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MN: Let's talk about you now then. Where were you born?

MU: Newcastle, California.

MN: And were you delivered by a sambasan?

MU: Yes.

MN: At your home in Newcastle?

MU: Yes.

MN: What year were you born?

MU: 1929.

MN: And what is your birth name?

MU: Miyo Nakae.

MN: Did you ever adopt an Anglicized name?

MU: Minnie, yes.

MN: And when did you start calling yourself Minnie?

MU: When we left Tule Lake we were sent to Heart Mountain. My oldest brother had moved to Idaho and he came after us, that's my mother and my brother above me, to go to Idaho and that was in Fruitland, Idaho. He leased an apple orchard, the Red Delicious, and that's why we had moved, my mother, my brother and myself to Fruitland, Idaho and of course I went to high school there. And it was after school had begun for the year and the teacher would say, "We have a new student in our class, her name is 'Maiyo.'" And I was very shy and I would say, "Miyo," and being high school you change every hour and then I went to the next class and then that teacher would say, "We have a new student in our class, her name is 'Maiyo,'" and I would again have to say, "Miyo." And from there we had moved out to Utah, the Tooele Ordnance Depot and again I started school after the September first day of school and so the teacher would introduce new students and she would say, "We have a new student, her name is 'Maiyo,'" and it happened every class. And I was always embarrassed about having to have to correct the pronunciation of my name and the teachers were very nice about it of course. But when we left Utah to go back home I decided, enough of that. And so I gave myself the name Minnie and I thought they probably would not mispronounce the name Minnie, thinking Minnie Mouse and that's when I took that name on my own. I didn't ask my mother and I just on my own decided I'm not going to be embarrassed anymore.

MN: So up until you left for camp, you didn't have any problems at your school in Newcastle of your teachers mispronouncing your name?

MU: No, they were used to I think Japanese names for the first names, although I don't know of any other Miyo there as I was going there. My sister was Chiyo so maybe that had helped.

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