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TI: So we're gonna start, Morgan, and today's Thursday, April 7, 2011. We're at your home in Mill Valley. I'm doing the interview; my name in Tom Ikeda, and helping me with the interview is Barbara Takei, and on camera is Dana Hoshide. And so Morgan, I'm just gonna start from the beginning. Can you tell me when you were born?

MY: I was born in San Francisco, April 14, 1924. I think I was born in the house on Sacramento Street. I'm not sure. There's no record that I was born in the hospital.

TI: So April 14th, so next week is your birthday.

MY: That's right.

TI: And you'll be eighty-seven.

MY: Seven.

TI: So you're eighty-six, you're almost eighty-seven years old. Okay, good. So you think you were born in your house?

MY: I don't know. I think, because there's no record of hospital, midwife's address or anything.

TI: Good. Can you tell me, what was the name given to you at birth?

MY: I was given Kunitake Morgan Yamanaka. Kunitake is not an unusual name, but little unusual name. It was a name of a samurai in Hiroshima area way back when, not unknown samurai. And then Morgan comes from the family where my father worked as a domestic help, since before my birth, and that family is Morgan Gunst family. And they even have a building on Market Street. They're fairly well-known business family.

TI: Good. Let's talk a little bit about your father. Can you tell me your father's name and where he was from?

MY: My father immigrated from Kagoshima, rural fishing village, Kataoka, Kataura, excuse me, in 1906. And as far as I know, he became a domestic help.

TI: So he came right about the time of the San Francisco earthquake.

MY: Yes, right after the earthquake, I believe. I don't know the exact date.

TI: So I'm curious, did he have any stories about what San Francisco was like right after the earthquake?

MY: No.

TI: You never talked about that. Okay.

MY: Never particularly talked about it, nor did I ask any questions. And then he kept on working as a domestic help in the Pacific Heights where we lived. When I came in 1931 from Japan after five years, we lived on Sacramento Street between Broderick and Baker, and then shortly... and at that time I was enrolled at Emerson School, which is renamed something else after a politician, on California Street. Because we moved two blocks up from Sacramento to Washington Street, I changed the school district.

TI: Before we talk too much about your school, let's go back, because I want to know how your father met your mother. So how did, so your father came in 1906, worked as domestic help, so how did he meet your mother?

MY: I don't know how their marriage came about, arranged or what.

TI: Was your mother in Japan when...

MY: Yes, because I believe she came later, and I don't know exactly how much later she came to United States.

TI: Okay. And what was your mother's name?

MY: Hasumi, H-A-S-U-M-I. Hasumi Yamanaka.

TI: And she was from the kind of same area, Kagoshima?

MY: Four miles away from my father's village, another farming -- no, that was a farming village. My father's village was a fishing village. But she came from Sakaki, which is a farming village, and my mother's family is the honchou of the Sakaki village, which is the family, no, excuse me, the village elder. And so they were the highest class of the village and the lowest of the samurai class. Samurai class was divided into different levels, and because their family was a honchou, head village person, they held the rank of a samurai.

TI: Good, okay. And what about your father's family? Were they fishermen, in the fishing village?

MY: No. They were... I don't know. There's no record what he did or what his family did. There's sort of a blank area there.

TI: Okay, and his name, again, was, what was his name?

MY: Ryujiro, R-Y-U-J-I-R-O.

TI: Okay, so now we're back in San Francisco, so they're both in San Francisco. Let's talk a little bit about your siblings so we establish your brothers and sisters.

MY: Yeah, I'm the third of the four siblings. My oldest brother, Sumiyoshi Robert Yamanaka, is six years older than I am. Sumitaka Albert Yamanaka is three years older. I come in three years later, and then my sister, Toshiko, comes in two years later.

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