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MA: Okay, so today is Thursday, July 9, 2009, and Densho is filming here in Torrance, California. I'm Megan Asaka, the interviewer, and I will be talking with June Honma today, and Dana Hoshide is our cameraperson. So, June, thank you so much for doing this interview.

JH: Oh, you're welcome.

MA: I wanted to start by asking where you were born.

JH: I was born in Hilo, Hawaii.

MA: And when were you born?

JH: Do you want my full birthdate?

MA: Sure.

JH: It's June 23, 1936.

MA: And what was the name given to you at birth?

JH: June Mitsuko Hoshida.

MA: And I wanted to ask you about your parents, starting with your father. What was his name and where was he born?

JH: Well, he legalized his name to George Yoshio Hoshida in '52. He came from Kumamoto... I can't remember the village, when he was four, with his parents and his older brother, to Hilo.

MA: And what were some of the reasons why the family came to Hilo?

JH: I suppose it's like all the other immigrants. They knew there'd be jobs there, probably a better future for their children. And they also left two behind.

MA: Two children?

JH: Two children, yeah. My uncle, the oldest one, and my auntie that's just below him. And they figured that if they earned enough money, then they could send for them, but they never came. Not enough money.

MA: And what did they do in Hilo? What type of work did your grandparents do?

JH: My grandfather, I believe, worked in the cane fields. My grandmother may have helped, but mainly she was, she raised the kids that she had. Because after arriving here, arriving in Hilo, they had my youngest uncle, Raymond.

MA: Okay, who was born in Japan?

JH: Yeah.

MA: And what did your father do, sort of as he grew up? What type of work did he do?

JH: He worked for the Hilo Electric Light Company as a salesman, and that was before the war.

<End Segment 1> - Copyright © 2009 Densho. All Rights Reserved.