<Begin Segment 2>

MN: Now, what year were you born?

JI: August 10, 1914.

MN: Were you delivered by a samba-san?

JI: Yeah, a samba-san just lived a half a block away.

MN: Where were you born?

JI: In Riverside. We had a nice house with two acres of fruit trees. And I remember my father worked in Arizona doing the agriculture work, and with a team of men. And my mother took care of the two acre farm, grew vegetables and fruits and chickens and had a cow.

MN: So your mother took care of the children on this two acre farm, and your father was farming in Arizona?

JI: Right. And he was the head gardener for Mission Inn, and then he went off and then he bought the house and took a crew of men to Arizona.

MN: Jim, what is your birth name?

JI: Pardon?

MN: What is your birth name?

JI: My first name?

MN: Birth. When you were born, what is the name you were given?

JI: Osamu.

MN: When did you pick up the name James?

JI: Oh, about in the sixth grade. I named myself. I didn't like being called Osamu. They called me "Oh-sam."

MN: Did you name yourself after a friend or uncle, or how did you pick the name James?

JI: Just a common name.

<End Segment 2> - Copyright © 2010 Densho. All Rights Reserved.