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TI: So today is Wednesday, March 16, 2011. We're in Oakland at the home of Paul Takagi. And on camera is Tani Ikeda, my daughter, and off camera is Casey Ikeda, and I'm doing the interview, Tom Ikeda. So Paul, I'm just going to start from the beginning of your life. Can you tell me when you were born?

PT: May 3, 1923, in Auburn, California.

TI: So that makes you how old? You're eighty-eight?

PT: Almost eighty-eight.

TI: Almost eighty-eight.

PT: So I can make mistakes. [Laughs]

TI: Okay, good. And then you said Sacramento Valley you were born?

PT: No, this was in Auburn, up in the hills. And I had an older sister that was born before me, and then there was another first boy that was born something like, maybe about five or six years earlier. And he had fallen into an irrigation ditch and he died. That really troubled my father in so many different ways. And I think because of that, he turned to Christianity slowly, and I became a kid that, in many ways, was sharply watched by my parents.

TI: Oh, interesting. So because of the death of your older brother, they were almost overprotective?

PT: Yes. And, of course, as you know, in Japanese culture, a boy, the firstborn boy was very important. And the reason I think this has so much significance for my father is he left Japan when he was about thirteen years old.

TI: Okay, let me just ask a couple questions. So you were born in 1923 near Auburn, what was your given name?

PT: Takao.

TI: Takao. And where did "Paul" come from?

PT: When I started grammar school. And the reason is the Japanese, by then, we were living near Sacramento, and he was doing some kind of vegetable farming. And every now and then the Sacramento River would overflow. He had to carry each of us up to the railroad track, and then the Japanese Salvation Army gave us housing there. And then he turned to Christianity for the first time and he ran across the word "Paul," and that's how I got the name Paul. [Laughs]

TI: Okay, so one of the apostles, Paul, you're named after him. Interesting.

PT: But it's not on my birth certificate.

TI: Okay, so Takao Paul, what was your older sister's name?

PT: The older sister's name was Toshiko. And she did not get the attention that I did. And I think -- this is sad, because in most Japanese families, the boy is highly...

TI: Prized or lauded?

PT: Yes, important. But she's still alive, but I have very little contact with her.

TI: Okay. And then your brother who died, what was his name?

PT: My brother died. What was his name?

TI: Yes, do you remember his name?

PT: Good question.

TI: Okay, that's okay. How about other siblings besides your older sister, older brother? Did you have any other brothers or sisters?

PT: I had a younger sister. She was born in Sacramento also. She became a deaf-mute.

TI: Okay, interesting.

PT: I don't know why.

TI: So when you were growing up, you grew up with two sisters, an older sister and a younger sister?

PT: Yes.

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