<Begin Segment 2>

MN: Now, your parents had six children. Where are you in the sibling hierarchy?

MS: Number four. I'm the first son.

MN: Fourth child, first son.

MS: Fourth, yeah.

MN: But first son.

MS: Yeah.

MN: And there's a joke between your older sister and you when you came along. What's, what's the running joke?

MS: What?

MN: You and your older sister, you joke around. She used to be the favorite child before you came around.

MS: Yeah, the third child, third sister. So having three girls, my father wanted a boy, so when I came I guess the love shifted from my third sister to me, 'cause she kind of resented the fact that I came, but I say I had nothing to do with it. [Laughs] But anyway, I was, in fact, I wasn't even aware that that kind of a relationship existed, but anyway...

MN: What is your birth name?

MS: My first name?

MN: Birth, when you were born, what was, what's on your birth certificate?

MS: Marshall Sumida (...).

MN: Did you have a Japanese name?

MS: Masaru.

MN: How did you get the name Marshall?

MS: My father, waiting for the first son, I bet on him having picked out the name earlier, and he also picked out the name Masaru because the kanji for that was taisho no sho. So I bet on he put a lot of thought of having a son and making sure the name fitted.

MN: So he put the taisho no sho, Masaru, so if you kind of freely translated it was kind of like the General Marshall, is that how you got Marshall?

MS: I think Marshall, the French. I think, I'm not too sure, but evidently he put a lot of thought in selecting the name. My brother's name is Theodore, and his source is Theodore Roosevelt, who was the president at the time he was born, I guess.

MN: Now, what year were you born?

MS: 1921.

MN: And where were you born?

MS: Los Angeles.

MN: Boyle Heights?

MS: Yeah.

MN: At your home?

MS: Yeah, at the home.

<End Segment 2> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.