh no, that's Bellevue Way. That's Bellevue Way now. No. And then they only... then they moved several times. But, where I was born was on Vue Crest on the lower end. On, that's ninety --

TI: Ninety-second.

TH: Ninety-second. Ninety-second and oh, I'd have say so about... northeast Tenth, yeah.

AI: And what year was that, that you were born?

TH: Oh, naturally. I was born in 1910. My birthday is February 17th. So I'm eighty-eight years old, I guess.

AI: And what -- oh, can you tell me about your brothers and sisters? Your older...

TH: I have one, I had, well my oldest brother was born in Japan. Gee, he came to America when he was sixteen, I believe. See, he didn't come over with my parents. And then my sister, my older sister, Kaz, was born in, on December 4, 1907. Or was it? No, it should be 1908, yeah, it should be 1908. And then I had a sister, Katy. She was two years younger than I was, so that means she was born...

AI: 1912.

TH: Boy, I'm having a terrible, terrible time remembering...

AI: That's fine. Two years younger, 1912.

JM: See, she was two years older than me, so...

TH: Yeah. And then, my youngest sister Mits -- Mitsue, I guess you would call her -- boy... gee, she's, I believe eighty years old now, so that would put it... eighty...

TI: 1918.

TH: You mean 1923? No, it wouldn't be, no. It would be about...

AI: So 1918 then, Mitsue was born.

TH: 19 --

AI: And she was the youngest?

TH: Well, anyway she was...

AI: And, did you have any other brothers and sisters?

TH: That's all.

AI: That's it.

TH: She was the last, last one. So, that's all.

AI: So that was your family.

TH: Yeah.

<End Segment 2> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.