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MA: Okay. So today is Tuesday, July 21, 2009. I'm here with Yuri Kochiyama in Oakland, California. I'm Megan Asaka, the interviewer, and the cameraperson is Dana Hoshide. So Yuri, thank you so much for taking the time...

YK: Oh, thank you.

MA: ...to do this interview. It's a real honor for us to have you here. So I wanted to ask just a couple basic questions. Where were you born?

YK: In San Pedro, California.

MA: And when were you born?

YK: 1921.

MA: And tell me a little bit about your mother and father. Can you tell me about their backgrounds?

YK: Yeah. I mean, they're both Isseis. And my mother came from, I think she said Fukushima, and my father from Iwate. I don't know Japan that well, I think it's sort of in the northern part.

MA: And what were they like as people? Can you tell me a little bit about your mother and father's personalities and what they were like?

YK: Well, my... gosh. My mother, I mean, I thought she was a very pleasant person. I think she taught school in Japan before she got married. And my father, well, after he came over here, he, I think a lot of Japanese picked fruits or something. And then later he went into fishing. Not going out to fish, but he and relatives opened up a fish market in San Pedro. But my mother was a teacher, she taught English in Japan but probably sort of beginning English. Because at home, we were never allowed to speak English, we spoke Japanese. I think most Niseis, that's how it was. Our parents were Isseis and we were Niseis.

MA: And you spoke Japanese in the home?

YK: In the home. Of course, other than that, outside, of course, we were like any other American, I think.

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