Densho Digital Archive
Densho Visual History Collection
Title: Jimmie S. Matsuda Interview
Narrator: Jimmie S. Matsuda
Interviewers: Tom Ikeda, Steve Fugita
Location: San Jose, California
Date: January 25, 2011
Densho ID: denshovh-mjimmie-01-0001

<Begin Segment 1>

TI: Okay, so I'm gonna start, Jimmie, and the way I start this is just by the date and everything, so today's January 25, 2011, and we're in San Jose at the Japanese American Museum of San Jose. Interviewing with me is Steve Fugita and on camera is Dana Hoshide, and my name is Tom Ikeda. So Jimmie, I'm gonna just start with, can you tell me where and when you were born?

JM: I was born in a small town named Hood River. It's in Oregon.

TI: And what was your birthday?

JM: Oh, my birthday was June the 16th, 1927.

TI: Okay, so that makes you about eighty, what, eighty-three years old?

JM: Eighty-three years old. Old man now.

TI: [Laughs] No, you look great. And tell me, what was the name given to you at birth?

JM: Just the way it is, Jimmie Susumu Matsuda. That's on my birth certificate, too, like that.

TI: Good, okay.

<End Segment 1> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.