Densho Digital Archive
Densho Visual History Collection
Title: Margaret Junko Morita Hiratsuka Interview
Narrator: Margaret Junko Morita Hiratsuka
Interviewer: Tom Ikeda
Location: Skokie, Illinois
Date: June 15, 2011
Densho ID: denshovh-hmargaret-01-0003

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TI: Okay, so I'm gonna slow down a little bit and go back 'cause, so we're, we already jumped to your father, but let's go back to your grandfather and how he met your grandmother.

MH: Oh, they met in Japan.

TI: Met in Japan, then they came over and they left your mother in Japan.

MH: Yeah.

TI: And so when did your mother come to the United States?

MH: In 1917, or 1918. 1918.

TI: So she was about how old? She was about eighteen, nineteen years old when she, when she came?

MH: Yeah. About eighteen, yeah. And, but my mother, my grandfather and grandmother traveled back and forth to Japan, so my mother was the oldest of five children.

TI: And they all, all the children lived in Japan?

MH: Yeah, they were all born in Japan. I mean, my grandmother would go back to Japan to have a baby or, but they came, after a while they all decided they should live in the United States, so they came.

TI: Now, I'm curious, was there a reason why she wanted to have her children born in Japan?

MH: I don't know. Maybe they trusted the doctors.

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

MH: Tamano Morita, or Minami.

<End Segment 3> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.